The iUniversity
Section Ten
French Classical Music of the Romantic Era
César Franck’s beautiful, magical music inspired the young composers of Paris. Psyché: Symphonic Poem for Orchestra and Chorus that he had composed during 1886 and 1887 was performed on March 10, 1888. It was new music filled with romantic, passionate harmonies. A new era in music had been born.
The Origins of French Impressionist Music
by Don Robertson
César Franck, who like Bach before him, was considered by the academics to be a simple church organist. Therefore, it was a puzzle to the musical establishment of Paris that he had attracted the most talented young student composers in the city to his organ class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris where, banned from teaching composition, he taught his students improvisation, which is basically the same thing. Students flocked to these organ classes, many not even being enrolled.
Claude Debussy audited Franck’s classes and held the master in great regard thoughout his lifetime. It was Franck’s passionate string quartet of 1890 that set a new tone for French string quartet writing, and it was the inspiration for Debussy’s own farmous string quartet.
The new harmonic development called impressionism arose in france during the period 1886 to 1888. It began when Richard Wagner used the colorful chords that will be adopted by French composers for the first time: unresolved minor and major 7th and 9th chords, the 13th “Rheingold” chord from Götterdämmerung, and the famous “Tristan” half-diminished chord that has been acknowledged in all harmony text books. These are the harmonies that will be adopted by the jazz musicians of the 1950s who were attentively listening to Debussy recordings.
There were a number of French composers involved in the creation of French impressionist music during this period of 1886-1888. César Franck’s symphonic poem Psyché was a masterpiece of French impressionist music as was Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem in D minor, Op. 48, composed between 1887 and 1890. Claude Debussy, Ernest Fanelli, Erik Satie, and Emmanuel Chabrier are all players in creating this new music, and they all were living in Paris and all under the influence of Wagner’s amazing harmonic language of Der Ring des Nibelungen and Tristan und Isolde.
The French impressionist harmonic language is built by “stacking thirds”. The root of the harmonic scale is called the triad in the language of music education: the major chord (C, E, G) and the minor chord (C, Eb, G). Each note of the triad is one-third higher than the preceeding note. The first note “C” is the base, the second note “D” is skipped, and the third note is the “E” or “Eb”. The “G” note is up another “third”. The triad has stacked two notes, each a third away, on top of the base note. In the traditional harmonic of the 16th century, the triad was the basis of the harmonic language. During the 17th century, another third was added to create what is called the dominate seventh chord. The harmonic language of composers continued to expanded upward through the upper partials over a timeline in Western classical music. The 18th century saw the inclusion of diminished 7ths. Major and minor 7ths (and some 9ths) were used in the works of the 19th century really only as passing chords. The sound of the major and minor 7ths and 9ths used as concords that were introduced in France during the 1880s were a revelation to music, and thus harmony, later called impressionist harmony, was born. The timeline is the unveiling of upper partial harmony over ages.
The Mysterious Ernest Fanelli
The person who first discovered upper-partial impressionist harmony was a Frenchman named Ernest Fanelli (1860-1917). He is basically an unknown composer today, but I discovered him over 40 years ago through my research. He wrote music that stacked chords up to the 13th and beyond as early as 1886, before any other known composer.
There is not a lot of published information about Fanelli, but Debussy knew him. It is claimed that during the 1890s, Debussy was so sensitive to the claims that Fanelli was the source of Debussy’s musical style that he tried to avoid being seen listening to Fanelli’s work. It is also said that the poet Ezra Pound recalled an episode where he was sitting in a restaurant listening to Fanelli play a composition on the piano when Debussy walked in. As soon as Debussy saw Fanelli, he turned and walked out.
