César Franck

César Franck, c.1872

César Franck (December 10, 1822 – November 8, 1890), a composer, organist and music teacher of Belgian and German origin who lived in France, was one of the great figures in Romantic music in the second half of the 19th century.[1]

Contents

Biography

House Grady in Liège, where César Franck was born

César Auguste Jean Guillaume Hubert Franck was born in Liège, Belgium, to a father from the German-Belgian border and a German mother. His father had ambitions for him to become a concert pianist, and he studied at the conservatoire in Liège before going to the Paris Conservatoire in 1838 after private studies with Antonin Rejcha for a year. Upon leaving in 1842 he briefly returned to Belgium, but went back to Paris in 1844 and remained there for the rest of his life. His decision to give up a career as a virtuoso led to strained relations with his father during this time.[2]

During his first years in Paris, Franck made his living by teaching, both privately and institutionally. He also held various posts as organist: from 1847 to 1851 he was organist at Notre Dame de Lorette, and from 1851 to 1858 he was organist at Saint Jean and St François. During this time he became familiar with the work of the famous French organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, and he also worked on developing his technique as an organist and improviser.

In 1858, he became organist at the newly-consecrated Saint Clotilde Basilica, where he remained until his death. Here he began to attract attention for his skill as an improviser. His first set of organ compositions, however, was not published until 1868, when he was 46 years old, although it contains one of his finest organ pieces, the Grande Pièce Symphonique. From 1872 to his death he was professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory. His pupils included Vincent d'Indy, Ernest Chausson, Louis Vierne, and Henri Duparc. As an organist he was particularly noted for his skill in improvisation, and on the basis of merely twelve major organ works, Franck is considered by many the greatest composer of organ music after J. S. Bach. His works were some of the finest organ pieces to come from France in over a century, and laid the groundwork for the French symphonic organ style. In particular, his Grande Pièce Symphonique, a work of 25 minutes' duration, paved the way for the organ symphonies of Charles-Marie Widor, Louis Vierne, and Marcel Dupré. [3]

César Franck, organist

In 1890, Franck was involved in a serious traffic accident. It was after this accident that he wrote his Trois chorals for organ. Franck died as a result of complications from the accident very shortly after finishing the chorales. He was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.

Style

Many of Franck's works employ "cyclic form", a method of achieving unity among several movements in which all of the principal themes of the work are generated from a germinal motif. The main melodic subjects, thus interrelated, are then recapitulated in the final movement. His music is often contrapuntally complex, using a harmonic language that is prototypically late Romantic, showing a great deal of influence from Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. In his compositions, Franck showed a talent and a penchant for frequent, graceful modulations of key. Often these modulatory sequences, achieved through a pivot chord or through inflection of a melodic phrase, arrive at harmonically remote keys. Indeed, Franck's students report that his most frequent admonition was to always "modulate, modulate." Franck's modulatory style and his idiomatic method of inflecting melodic phrases are among his most recognizable traits. The key to his music may be found in his personality. His friends record that he was a man of utmost humility, simplicity, reverence and industry. Much of Franck's music is deeply serious and reverential in mood, often joyful, passionate or mysterious, but almost never light-hearted or humorous.[4]

Legacy

Unusual for a composer of such importance and reputation, Franck's fame rests largely on a small number of compositions written in his later years, particularly his Symphony in D minor (1886-88), the Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra (1885), the Prelude, Chorale and Fugue for piano solo (1884), the Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major (1886), and the Piano Quintet in F minor (1879). The Symphony was especially admired and influential among the younger generation of French composers and was highly responsible for reinvigorating the French symphonic tradition after years of decline. One of his best known shorter works is the motet setting Panis Angelicus, which was originally written for tenor solo with organ and string accompaniment, but is also arranged for other voices and instrumental combinations.

César Franck exerted a significant influence on music. He helped to renew and reinvigorate chamber music and developed the use of cyclic form. Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel remembered and employed the cyclic form, although their concepts of music were no longer the same as Franck's. Franck's influence was also due in part to his nature as "a man of utmost humility, simplicity, reverence and industry."[5]

Work

Further information: List of compositions by César Franck
Further information: Symphony in D minor (Franck)

Notable recordings

Symphony in D minor

Le Chasseur Maudit

Organ works

Sonata for violin and piano in A major

Piano Quintet in F minor

Ballet

Piano

Media

References

  1. ↑ The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music - by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Press Ltd., London
  2. ↑ v
  3. ↑ The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music - by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Press Ltd., London
  4. ↑ The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music - by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Press Ltd., London
  5. ↑ The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music - by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Press Ltd., London
  • The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music - by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Press Ltd., London.
  • Boyden, Matthew; Buckley, Jonathan (1994). Classical Music on CD-The Rough Guide. London: Rough Guides. ISBN 185828113X. 
  • Davis, Elizabeth, (ed.) (1997). A Basic Music Library- Essential Scores and Sound Recordings. Chicago: American Library Association. ISBN 0838934617. 

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