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I seem to remember hearing once (probably on BBC Radio 3) that it was not Big Ben he heard, but the chimes of Westminster Cathedral.
I don't know the tune of Westminster Cathedral's chimes. Vierne did play there on January 3rd, 1924, so that may have something to do with it.
Another point, though, is that Vierne actually misquotes the Big Ben tune. Here is what one hears from the clock tower itself (transposed into D major, and where F stands for F#):
- 1st quarter: F E D A
- 2nd quarter: D F E A D E F D
- 3rd quarter: F D E A A E F D F E D A
- 4th quarter: D F E A D E F D F D E A A E F D
Rollin Smith tells a second-hand story about Vierne actually calling Henry Willis across the Channel, asking him to whistle the tune over the phone, suggesting a poor communication line and/or Willis's poor whistling capabilities to be responsible for the error.
I also heard (possibly in the same programme) that the first time he played C. de W. as a postlude at Notre Dame the worshippers were so entranced by it that they refused to leave their seats until it was over (and who can blame them?)
Indeed, this is confirmed by Rollin Smith on p.555 of his book, where he quotes an excerpt from Henri Doyen's Mes leçons d'orgue, p.8081:
...one of the rare times when I saw the clergy and faithful not sortie... Everyone, to the desperation of the verger and sacristans who had never seen anything like it, waited quietly until the end, and a number of people improvised a little ovation for the maître when he came down from the tribune.