The composer George Antheil, in his book “Bad Boy of Music” states that Erik Satie, Maurice Ravel, and Claude Debussy had all visited Fanelli’s home and studied his unpublished scores before writing their own works. Antheil writes about how he had discovered the Fanelli compositions himself. Constantine von Sternberg had told him of Fanelli’s amazing harmonic innovations, and he visited Fanelli’s widow. She allowed Antheil to look through her husband’s scores. Antheil wrote:
I soon discovered that Constantine von Sternberg had been right, at least in one regard: the works of Fanelli were pure “Afternoon of a Faun” or “Daphnis and Chloe”, at least in technique, and they predated the Debussy-Ravel-Satie works by many years. But, as I also soon discovered, they were not as talented as the works of the two slightly younger men, although they had had the advantage of being “firsts” … Debussy was the genius who had distilled Fanelli into immortality!
The first part of Fanelli’s Tableaux symphoniques was composed in 1883. There are some very original harmonies in this work. For example, one place where a succession of diminished 5ths and minor 7ths, proceeding by similar motion are imitated by the 7th in two upper parts. These create a string of major thirds derived from the whole tone scale. Let us look at this example from part two of the same work, composed in 1886.
Now here are examples of the kinds of chords in Fanelli’s Le Cauchemar of 1888:
The composer who was to fully create impressionist harmony was Éric Satie (1866 –1925). He lived in Paris and most certainly knew Fanelli. Satie’s Sarabandes of 1887 show us for the first time, the full impressionist harmonies of major and minor 7ths and 9th chords.
The First Five Measures of Eric Satie’s Sarabande No. 1
The sparsity of this work and the two Gymnopédie of 1887 was clearly inspired by the opening chords of Chabrier’s opera Le roi malgré lui. Composed in 1886 and premiered on May 18, 1887, Chabrier’s music had been ardently admired by musicians, especially Maurice Ravel, who claimed he could play the whole piece from memory. He also claimed that the premiere of Le roi malgré lui changed the course of French harmony. Harmonic progressions that were new in French music at the time were employed – most notably the use of unprepared and unresolved chords of the seventh and ninth, such as the very first chords of the prelude to the opera.
“Thèbes” from the album Ernest Fanelli performed by Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava) conducted by Adriano, with Lydia Drahosova (mezzo)
Erik Satie’s “Sarabande Number 1” from the album Gnossiennes and Gymnopédies performed by Reinbert de Leeuw
The prelude to the opera Le roi malgré lui by Emmanuel Chabrier performed by the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Chœurs de Radio France conducted by Charles Dutoit
César Franck’s Psyché
Fanelli and Satie were experimenters, amateurs really. Fanelli’s music was not monumental, and yes, some of Satie’s is. (Debussy orchestrated two of Satie’s Gymnopiedies for piano in 1897). But it was Psyche that was the work of pure angelic, romantic genius.
The work opens with quiet strings and a solo clairnet played on the off-beats and then circles around an E minor seventh chord in measure five. This sets the tone for the entire work.
The master’s last work, his opera Ghiselle boldly contain the following beautiful music where he uses chords with added seconds followed by a dominant ninth chord:
And there is this also:
César Franck remains misunderstood today with many of his greatest works still unperformed and unpublished, even though he was France’s greatest composer. He created a masterpiece in his last great work, his opera Ghiselle, and still at the time of this writing, it has not been recorded, and is never performed.
(Don Robertson 2013)
(Footnote – I coresponded with Joël-Marie Fauquet, the author of the great 1999 biography of César Franck, and I believe he mentioned there had been one performance since the single performance that took place after Franck’s death.)
