LDV176.8

18 CÉSAR FRANCK_The complete organ works The compositional texture of Franck’sworks for organ, particularly fromthe Trois Pièces onwards, is unprecedented. No other composer had hitherto combined such an acute keyboard sense (a direct result of his virtuosity as a pianist) with the idea of tonal build-up achieved by introducing successive layers of sound (a process coming straight fromGerman symphonicmusic), an extreme attention to contrapuntal technique (inherited through his teachers from J.S. Bach) and lastly, a harmonic language tending more and more to that of Wagner. Franck constantly adapted his own very real virtuosity to the language of the organ in its true polyphonic dimension. All the compositions of the mature years attempt to reconcile the notion of overall unity with a structure in several movements. Whether these movements are separate, as in the chamber music or the Symphony, or whether they are linked up as in the Symphonic Variations or the organ works, is unimportant. Composing in sections is a principle of Franck’s, but is only justified when it marks the stages of a discourse that gradually reveals its objective.