César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck (1822 –
1890) was a composer, pianist, organist, and music
teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life. He
was born at Liège, in what is now Belgium (though at
the time of his birth it was part of the United Kingdom
of the Netherlands). He gave his first concerts there
in 1834 and studied privately in Paris from 1835, where
his teachers included Anton Reicha. After a brief
return to Belgium, and a disastrous reception to an
early oratorio Ruth...(+)
César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck (1822 –
1890) was a composer, pianist, organist, and music
teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life. He
was born at Liège, in what is now Belgium (though at
the time of his birth it was part of the United Kingdom
of the Netherlands). He gave his first concerts there
in 1834 and studied privately in Paris from 1835, where
his teachers included Anton Reicha. After a brief
return to Belgium, and a disastrous reception to an
early oratorio Ruth, he moved to Paris, where he
married and embarked on a career as teacher and
organist. He gained a reputation as a formidable
improviser, and travelled widely in France to
demonstrate new instruments built by Aristide
Cavaillé-Coll.
César Franck's Prélude, fugue et variations has
become a popular work among organists and is familiar
to music lovers even though they may not know its title
or composer. Written in 1862, it is a part of the
larger Six Pièces pour le Grand Orgue. After having
worked as organist at the parish of
Saint-Jean-Saint-François for seven years, Franck
obtained the same appointment at Sainte-Clotilde, where
he had been choirmaster for some time. It was at the
latter church that he received his inspiration for
Prélude. At his new post, he met with a monumental
artistic challenge when the inventor-builder Aristide
Cavaillé-Coll finished construction on a three-manual
grand organ for the church in 1859. For the dedication
of this instrument on December 19 of the same year,
Franck played his Final in B Flat Major, Op. 21. His
attachment to this particular organ was so great that
it inspired him to immediately compose Six Pièces pour
le Grand Orgue (1860-1862), which he followed with
Trois Pièces pour le Grand Orgue (1878) and Trois
Chorals (1890). These works were written at the height
of the Romantic organ's popularity, which stretched
between 1830 and 1930. This period's most popular
organists were Charles-Marie Widor, Alexandre Pierre
François Boëly, Louis Lefébure-Wély and of course,
Franck, who in time became known as the only true
"equal" of Johann Sebastian Bach as a composer for the
organ. The Prélude was dedicated to Camille
Saint-Saëns. The two men had similar posts and
influences, and had both studied with François Benoist
at the Paris Conservatoire.
A pastoral Prélude opens the work with a seductive
oboe cantilena in the upper voice. Tournemire commented
on the feel of this movement when he asked, "Can you
not imagine a shepherd piping the beauties of
nature...?" A brief bridge of nine bars of chordal
harmony leads to the freely moving austere "fugue" that
is parallel to Bach's A major Fugue. A satisfying link
is made between this section and "variations" over a
dominant pedal. The final portion returns to the work's
opening oboe cantilena; here it soars through
"Mendelssohnian" counterpoint that is both flowing and
refreshing, bringing the work to a quiet end. When
Franck composed Prélude, fugue et variations, along
with the other five works in Six Pièces pour le Grand
Orgue, he not only gracefully honored the new
instrument at Sainte-Clotilde, but he also added
greater majesty to the repertoire of the organ.
Although originally created for Pipe Organ, I created
this Interpretation of the Prélude, Fugue et Variation
(FWV 30 Opus 18) for Double-Reed Quartet (2 Oboes,
English Horn & Bassoon).
PARTITION