César Franck; a translation from the French of Vincent d'Indy

LIBRARY OF
WELLESLEY COLLEGE

PRESENTED BY

Hubert W. Lamb

CESAR FRANCK

■J.Kon^Ur,/.h,xt.

Braiin fr Co.. photo.

CESAR FRAXCK AT THE ORC.AN

CESAR FRANCK

A TRANSLATION FROM THE
FRENCH OF VINCENT D'INDY
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
ROSA NEWMARCH » ;?> »

LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LTD.

,epULn

First Pubhshe.i 1905

Reprinted . . . 1923

PrtnteU m Great Britain by B. Clay if Sons, Ltd., Bungay, Suffolk,

INTRODUCTION

To most readers the charm and peculiar value of
M. Vincent d'lndy's volume on Cesar Franck will
be found in the fact that it is a veritable artistic
gospel ; the life and message of a great teacher told
by the most intimate and devout among his disciples.
Throughout the book, in a warm and vital current,
runs the note of enthusiasm and personal affection ;
while at the same time we are aware of a strong and
just mind which guides the pen and controls the
tendency to sentimentality, or exaggerate praise.
M. d*Indy's conscience is too sensitive and his
insight too clear to permit of his being biased in his
artistic judgments. Nevertheless to those who
mistrust the personal note in biography and believe
that after his death a man is rarely well served by
those who would serve him best, the very attractions
and merits of M. d'Indy's book may seem to be also
its weaknesses. For there still remains a regrettably
large number of the musical public who know very
little of Cesar Franck's work, and who will hesitate
to accept in its fulness of enthusiasm the pupil's
verdict upon the master. It is for this reason that I

3

4 INTRODUCTION

undertook to furnish the English edition of M.
Vincent d'Indy's book with a short introduction
which keeps two aims in view : to set forth for
the benefit of the uninformed, and with due respect,
the unimpeachable credentials of its author, and to
strengthen his position by showing how writers
of widely different artistic creeds unite with him
in his judgment upon Cesar Franck the man and
musician.

It would be impossible to understand the musical
movement which has been progressing in France
since 1870 without having first observed the re-
markable ascendency which Franck's personality and
teaching — ethical and artistic — have exercised upon a
generation of rising composers, many of whom are
now representative of all that is most genuine and
noble in French musical art, M. Remain Rolland,
in his " Musiciens d'aujourd'hui," shows us that the
indifference to music in its higher forms which caused
Berlioz to be misunderstood and neglected in his life-
time by his own compatriots was a phase through
which society passed with the advent of the Second
Empire. Prior to 1840, it is evident from Berlioz's
own memoirs that there existed in France a certain
degree of musical sensibility and appreciation. Then
came the enthusiasm for Rossini, and afterwards for
Meyerbeer, which degenerated into a craze for opera
of a merely frivolous and meretricious kind. This
was the period of trills, roulades and insincerities, of
which Bizet said toward the close of the sixties : " it

INTRODUCTION 5

is utterly dead. Let us bury it without tears or
regret and — go ahead." Already the tide showed
signs of turning, but the public was still apathetic.
It is a remarkable fact that the two principal schools
of literature which existed in France during the
middle of the nineteenth century, the romantic and
the naturalistic, were callous, if not hostile, to music.
M. Rolland instances Hugo, Dumas, the brothers de
Goncourt, Theophile Gautier, Balzac and Lamartine,
as having all been indifferent to the art and even
contemptuous of it. It needed the calamitous events
of 1870 to awaken a new artistic conscience and new
tastes in France. In this connection we are reminded
of a similar occurrence in the history of culture,
when Russia, recovering from the strain and stress of
the year 1812, gave birth to a new and consciously
national school of art and literature.

The great influences which have affected the growth
of music in France since 1870 are twofold. First we
have the Wagnerian movement which took a great
hold upon the intellectual youth of France. It was
good in so far as it awoke a more general interest in
the art ; but those who lived much in France at the
time when the Wagnerian craze was at its most acute
crisis realised, even then, that, although stimulating,
it was not a fertilising influence. It is not amid the
crowds of devout and often intolerant pilgrims who
journeyed to Bayreuth in the eighties, that we shall
discern the personalities who were to carry on the
best traditions of the art in France. Most of the