Joël-Marie Fauquet Interview on Musical Kaleidoscope – – >
French Composers with Recommendations
Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Poème for violin and orchestra
Poème de l’amour et de la mer
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
La Mer, La Damoiselle élue
Noctures, Printemps
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931)
Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français
Symphony No. 2
Joseph Guy Ropartz (1864-1955)
Symphonies 1-5, Requiem
La cloche des morts
Psaume CXXXVI (Psalm 136)
Le miracle de Saint Nicolas
Erik Satie (1866-1925)
Gymnopédies 1 & 3 (orch. Debussy)
Cèsar Franck (1822-1890)
Symphony, Psyche, Hulda
Ghiselle, Les Béatitudes
Variations symphonic
Ruth, Redemption, Rebecca
Albéric Magnard (1865-1914)
Symphonies 1-4
Chant funebre
Hymn a la justice
Cuercoeur
Charles Tournemire (1870-1939)
Poem for Organ and Orchestra Opus 38
Charles-Marie Widor (1845-1937)
Symphonies 1,2, & 3
Symphony antique,
Symphony sacre
Organ Symphony
Maurice Durufle (1902-1986)
Requiem, Messe cum jublio
Trois danses
Henri Duparc (1848-1933)
Aux étoiles, Lénore
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Symphony No. 3
Violin Concerto No. 3
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Requiem
Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894)
Adagio
Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)
España
A Taste of Romantic Era Musical Paris
Scenes from the Paris Musical and Artistic Goldmine
Photos by Don Robertson (2009)
The Home of Ernest Chausson
French composer Chausson occupied a large home at 22 Boulevard de Courcelles in Paris. It was furnished luxuriously, filled with art displayed on the walls by the great impressionist painters like Édouard Manet, Pierr-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas. His soirées were attended by the great poets, artists, composers, and musicians of the time including composers Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Eugène Ysaÿe, Henri Duparc, Isaac Albéniz, Vincent d’Indy, and Albéric Magnard; poet and writer Stéphane Mallarmé and André Gide; and artists Claude Monet, Odilon Redon, Joseph-Félix Bouchor, Maurice Denis, Auguste Rodin, Édouard Vuillard, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul-Alber Besnard, Eugène Carrière, and Édouard Manet.
The Home of Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé held famous, intimate weekly gatherings known as “les mardis” (Tuesdays) in his Paris apartment on the rue de Rome. These soirées were central to Parisian intellectual life during the late 19th century and played a key role in the development of poetic symbolism. The “Mardistes” (Tuesday regulars) included a diverse mix of renowned writers and artists, such as W.B. Yeats, Rainer Maria Rilke, Paul Valéry, Stefan George, Paul Verlaine, and painters like Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, and James Whistler. Composers included Claude Debussy who famously composed Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune based on Mallarmé’s poem of that name.
Stéphane Mallarmé’s home was located at 87-89 Rue de Rome in the 17th arrondissement of Paris.
The Schola Cantorum
Composers Vincent d’Indy, Charles Bordes, and Alexandre Guilmant founded the Schola Cantorum de Paris in 1894 with a grand opening in 1896. The school was a direct response to their dissatisfaction with the Paris Conservatoire, the famous college of music and dance whose focus was on studying and teaching opera. Dedicated to improving church music and strengthening musical education through choral ensemble participation, the Schola Cantorum researched and taught 16th-, 17th-, and 18th-century sacred music and Gregorian chant in addition to composition, organ, and instrumental music. There was an intense training in composition, counterpoint, and harmony, all heavily influenced by César Franck’s musical ideals.
Featured Composers
César Franck
by Don Robertson
In 1971, I began researching the music of the European harmonic music tradition. I wanted to discover great music from the centuries preceding the 20th century that I considered important emotionally and spiritually. That was when I first discovered the great French composer César Franck, whom the music professors and writers in the academic world had left behind. I have continued to study Franck’s music and that of his students for over 40 years. Because information about Franck and his circle of composers was very difficult to find and recordings were unavailable, it took me a long time to fully comprehend how César Franck’s music had been so completely misunderstood. This misunderstanding began during Franck’s lifetime, when his music was beyond the comprehension of most of his contemporaries, even within his own family. It was then perpetuated by misinformed opinions published in biographies and articles both during Franck’s lifetime and after. I finally realized that César Franck was France’s greatest composer!
