Aimé Duval

Aimé Duval (better known under the name Père Duval) (30 June 1918 – 30 April 1984) was a French priest of the Society of Jesus, a singer-songwriter and guitarist, who was very successful in the 1950s and 1960s.
Biography
Born in Le Val-d'Ajol in the Vosges department, Lucien Duval was baptized in Plombières. After a few years of primary school, he went to a Jesuit college in Brussels in 1920, already with the desire to become a priest. During this period he wrote a first chanson. In 1936, he joined the Jesuits and studied Catholic theology. On July 24, 1944, he received priest ordination in Enghien, Belgium. He was first employed as a French teacher in Reims until he was able to devote himself entirely to music.
A few years after his ordination, Duval began to write songs and to present them first in pubs and cafés. Soon he was invited to give concerts. His tours took him all over Europe: he gave 3000 concerts in 45 countries. His concert in (West-) Berlin had 30,000 visitors. The chancellor Konrad Adenauer gave him a guitar "as a thank you for the joy he had brought to young people".
In 1965 Père Duval was the first priest to sing "behind the Iron Curtain": he gave a free concert in Warsaw. He also performed in America.
His first record was issued in 1956. In 1961 he had already sold more than one million records. Altogether he published 14 recordings.
The stress of touring and composing led him to an alcohol disorder that quickly escalated. In February 1969 he made a suicide attempt, and then an alcohol detoxification in Versailles after his rescue. He fought for addiction to be recognized as a disease. In the same year he suffered a relapse. From then on, he regularly visited the meetings of the Alcoholics Anonymous. In order to help his fellow-sufferers, he dictated on a long drive a ruthless account of his addiction, which he published shortly before his death as a book: L’enfant qui jouait avec la lune -"The child who played with the Moon"-. The book, which became a bestseller, was only signed under the author first name: Lucien; As subtitle was his self-description: Chanteur, Jésuite, Alcoolique.
Aimé Duval died on 30 April 1984 after a concert he gave in Metz and was buried in Nancy.
Musical work
He presented his chansons himself and accompanied them with his guitar (which is why he was called "Guitarist of God" in France). Georges Brassens greatly appreciated him and mentioned him in his song . Duval was one of the pioneers of the Neues Geistliches Lied. The Catholic theologian Karl Rahner honored Duval's poems and compositions as a song that emerges from the heart.
Singer
Some songs:
La Nuit
Rue des Longues Haies
À Bilbao
Par la main
J'ai joué de la flûte
Les Faces de carême (Ris ou pleure, fais quelque chose...)
Il y avait beaucoup de monde
Le Seigneur reviendra
Seigneur, mon ami
Pourquoi viens-tu si tard ?
L'Espérance morte
La P'tite Tête
Comme un soldat
Dans le ciel
Le Vieux Jo
Le ciel est rouge
Marie-Thérèse
Bibliography, discography
Lucien (a pseudonym: that was his second first name), L'Enfant qui jouait avec la lune, Mulhouse, 1983.
Paul Tihon : Le Père Duval ou la chanson fraternelle, Brussels, 1960.
Ignacio Echaniz : Passion and Glory (vol.4), Anand (India), Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 2000, pp. 236–243.
Intégrale 1956-1961 : coffret 4 CD, Monthabor Music, 2014-2016
References
External links
Father Duval, Official website
Entretien entre Georges Brassens et le père Duval sur le site de l'INA, 29/02/1960 interview by Robert Beauvais
Le Père Duval, jésuite lorrain
Père Duval: Qu'est ce que j'ai dans ma p'tite tête on YouTube
20th-century French Jesuits
French male singer-songwriters
French singer-songwriters
Performers of Christian music
French male composers
People from Vosges (department)
1918 births
1984 deaths
20th-century French male singers
20th-century French male writers