6 INTRODUCTION

young generation were more or less affected by
Wagnerism ; but the sane and lasting element in
this French musical renaissance must be sought
in another direction ; amid a group of quiet
workers who frequented a modest apartment in
the Boulevard Saint-Michel and learnt their art
from the most retiring and unpretentious of teachers
— Cesar Franck. *' He stood outside the Wag-
nerian movement, in a serene and fecund solitude,"
writes M. Romain Rolland. *' To the attraction
which he exercised by his genius, his personality, and
his moral greatness upon the little circle of friends
who knew and respected him, must be added the
authority of his scientific knowledge. In the face
of the Wagnerian art, he unconsciously resuscitated
the spirit of John Sebastian Bach, the infinitely
rich and profound spirit of the past. In this way
he found himself unintentionally the head of a school
and the greatest educational force in contemporary
French music.'*

Bruneau, a critic whose outlook is very different
from that of the writer whom I have just quoted,
names Franck as one of the three regenerators of
modern music. Speaking of the period of operatic
decadence to which I have already referred, when
heroes and heroines died agreeably before our eyes to
a cheerful valse rhythm and paused in moments ot
tragic intensity to emit strings o^ fiorituri and shakes,
he says : ** The overwhelming success of such works
almost dealt a death-blow to music. A German,

INTRODUCTION 7

Richard Wagner ; a Frenchman, Hector Berlioz ;
and a Belgian who wished to belong to our glorious
school, and therefore asked to become naturalised —
Cesar Franck, saved the art. The first knitted up
the Beethoven traditions and wedded symphony to
the drama ; the second, a fervent disciple of Gluck,
linked his romanticism directly to classic art ; the
third, going back still further into the past, and
taking root there, mingled the polyphonic riches of
Bach with the treasures of harmony and melody
which he left us. We cannot too greatly thank,
admire, and venerate them."

Thus we see Franck, for so many years mis-
understood and slighted by his official contem-
poraries, becoming surely and steadily recognised as
one of the chief artistic influences of the nineteenth
century. M. d'Indy's book shows us what he has
done for France. Nor are there wanting signs that
his influence has extended in some measure to this
country, where a genius of our own, Edward Elgar,
has, consciously or unconsciously, realised a similar
union of traditional faith with complete artistic liberty.
The performance of a representative work by Cesar
Franck has an immense concern for the student of
musical history, because he has solved, more success-
fully perhaps than any composer of his day, the
question of the enlargement and revivification of
classical forms without efi^ecting their ultimate
destruction.

In the last five or six years Franck's works have

8 INTRODUCTION

received considerable attention in this country. That
great artist, Eugene Ysaye, may be said to have
popularised his Sonata for violin and piano. His
Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra, and
the Symphonic poem " Les Djinns," for the same
combination, have been heard at many concerts in
London and the provinces. His masterpiece, '* The
Beatitudes," has been given at Cardiff, in part at
Hereford, and in its entirety in Glasgow, and more
recently at the Sheffield Festival (1908), under Mr.
Henry J. Wood. Some of his compositions, how-
ever, such as the delightful ** Psyche," have suffered
an incomprehensible neglect. From the master I
pass to his pupil and biographer.

As recently as March of the present year M.
Vincent d'Indy made his first public appearance in
England in the dual capacity of conductor and
composer.* On that occasion I wrote for the pro-
gramme-book a brief account of the composer and
his career, which I propose to reproduce here with
greater fulness of detail

In introducing Vincent d'Indy*s personality to a
London audience, I described him not only as the most
illustrious of Franck's pupils, but also as the master's
most devoted friend, a qualification which I believe he
would prefer to all others. To this master he owes not
merely the priceless advantages of inspired teaching,
but the untarnished purity of the artistic and ethical
ideals which he has consistently followed throughout

* March 27, 1909, at a Queen's Hall Symphony Concert.

INTRODUCTION 9

his career. Naturally, this does not constitute M.
d'Indy's sole claim to eminence. He has his own
strongly-marked individuality, which is sufficient to
ensure him a great place in the world ; but the
influence of Franck blends so subtly with all he is
and does that to ignore it would be to misunder-
stand the finest qualities of his work — its clearness,
sincerity, and noble orderliness ; its firm workman-
ship, and its peculiar strength which is the outcome
of faith and enthusiasm.

Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris, March 27,
1 85 1. His family came from the picturesque
mountain region of the Ccvennes. Here the musi-
cian spent much time in his youth, and the familiar
landscape forms the background of many of his
musical works. While still a lad he studied the
piano with Diemer, and theory and composition
with Lavignac, Although his talents were remark-
able, it was not at first intended that he should
become a professional musician. It was only after
submitting a pianoforte quartet to Cesar Franck, and
receiving his encouraging criticism that he resolved
to study seriously. The war of 1870 proved an
interruption to his work, for he took an active share
in the defence of Paris; and it was not until 1873
that he actually joined Franck*s organ class at the
Conservatoire. Here he won a second prize in
1874, and 2. primus accessit the following year.