César Franck created the oeuvre that he left behind from a higher level of inspiration than the 20th century was ready for, and thus it was very much disregarded by the composers and educators of that era. When 20th-century composer and educator Olivier Messiaen was asked about Franck, he simply replied, “He is dead.” Organists knew that Franck had created some of the greatest organ works in the repertoire, choirs treasured his single famous choral composition “Panis Angelicus”, violinists knew that Franck’s beautiful Violin Sonata was a masterpiece, and Franck’s symphony had found favor for a while with audiences during the 20th century, but some of Franck’s greatest masterpieces, such as his great last two operas and his great choral works and symphonic poems are simply never performed, especially in America, nor are they available on commercial recordings. However, I am here to say that it is César Franck – and his students – who will provide a musical bridge for the European harmonic tradition to span over the destructive energy of 20th-century classical music. It will be through the discovery of this great French romantic tradition that concert halls will again resound with joyous harmonic song, helping to dispel the discords redolent of the 20th century.
César Franck in Paris
Photos by Don Robertson (2009)
César Franck (1822–1890) played a pivotal role as the titular organist (principal organist) at the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris, a position he held from 1859 until his death in 1890. He was the first person to hold this position with the church’s famous Cavaillé-Coll organ.
The Basilica of Saint Clotilde (Basilique Ste-Clotilde) in Paris is a 19th-century neo-Gothic masterpiece, constructed between 1846 and 1857 in the 7th arrondissement. It is notable as the first major neo-Gothic church built in Paris, featuring twin spires and a rich musical history linked to composer César Franck.
Cesar Franck’s Home on Rue St. Michael
César Franck lived in his home at 95 Boulevard Saint-Michel in Paris from 1865 until his death in 1890. This was the creative workspace where he composed his most celebrated masterpieces.
Videos
Compact Discs
Psyche – Poème symphonique
Savaria Symphony Orchestra
Peter Lücker
Les Beatitudes
Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique & Choeurs de Radio France
Armin Jordan
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Claude Debussy (1862–1918), who was the famous composer of La Mer and Après midi d’un faune, audited Franck’s classes. Debussy and Chausson had met at the Paris Conservatoire and the two had formed a deep relationship that ended in a rupture several years before Chausson’s unfortunate early death. Debussy’s famous string quartet was inspired by the revolutionary quartet of César Franck, to whom the quartet was originally dedicated. Debussy referred to it as “your quartet” in correspondence. Franck’s student Henri Büsser left his imprint on today’s concert halls his beatitiful orchestrations of Debussy’s Petite suite. Debussy’s only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande (1893-1895), is a symbolist drama about a tragic love triangle set in a mythical kingdom. I do not find Debussy’s music composed after the turn into the 20th century acceptable for inner spiritual work. (Don Robertson)
Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) died in a bicycle accident at an early age. His music is wonderful… filled with parfum français. He had been deeply influenced by Richard Wagner, particularly after visiting Wagner’s theater in Bayreuth in 1882 and 1883. While maintaining a distinct, French style, Chausson’s harmony was heavily shaped by the chromaticism of Wagner’s music, and his opera Le Roi Arthus is often compared to a “Celtic Tristan” for its structural parallels to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. He is known for the Poème pour violin et orchestre, his chamber works, and his songs. Among his great works is the Poème de l’amour et de la mer, Opus 19 (which I heard performed in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam – what a joy that was! – Don Robertson)
Henri Duparc (1848-1933)
Henri Duparc (1848–1933) was a French composer known for a tragic, brief career, producing only seventeen masterful mélodies (art songs) and a few short orchestral works before abruptly stopping at age thirty-seven due to a severe mental illness. A student of César Franck, he was initially a rising star, but he destroyed most of his music, leaving a small, haunting legacy. He was a talented composer who helped found the Société Nationale de Musique in 1871. After retiring from music, he lived nearly fifty more years in seclusion, experiencing profound sadness and a physical decline that led to blindness, and later, paralysis, and finally his death in 1933.
Videos
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) was a French musical prodigy, pianist, and composer whose life spanned the Romantic era. A master organist who was described by Liszt as the world’s best, he had a brilliant intellect spanning science and art, but a tragic personal life, including a failed marriage and the loss of his children. Born in Paris, he displayed perfect pitch at age two and gave his first public piano recital at age ten, offering to play any of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas from memory. He served as the organist at La Madeleine in Paris for 20 years. His work bridged traditionalism and innovation, producing masterpieces like the Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”) and the opera Samson et Dalila.