On leaving the Conservatoire he became choir-
master to Colonne, and, for experience' sake, took

10 INTRODUCTION

the post of second drummer in his orchestra. During
this year (i 875) his overture " The Piccolomini '* was
produced by Pasdeloup at the Concerts Populaires,
and won him recognition as a composer of high and
serious aims. Afterwards he altered this work and
added, first a prologue, entitled " Wallenstein's
Camp " (1880), and then a third section " The Death
of Wallenstein." It was this Trilogy — by many
critics considered his masterpiece — that he conducted
at Queen's Hall on the occasion to which I have
already referred.

The principal works of the succeeding years were :
the overture '' Antony and Cleopatra " (1876) ; ** La
Foret Enchantee" a symphonic ballad (1878); the
pianoforte quartet Op. 7 ; an operetta *' Attendez-moi
sous Forme" (1881). In 1886 he won the first
prize in the competitions organised by the City of
Paris with a dramatic legend '' Le Chant de la
Cloche," the poem written by himself on the basis of
Schiller's " Lay of the Bell." The orchestral legend
" Sauge-Fleurie " and the " Symphonie Cevenole "
also date from about this time. His second Symphony
was produced at the Concerts Lamoureux in 1904.
** Fervaal,'' an opera in three acts and a prologue,
and *' L'Etranger," in one act, were both mounted
for the first time in Brussels ; the former on March 12,
1897 ; the latter in January 1903.

In an article by M. Hugues Imbert {T/ie Musician,
November 17, 1897), the writer mentions three
great influences which, he considers, have helped to

INTRODUCTION ii

mould Vincent d'Indy's style : " Nature, Berlioz,
and Wagner." I have already spoken of an influence
which seems to me more intimate and far-reaching
than that of Berlioz or Wagner ; but undoubtedly in a
considerable number of the composer*s works a keen
feeling for nature is a predominant quality.

Speaking of the many-sidedness of this gifted per-
sonality, M. Romain Rolland says : " There are no
shadows within him. His thought and his art are as
clear as his glance, which gives such youthfulness to
his physiognomy. He feels it a necessity to judge,
order, classify and unify. There is no mind more
completely French than his. . . . This need of clarity
is the ruling principle ot his artistic temperament.
And this is the more remarkable because his nature
is far from being simple. By the mere fact of his
wide musical education, and constant desire to
learn, it is enriched by a number and variety of
elements which almost contradict one another. We
must realise that M. d*Indy is one of the musicians
best acquainted with the music of the past and of
foreign nations ; musical forms of all times and
all lands float through his thoughts and he is not
quite decided upon any of them. . . . We must
also bear in mind that he has come in contact,
direct or indirect, with all the greatest musical
personalities of our time, Wagner, Liszt, Brahms and
Cesar Franck, and has willingly submitted to their
attraction ; for he is not one of those egotistical
geniuses who carry the thought of their own interests

12 INTRODUCTION

into everything ; those great omnivorous spirits who
see nothing, seek nothing, enjoy nothing save vi^ith
the idea of assimilating forces which may prove useful
to themselves. He abandons himself freely, happy
in rendering homage to others and submitting himself
to their charm. Somewhere he speaks of * the
irresistible need of transformation * which exists in all
artists. In order not to be submerged by this
wealth of elements and opposing influences, it is
needful to have a great force of passion or of will
which can eliminate, select and transform them.
M. d'Indy eliminates very little : he organises. He
employs in his music the qualities of a commander :
intelligence of aim and patient will-power to attain,
a complete knowledge of the means at his disposal,
a sense of order and a mastery of himself and his
work. In spite of the variety of materials which he
employs the ensemble is always clear.*'

If this eclecticism, and this power of assimilation and
reorganisation, detract somewhat from the individu-
ality of an artist's creative work, they at least fit him
in the highest degree to be a critic and an educator.
This is a side of M. d'Indy's activity which cannot
be ignored in any Introduction which pretends to
throw light upon this book and its author. I will,
therefore, complete my prefatory remarks with a
short reference to that great work, the outcome of
his faith and devotion, which exists as a living and
glorious monument to the memory of Cesar Franck.

The Schola Cantorum was founded in the first

INTRODUCTION 13

instance by M. Vincent d'Indy in conjunction with
M. Charles Bordes, director of the Chanteurs de
Saint-Gervais, and the well-known organist M. A.
Guilmant. In the earlier prospectuses issued by its
founders the aims of the institution were limited to
formulating a reformation of the church music by
means of a return to the great models of the past.
The Gregorian system was to be accepted as the
enduring basis of the church music, with the addition
of Palestrina and other music which conformed to
these schools. But this ideal, when carried into
practice, although it had the laudable result of
restoring much of the old ecclesiastical music, was
found to be too restricted a foundation on which to
build a new art. *' The spirit of inquiry and the
feeling for modern life gradually got the better of
these principles," says M. Romain Rolland.* From
Gregorian music and the school of Palestrina,
examples of which were sung by the Chanteurs de
Saint-Gervais in Holy Week under the direction of
M. C. Bordes, they passed on to the works of
Heinrich Schiitz and the Italian and German
composers of the seventeenth century, and then to
the masterpieces of Bach, Rameau and Gluck. From
the modest origins of the Schola Cantorum was evolved
the idea of a school of music which should answer to
modern requirements. The prime mover in this
enlargement of ideals was M. Vincent d'Indy, and
when in 1900 he became head of the Schola he moved
* "Musiciens d'aujourd'hui." Hachette, Paris, 1908.

14 INTRODUCTION

into more spacious quarters, found in an old-world
house in the Rue Saint-Jacques, where he proceeded
to carry out his cherished plan. What these wider
ideals were we may gather from his inaugural address,
delivered on November 2, 1900.

" Art is a microcosm," he said, *' which passes like
the world itself through successive periods of youth,
maturity and age ; which never perishes, but con-
tinually renews uself. It is not a closed circle, but
a spiral, perpetually ascending and progressing. I
intend to make my pupils follow the same movement
as the art itself, so that having gone through the
transformations to which music has been subjected in
the course of centuries, they may emerge from their
period of study better equipped for the conflict of
these modern days, because they will have lived, so
to speak, the life of their art, and will have assimi-
lated in their natural order the forms which have
succeeded each other logically through the various
periods in the development of the art."

The whole object of this method of historical
teaching was the refreshment of modern music at
the well-spring of tradition. In the decorative art
of plain song and the architectural art of Palestrina,
the founder of the Schola Cantorum believed that the
student of to-day could find innumerable suggestions
for fresh rhythmic, melodic and harmonic devices.
Here was the true nourishment for our modern
dryness of spirit. Founded in a spirit of sane eclec-
ticism, and vitalised by an immense and enthusiastic

INTRODUCTION 15

faith in classic tradition — interpreted in the spirit
rather than the letter — the Schola Canlorum has
flourished and gained each year in prestige. It is a
kind of second and more modern Conservatoire.

Starting with twenty-one pupils in 1896, last year
it numbered 320. It boasts nine classes for com-
position, over eight of which M. d'Indy himself
presides. It is as active in giving concerts and
performances of works which are rarely heard as it
is in teaching. Branches have been formed at Lyons,
Marseilles, Bordeaux, Avignon, Montpellier, Nancy,
Epinal, Montlugon, Saint-Chamond, and Saint-Jean-
de-Luz. The Schola Cantorum has also its publishing
house whence have been issued a number of fine
editions of old works,* and on the modern side the
Edition Mutuelle, published by the composers them-
selves, who thus remain the proprietors of their
works. An indirect outcome of this movement is
the French Bach Society, founded in 1905, by
M. Gustave Bret, a former pupil of the Schola,

When we reckon up these numerous and far-
reaching spheres of activity and remember that they
all owe their existence to the teaching of Cesar
Franck,t we feel that it is difficult to exaggerate

* Among the old works re-issued by this institution are the
"Orfeo"and the " Incoronazione di Poppea " of Monteverde,
edited by M. Vincent d'Indy.

t ''Our venerated 'Father* Franck is to some degree the
grandfather of this Bchola Cantorum; for it is his method of
teaching that we shall strive to continue and apply here." From
an address by M, Vincent d'Indy, November 1900.