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
A prodigy, he trained at the École Niedermeyer under Camille Saint-Saëns and became a renowned educator, eventually directing the Paris Conservatory and mentoring composers, including Maurice Ravel, Nadia Boulanger, and Georges Enescu. Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem in D minor, Op. 48, composed between 1887 and 1890, is a renowned choral-orchestral setting of the Mass for the Dead, celebrated for its serene, consoling tone rather than dramatic judgment. Focused on eternal rest and paradise, it features seven movements highlighting soft melodies, including the famous “Pie Jesu” and “In Paradisum”. Gabriel Fauré wrote over 100 songs (mélodies) that are considered the pinnacle of French vocal music. His most famous songs include “Après un rêve,” “Clair de lune,” and “Les berceaux.”
Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894)
Guillaume Lekeu’s (1870-1894) lush aural canvases stopped flowing from his pen in 1894 when he died of typhoid fever at age 24. His best-known chamber works are the Violin Sonata in G Major (1892–3) and the Piano Trio in C minor. His Piano Quartet in B minor and Cello Sonata were completed by his teacher, Vincent d’Indy, following Lekeu’s death. Lekeu’s music is characterized by profound emotional intensity, influenced by Beethoven’s late works and Wagner’s harmonic language. Despite his short life, he was highly regarded by Claude Debussy. His key orchestral works are the lyric poem/cantata Andromède and Chant lyrique. The Adagio pour quatuor d’orchestre (1891) is a profoundly emotional, late-Romantic work, often described as “soulful” and “expressive”. Written for a “string quartet” of solo strings (violin, viola, cello, bass) supported by a string orchestra, it is renowned for its intense melancholy and rich texture.
Videos
Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931)
Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931) was an aristocrat and a devoted student of Franck. He wrote a large number of works that deserve to re-enter our concert halls and be heard again. His most important function, however, was as a great educator and reformer. Along with Charles Bordes and Alexandre Guilmant, he founded the Scola Cantorum music school in Paris in 1894. It’s alumni include many of France’s 20th century composers. D’Indy brought to his students the music of Franck for serious study, as well as that of the almost completely forgotten great composers of the Renaissance and the German tradition of Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner that had fallen out of favor among many French composers. D’Indy was also responsible for the awakening of interest in Gregorian chant and personally introduced the great 17th Century composer Claudio Monteverdi to the modern world with d’Indy’s own transcriptions and prodctions.
Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–1894)
Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–1894) was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas, songs, and piano music. He was admired by composers as diverse as Debussy, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Satie, Schmitt, Stravinsky, and the group of French composers known as Les six. Chabrier’s friends in Paris included Gabriel Fauré, Ernest Chausson, and Vincent d’Indy, as well as the painters Henri Fantin-Latour, Edgar Degas, and Édouard Manet, the latter whose Thursday soirées Chabrier attended, and writers such as Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, Jean Moréas, Jean Richepin, Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, and Stéphane Mallarmé.
On a trip to Munich with Henri Duparc in 1879, Chabrier discovered Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde. This event led him to realize his true passion for music composition, and he resigned from his full time post at the Ministry of the Interior the following year.
Chabrier plunged himself into the scores of Richard Wagner and became an assistant to Charles Lamoureux in preparing concert performances of Wagner’s works in Paris. In 1882, he travelled to London to hear Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung and to Brussels the following year to hear it again. However, the strength of Chabrier’s musical personality and his essential Frenchness of temperament and sensibility made it impossible for him to do more than experiment with Wagner’s more superficial technical procedures without getting involved in the aesthetic and philosophical theories.
In 1882 Chabrier visited Spain, which resulted in his most famous work, the beautiful España (1883), a mixture of popular airs that he had heard and others of his own imagination. In the view of his friend Duparc, this composition for orchestra demonstrated an individual style that seemed to come from nowhere. Other contemporary musicians were more condescending, however.
Videos
Charles Bordes (1863 – 1909)
Charles Bordes (1863-1909) became maître de chapelle at the église Saint-Gervais in Paris in 1890, and there he created the Saint-Gervais Singers choir. In 1892 he organized the Saint-Gervais Holy Weeks featuring solemn Catholic services from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday and where the mass was accompanied by French and Italian sacred choral music from the Renaissance. This composition student of César Franck effectively brought out of almost complete obscurity one of the greatest bodies of music ever created: the sacred music of the Renaissance and the great composers of that time: Josquin, Palestrina, Victoria, Gallus and Lassus. The Saint-Gervais concerts had a very important effect on the very alive artistic community in Paris at that time, most notably Claude Debussy. It was Bordes work that lead to St. Pius X’s Motu Proprio Tra le sollecitudini of 1903 to restore Gregorian chant in the liturgy. Classical and Baroque compositions had long been favoured over Gregorian chant.
Joseph-Guy Ropartz (1864-1955)
The Franck tradition was passed onto his students, one of whom was the French composer Joseph-Guy Ropartz (1864-1955). His name is almost completely unknown in classical music circles today and his music unplayed. During my forty years of study of the works of Franck and his students, Ropartz’ music was so elusive that I was unable to discover it at all for many years. It was not until scores appeared on the internet for the first time in around 2006 (on imslp.org), that I began to realize that I had discovered a great composer. On my trips to France during 2007 and 2009, I found newly released compact disc recordings of Ropartz’ music, and all of this opened the door for me. In January, 2010, I wrote an article about Guy Ropartz’s 3rd Symphony. (Don Robertson)
Videos
Albéric Magnard (1865-1914)
Albéric Magnard (1865–1914) was a great French composer known as the “French Bruckner”. Son of a famous Le Figaro editor, Magnard was wealthy but shunned an easy life to pursue music, studying under Vincent d’Indy. He was a perfectionist who self-published his works. In early September 1914, he sent his family to safety while he stayed at home to protect his estate in Baron, Oise from invading German forces. When soldiers arrived, they tried to enter his home, but he opened fire on them, killing one and wounding another. Magnard died when the German soldiers set his home on fire, destroying it completely. Magnard’s wonderful opera Guercoeur was partially lost in the fire but was later reconstructed by his close friend and fellow composer Guy Ropartz.
While his tragic death during World War I turned him into a patriotic symbol, his music was underappreciated and rarely performed for many decades, being overshadowed by other French composers such as Debussy and Ravel. His four symphonies are masterpieces and have only recently begun to become performed and recorded in France.
Videos
Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)
Maurice Duruflé (1902–1986) was a renowned French composer, organist, and pedagogue, celebrated for his technical perfectionism and merging of Gregorian chant with modern French impressionism. He is best known for his masterpiece, Requiem (1947), and for holding the prestigious position of organist at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris for over 45 years. Duruflé published only 14 works during his lifetime, ensuring each was refined to the highest standard. His music often blended the rhythmic and modal qualities of plainchant with the harmonies of his mentors, Maurice Ravel and Paul Dukas.
He married fellow organist Marie-Madeleine Chevalier in 1953, and the two were a famous concert duo until a severe car accident in 1975 forced them to retire from public performance. Although his wife recovered, Maurice suffered severe injuries, including broken legs, and never fully recovered. He was mostly confined to his apartment for the final eleven years of his life. He died over a decade later on June 16, 1986, at the age of 84 in a clinic at Louveciennes near Paris.
Read what Maurice Duruflé had to say about the discordant music of Arnold Schönberg – – >
Videos
Duruflé's Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d'Alain, Opus 7
Thomas Ospital (born 1990) is a world-renowned French organist and composer, widely celebrated for his virtuosity and exceptional talent for improvisation. Since 2015, he has served as the titular organist at the Church of Saint-Eustache in Paris, where he presides over one of the largest and most prestigious pipe organs in France. Here, he performs Maurice Duruflé’s Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain, Opus 7. Duruflé composed this piece as an homage to his close friend and fellow French composer, Jehan Alain, who was tragically killed in action during World War II.