B

i6 INTRODUCTION

his influence upon the musical development oi
France. Nor, if we came to consider the question
more closely, need we perhaps restrict the area of his
influence to France alone. In Belgium he has many
devoted followers, and an indefatigable propagandist
in the person of Eugene Ysaye. In England the
scattered seed of his sowing has not fallen upon
infructile soil. It is time, then, that we knew some-
thing more ot this righteous spirit and poetic thinker
whose place in music is not so far removed from
that of Bach and Beethoven. No monumental
biography of Cesar Franck has yet been given to
the world. Perhaps the simplicity and uneventful-
ness of his life, which left him little time for travel
or correspondence, will save him from the doubtful
glory of being commemorated in a colossal ** Life
and Letters," wherein all the small indignities of his
humanity might be mercilessly exposed to view.
Up to the present moment this tender and sincere
tribute from the pupil to the master remains the
most complete and authoritative record of Franck's
personality and career. The translation, although it
Is from the language I heard most frequently from
my mother in childhood into one with which the
habit of later years has made me still more familiar,
is doubtless far from perfect. But it has been
undertaken in something of the same spirit of
enthusiastic veneration which inspires the original,
and I can only hope I have not done too great an
injustice to a book the success of which in England
and America I have very much at heart.

INTRODUCTION 17

P.S. — Scarcely were the final proofs of the fore-
going Introduction in the hands of the printers when
I received from Paris a copy of M. CamiJle Mau-
clair's latest musical essays : '* La Religion de la
Muslque." * Turning over the fascinating pages in
which so many aspects of the art are treated with
such delicate perception and from a standpoint all
too rare — from that of the worshipper of Music
rather than of Musicians — 1 came upon the chapters
entitled '' Deux Impressions sur Cesar Franck..''
Here, I felt was an appreciation which had a special
value ; which would crown and complete the varied
array of judgments which I had already cited in the
earlier pages of my Introduction. For M. Mauclair's
impressions are neither those of a contemporary com-
poser, nor of a scientific musician. Their significance
and peculiar interest lie in the fact of their being
wholly unprofessional— if I may use the term in this
connection. They are the ideas of man less occupied
with the realisation than with the love of music ; who
regards it as the latest religion revealed to modern
scepticism. He, too, believes that Franck's mission was
to save the art in that moment of prostration which
followed upon " the monstrous Wagnerian irrup-
tion," the close of which threatened to destroy all
musical initiative, leaving room only for the alter-
natives of timid imitation, or a hesitating return to
the formulas of the past. It was amid the general
disorganisation which succeeded the death of

* La Religion de la Musique, par Camille Mauclair. Paris,
1909. Librairie Fischbacher.

1 8 INTRODUCTION

Wagner that Cesar Franck appeared ''like the
faithful shepherd who restores confidence and order
to his terror-stricken flock when the storm is spent.
Unknown or misunderstood, he was yet able, by the
charm and faith of his gentle genius, to check on a
dangerous down-grade the young men who, a few
years later, were to form the sole cohesive group of
the French school." He showed the young and
enthusiastic generation that music should be loved
for itself rather than for the sake of the audacious
personality who had moulded it to his will. He
showed them, too, the futility of trying to follow
Wagner along a dramatic path that he alone could
tread. " He recalled Gluck, Rameau, Bach, and
Beethoven and his persuasive teaching saved modern
music.'*

Cesar Franck alone could speak with authority and
make this new, circumflecting course a possibility.
" Any other musician (at that time)," says M. Mau-
clair, "would have advised an anti- Wagnerian reac-
tion. The question, however, was not to avoid
imitating Wagner by doing the opposite to what he
did ; but to retrace once more after the general
upheaval, the natural relations between music and
all those things which the human soul will always
crave to express. . . ."

" The Wagnerian vortex avoided ; the theatre
neglected for a sufficient time to allow the echo of
Bayreuth to die away and certain manifestations of
the French spirit to reappear on the French stage

INTRODUCTION 19

{' L'Etranger,' * Pelleas,' ' Louise ') ; symphony
and sonata restored to an honourable position ; re-
searches undertaken into musical origins ; musical
criticism revived ; the liberal teaching of the Sc/io/a,
a direct emanation from the spirit of Franck — here
we see the results of the peaceable, serious and loving
intervention of that retiring old man who, free from
prudery, lived like a saint."