The French Romantic Pipe Organ
The history of the French Romantic pipe organ (often called the symphonic organ) is primarily the story of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811–1899), a pioneering builder who revolutionized organ construction in the mid-19th century to meet the aesthetic demands of Romantic music. Moving away from the bright, contrapuntal sounds of the French Classical organ, this new style aimed for a warm, powerful, and orchestral sound that inspired composers like Franck and Widor.
Videos
Duruflé's Organ Music Performed at Saint-Sulpice
The Great Organ at Saint-Sulpice in Paris is a legendary instrument, recognized as the masterpiece of famed builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Reconstructed in 1862, this 102-stop, 5-manual “symphonic” organ is considered one of the finest in the world, renowned for its power and orchestral tone, and it remains a cornerstone of French musical heritage.
Daniel Roth (born 1942) is a renowned French organist, composer, and educator, best known as the titular organist of the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris from 1985 to 2023. A major figure in French organ music, he was appointed Titular Organist Emeritus of Saint-Sulpice in February 2023, continuing a legacy established by masters like Widor and Dupré.
Videos
Watch the 150-year Anniversary of the organ in Saint-Sulpice with Daniel Roth in 2012 – – >
Don Robertson Films Thierry Escaich in Paris
On my 2009 music-research journey in Europe, I visited the Église Saint-Étienne-du-Mont cathedral in Paris where Maurice Duruflé had been the titular organist from 1929 until his death in 1986. (I filmed a tribute to Duruflé that is featured in that composer’s section above).
During my visit, I met the curé (the priest in charge of the church). He was very friendly and supportive and invited me to return the following Sunday, when I would be allowed into the organ loft to witness one of the titular organists (the primary organists) perform the Sunday mass.
I returned the following Sunday and met the famous organist Thierry Escaich and filmed the sortie (the concluding organ piece played while congregation leaves the church) that he performed, then uploaded the video to the Musical Kaleidoscope YouTube channel. (Don Robertson)
Scores
Orchestral Music
MO-020 – Banquet francais Volume 1 (358 pages)
Tournemire, Duparc, Debussy, Chabrier,
Lekeu
MO-021 – César Franck – Les Sept Paroles du Christ sur la Croix and Ballet Algorique (230 pages)
MO-022 – César Franck – Ruth (Églogue Biblique) (211 Pages)
MO-023 – César Franck – Symphony and Excerpts from Psyche (206 pages)
MO-024 – César Franck – Rédemption (260 pages)
MO-025 – César Franck – Les Beatitudes (300 pages)
MO-026 – César Franck – Tone Poems (310 pages)
MO-027 – French Romantic Era Organ Music (186 pages)
Franck and Widor
MO-028 – Ernest Chauson – Symphony and Poëme de l”Amour et de la Mer (222 pages)
MO-029 – Ernest Chausson’s Opera Le Roi Arthus Act 1 (177 pages)
MO-030 – Ernest Chausson’s Opera Le Roi Arthus Act 2 (225 pages)
MO-031 – Ernest Chausson’s Opera Le Roi Arthus Act 3 (212 pages)
MO-032 – Gabriel Fauré – Requiem and Pelléas et Mélisande (184 pages)
MO-033 – Camille Saint Saens Symphony No. 3 and Violin Concerto No. 3 (310 pages)
MO-034 – Charles-Marie Widor – Symphonies Volume 1 (276 pages)
MO-035 – Charles-Marie Widor – Symphonies Volume 2 (346 pages)