Passing on from the man to his music, M. Mauclair
enumerates Tsjc/ie, the Symphony^ the ^uintet^ the
Violin and Pianoforte Sonata^ The Beatitudes^ portions
of Redemption and Hulda^ the Organ Chorales^ the
Fr elude ^ Aria and Finale^ the Chorale Tr elude and
Fugue for piano, as masterpieces which will never
fade, and to which, since Bach and Beethoven,
nothing can be compared in the domain of pure
harmony. Schumann, he thinks, may have more
nervous energy, Liszt and Berlioz may be greater
colourists, Brahms more complex, Borodin more
strange and exotic, but none of these masters is so
intimately musical, none so serenely linked to the
classicism of Bach. " No one else has that faculty
of suave and sensuous mysticism, that unique charm,
that serene plenitude of fervour, that purity of
soaring melody, above all, that power of joy which
springs from a religious effusion, that radiant white-
ness resulting from a harmony at once ingenuous
and ecstatic. There is no severity in this evangelical
mysticism. Undoubtedly the Organ Chorales and
pianoforte works are of powerful construction and

20 INTRODUCTION

have the magnificent rectitude which proceeds
directly from Bach. But Bach is formidable ; he
thunders, he has the robust faith of the Middle
Ages, his rhythm is colossal ; even his gaiety is as
alarming as the laughter of a giant. Franck is
enamoured of gentleness and consolation, and his
music rolls into the soul in long waves, as on the
slack of a moonht tide. It is tenderness itself;
divine tenderness borrowing the humble smile of
humanity."

But while doing full justice to the mild and
saintly qualities of Franck nature, M. Mauclair
discerns also the elements of passion and romanti-
cism, of which we become aware in such works as
the Sonata for Violin and Piano and the symphonic
poem Le Chasseur Maudit. But he considers that
Franck's ardours are invariably dominated by a
purity which will always remain the principal feature
of his inspiration. " A purity which is neither dry
nor severe, but smiling, loving and gentle, like a
Correggio seen against a decorative background by
Puvis de Chavannes.'*

One more quotation I cannot resist making from
these " Impressions," because, while the following
lines sum up the work which Franck did for his art,
they contain also a prophecy which has been at least
partially fulfilled. To those who have been stirred
time after time by the wordless, psychological pro-
g^ramme of Elgar's new symphony, this quotation will
come as an echo of their own thoughts about it. For

INTRODUCTION 21

while we may so far disagree with M. Mauclair as
to feel that all the varied directions of music
enumerated below have been desirable, and that
each one has its special value for the progress of
the art, yet we cannot doubt that the way indicated
by Franck is the one we could least afford to lose.
Therefore we may be glad and proud that it fell to
the lot of an Englishman to take the next forward
step along the path of psychological development in
symphonic music.

** Franck," says M. Mauclair, ** forms the natural
link between classicism and the polyphony to come.
The direct line of descent in pure music had been
broken by the descriptive romanticism of Liszt and
Berlioz, and finally by Wagner, whose deviations were
marvellous, but dangerous to the destinies of their
art. The intervention of Franck which was at once
traditional and innovating, set the wandering feet of
a whole generation on the right track, with rare tact
and without any reaction. This is what caused this
mystic, this visionary of the golden age of music, to
be not only the last master of the nineteenth century,
but also the one man who could assure the free evo-
lution of the music of the future ; the evolution of
music itself, which should be neither descriptive,
theatrical, nor picturesque, but only psychological,
moving the soul and revealing the infinite by the
very song of the lyre.'*

CONTENTS

THE MAN

PAGE
29

I. His Life

II. The Physical and Spiritual Man 62

THE ARTIST AND HIS MUSIC

I. The Genesis of his Works 73

II. Predilections and Influences 92

III. Methods of Work 97

IV. First Per-od (i 841-1858) 104
V. Second Period (1858-1872) 125

VI. Third Period (1872-1890) 159

VII. The Quartet in D major 182

VIII. The Three Organ Chorales 198

IX. The Beatitudes 202

THE TEACHER AND HIS HUMAN
WORK

I. "Father" Franck 233

II. The Artistic Family 251

List of Works 257

Bibliography 271

23

ILLUSTRATIONS

C^sar Franck at the organ of Sainte-Clotilde Frontispiece

To face page

The Basilica Church of Sainte-Clotilde 138

C^sar Franck with Eug. Ysaye and other musicians,
on the occasion of his last concert, Tournai,
April 22, 1890 170

The Monument to C6sar Franck, by Alfred Lenoir 234

THE MAN

I

HIS LIFE

On December lo, 1822, the very day upon which
the giant of symphony, Ludwig van Beethoven, put
the finishing touches to the manuscript of a work
which he justly regarded as his most perfect master-
piece— the sublime Mass in D minor — a child was
born into the world destined to become the true
successor of the Master of Bonn, both in the sphere
of sacred music and in that of symphony.