MO-036 – Joseph Guy Ropartz – Symphonies No. 1 and 2 (300 Pages)
MO-037 – Joseph Guy Ropartz – Symphonies No. 4 and 5 (268 Pages)
MO-038 – Joseph Guy Ropartz – Symphony No. 3 and Three Tone Poems (265 pages)
MO-039 – Albéric Magnard – Symphony No. 1 (206 pages)
MO-040 – Albéric Magnard – Symphony No. 2 and Chant funebre (215 pages)
MO-041 – Albéric Magnard – Symphony No. 3 and Hymn a la justice (230 pages)
MO-042 – Albéric Magnard – Symphony No. 4 (207 pages)
MO-103 – The Orchestral World of Claude Debussy Volume 1 (190 pages)
MO-104 – The Orchestral World of Claude Debussy Volume 2 (180 pages)
MO-105 – The Orchestral World of Claude Debussy Volume 3 (150 pages)
MO-106 – Claude Debussy – Pelléas et Mélisande (410 pages)
MO-107 – Vincent d’Indy – Two Symphonies (300 pages)
Sacred Music for Voice or Choir
MS-001 – An Album of French Choral Music (278 pages)
Franck and Ropartz
Songs
MS-002 – An Album of Fifty French Songs (250 pages)
Franck, d’Indy, Duparc, Faure, Lekeu,
Chausson, Debussy, and Ropartz
Chamber Music
MT-005- César Franck – Chamber Music (312 pages)
MT-006 – French Romantic Era Chamber Music (230 pages)
Chausson and Fauré
Vocal Scores
MV-001 – César Franck – Hulda Vocal Score (335 pages)
MV-002 – César Franck – Ghiselle Vocal Score (306 pages)
MV-003 – César Franck – Ruth Vocal Score ( pages)
MV-004 – César Franck – Les Sept Paroles du Christ sur la Croix Vocal Score (64 pages)
MV-005 – César Franck – Redemption Vocal Score (135 pages)
MV-006 – César Franck – Rebecca Vocal Score (77 Pages)
MV-007 – César Franck – Les Beatitudes Vocal Score (316 pages)
MV-008 – César Franck – Psyche Vocal Score (103 pages)
MV-009 – Ernest Chausson – La Légende de Sainte Cécile Vocal Score (73 pages)
MV-010 – Ernest Chausson – Le Roi Arthus Vocal Score (351 pages)
MV-011 – Joseph Guy Ropartz – Le Pays Vocal Score (144 pages)
MV-012 – Albéric Magnard – Cuercoeur Vocal Score (246 pages)
MV-013 – Joseph Guy Ropartz – Psaume CXXXVI (Psalm 136) (38 pages)
MV-014 – Guillaume Lekeu – Andromède (66 pages)
Study Scores
MF-001 – César Franck Symphony Study (160 pages)
MF-002 – César Franck Psyche Study
MF-003 – Claude Debussy Study
La Damoiselle Elue Study (75 Pages)
Printemps Study (50 Pages)
Nocturnes Study (114 Pages)
MF-004 – Ravel and Ropartz Study (235 pages)
Joseph-Guy Ropartz 3rd Symphony Study (128 Pages)
Maurice Ravel Tombeau de Couperin Study (106 Pages)
MF-005 – Ropartz 2nd Symphony (157 pages)
Book Reprints (en français)
BF-001 – Vincent d’Indy’s Cours de Composition – Book 1
BF-002 – Vincent d’Indy’s Cours de Composition – Book 2
BF-003 – César Franck by Charles Tournemire
BF-004 – César Franck by Vincent d’Indy
BF-005 – La Musique de Chambre de César Franck by Robert Jardillier
BF-006 – Hulda et Ghiselle by Charles Van Den Borren
BF-007 – Une École de Musique by Vincent d’Indy
BF-008 – Notations Artistiques by Joseph Guy Ropartz
BF-009 – Demuth – César Franck
BF-010 – Beethoven by d’Indy
BF-011 – Les idees de Vincent d’Indy by Saint-Saens
BF-012 – Destranges, Etienne – Fervaal de Vincent d’Indy
BF-013 – Destranges, Etienne – Le Chant de la Cloche de Vincent d’Indy
BF-014 – Le parnasse Breton contemporain (Louis Tiercelin and J. Guy Ropartz)
BF-015 – Vincent d’Indy – Louis Borgex
Appendix
MP-001 – Short Piano Pieces
Bach, Debussy, Franck, Granados,
Handel, Joplin, Satie, and
keyboard compositions of the
16th and 17th centuries.
MP-002 – The Organ Book
Bach, Franck, Pacabel, Reinberger,
and Widor