It was at Liege, in the Walloon district, that C^sar
Franck was born and spent the first years of his life,
in a land which is peculiarly French, not only in
sentiment and language, but also in its external
aspect. What other spot recalls more nearly the
central plains of France than these irregular valleys,
with their abrupt lines ; these waste-lands where in
spring the flowering broom stretches far and wide to
an almost boundless, golden horizon ; these low hills
on which the French traveller is astonished to recog-
nise the same pines and beeches that clothe the cold
mountains of the Cevennes ? This is the land, so

39

30 CESAR FRANCK

Gallic in its outward appearance, so German in its
customs and surroundings, which was inevitably
destined to give birth to the creator of a symphonic
art that was exceedingly French in its spirit of
balance and precision, while at the same time it rested
upon the solid basis of Beethoven's art, itself the
outcome of still earlier musical traditions.

The Francks claim descent from a family ot
Walloon painters bearing the same name,* whose
works show not only the qualities we associate with
the so-called primitive painters, but also many
characteristics which foreshadow the art of Rem-
brandt. The musician's eldest son, M. Georges
Cesar Franck, possesses a small picture, painted on
copper, by one of these artists, representing the
mocking of the Saviour, which in composition, if
not in colouring, is Interesting from this point of
view. Possibly it was to a reversion to type that
Cesar Franck owed his talent for drawing, which he
cultivated in his youth, and for which he retained his
taste as he grew older. We shall come upon traces
of it as we continue to study his life and work.

The young man's mind was directed towards

* The earliest of these painters was Jerome Franck, born 1540
at Herrenthal, died 1610 in Paris, whither he had emigrated, like
his musical descendant, and obtained the appointment of painter
to Henri III. His masterpiece is said to have been a Nativity,
which he painted for the church of Les Cordeliers, destroyed
during the Revolution.

;

HIS LIFE 31

music quite early in life. His father, a man of
stern and autocratic character, although engaged in
banking, had many friends in the artistic world, and
decided that both his sons should become professional
musicians.

There was no alternative but to bow to this pre-
mature decision, which, generally speaking, would be
calculated to arouse a child's disgust, or even his
active dislike of the work undertaken invito corde ;
but fortunately in the case of Cesar Franck the seed
of music, sown so early, fell upon a wonderfully
fruitful soil.

He had barely reached his eleventh year when,
accompanied by his father, he made a tour in
Belgium, during which he met a young artist, a year
or two older than himself, who was also touring as a
virtuoso. This child was Pauline Garcia, afterwards
known as the famous singer Madame Pauline
Viardot.

At twelve years of age he had completed his
studies at the music school at Liege, and his father,
ambitious of his success on a larger scale, emigrated
with both his sons to Paris in 1836. The father of
the future composer of T/ie Beatitudes asked per-
mission to enter him at the Conservatoire. It was
not until the following year, 1837, that Cesar was
entered as a pupil, joining Leborne's class for com-
position and studying the pianoforte under Zimmer-

32 CESAR FRANCK

mann. At the close of the same year he won a
proxime accessit for fugue, but the competition for
pianoforte in 1838 gave rise to a singular incident
which is worth relating.

After having played the work selected — Hummel's
A minor concerto — in excellent style, young Franck
took it into his head, when it came to the sight-
reading test, to transpose the piece which was put
before him to the third below, playing it off without
the least slip or hesitation.

Such exploits were not within the rules of the
competition, and this audacity on the part of a pupil
of fifteen and a half so shocked old Cherubini, then
Director of the Conservatoire, that he stoutly declined
to award a first prize to the lad, although he deserved
it. But in spite of his red-tapism and dictatorial
methods, the composer of ** Lodo*lska " was not
really unjust, and proposed to the jury to recommend
the audacious pianist for a special reward, outside all
competition, and known by the high-sounding title
of *' Grand Prix d'Honneur." This is the only time,
to my knowledge, that such a prize has been given
at any instrumental competition in the Paris Con-
servatoire.

In 1839 Franck won his second prize for fugue.
The feeling for combination, so essential to this
queer and useless logogriph called a " class fugue,"
came so naturally to the young Walloon — as to his

HIS LIFE 33

ancestors in the days of vocal counterpoint — that he
only spent a small part of the time allotted by the
examiners on the completion of his work. Seeing
him return home while the other students had still
some hours work before them, his father reproached
him bitterly for not bestowing more care upon this
test, on which his future depended. " I think it is all
right," answered the lad, with a smile. All the trustful
candour of Cesar Franck, as we knew him, is already
revealed in this reply.

The following year, in spite of rather an ungrate-
ful subject set by Cherubini, he was unanimously
awarded the first prize for fugue (July 19, 1840),

In 1 841 he again surprised the examiners. Cesar,
as a pupil of Benoist (whom he succeeded in 1872),
competed for the organ prize.

The tests for this examination were — and still
are — four in number : the accompaniment of a plain-
chant chosen for the occasion, the performance of
an organ piece with pedal, the improvisation of a
fugue, and the improvisation of a piece in sonata
form, both these improvisations being upon themes
set by the examiners. Franck, with his wonderful
instinct for counterpoint, observed that the subject
given for the fugue lent itself to combination with
that of the free composition, and treated them
simultaneously, in such a way that one set off the
other.

c

34 CESAR FRANCK

He tells us that he was '* very successful in combin-
ing the two subjects," but the developments which
grew out of this unusual method of treating the free
composition ran to such unaccustomed lengths that
the examiners (Cherubini was absent through illness),
bewildered by such a technical feat, awarded nothing
to this tiresome person. It was not until Benoist,
the master of this too ingenious pupil, had explained
the situation that they went back upon their first
decision and decided to give the young man a second
prize for organ ! From this moment Frank became
suspect in the eyes of these officials.

There remained but one great prize to stir
his ambitions — the Prix de Rome. He began
to prepare for the competition of the Institute.
It is possible that the authorities did not believe
he was a Frenchman,* but in any case a peremptory
order from his father compelled him to leave the
Conservatoire for good in the middle of the academic
year.

On April 22, 1842, Franck's name was removed
from the lists of our national school of music ; he
was admonished to follow the career of a virtuoso.

To this period belong most of his compositions for
pianoforte alone : transcriptions, pieces for four
hands, caprices, showy fantasias — in a word, all that

• M. Georges C. Franck reserves to himself the task of proving
this on some future occasion.

HIS LIFE 35

then constituted the necessary stock-in-trade of the

pianist composer.

Happily our generation no longer knows these
meteoric musicians ; " comets of a season," startling
all the capitals of Europe in their dazzling course,
firing the fancies and feelings of the fair sex and
melting bullion into current coin as they ran their
romantic career.

Such were Liszt and Thalberg, to mention only
the most famous.

Franck's father had dreamt of a similar existence
for his eldest son, and although it was by no means
suited to his taste and temperament he forced him
to make the most of his talents as a pianist and to
compose from time to time a certain number of pieces
to play in public.

In spite, however, of this enforced labour, Franck,
being a true and worthy artist, could not help seeking
for new forms, even in his most insignificant pro-
ductions. He did not, of course, attain to the lofty
aesthetic forms which characterised his later works,
but he employed novel methods of fingering, devices
hitherto unused, and harmonic effects which lent a
new sonority to the pianoforte. Therefore some of
his early works for piano, such as the Eclogue, Op. 3
(1848), and the Ballade, Op. 9, contain innovations
which may still attract the musician, especially the
pianist.

36 CESAR FRANCK

The first three Trios (called Op. i) also date from
this time, Franck composed them while he was still
at the Conservatoire, and his father dictated the
dedication : To His Majesty Leopold /., King of the
Belgians.

If I remember rightly a conversation which I once
had with my master on the subject of these Trios, a
royal audience, at which the young musician was
to present his works personally to the king, was
made the pretext for withdrawing him suddenly
from the Conservatoire. His father based the wildest
hopes upon this dedication — hopes which, alas ! were
not justified in the end.

I shall return to these Trios in the second part of
this volume, especially to the first, in Fjf minor,
which marks a new stage in the history of music.

No details are forthcoming respecting the two
years spent by Franck in Belgium after his hasty
departure from the Conservatoire. Most probably
his father did not find the move as advantageous as
he expected, for in 1844 we find the whole family
back in Paris, installed in an apartment in the Rue
La Bruyere, and with few other resources than those
earned by the two sons, Joseph and Cesar, by private
lessons and concert engagements.

From this time began that life of regular and
unceasing industry lasting nearly half a century,
without break or pause, during which the musician's

HIS LIFE 37

sole diversion was a concert — at rare intervals — at
which one of his own works was given.

On January 4, 1846, in the concert-room of the
Conservatoire (which a more liberal management
than that which now reigns used to put at the
disposal of living artists), the first performance of his
Biblical eclogue Ruth took place. He had begun
to compose the work immediately after his return to
Paris. \^ Ruth won the sympathy and attention of a
few musicians — sincere or not, as the case may be * —
it is certain that the majority of the critics saw
nothing in it but a "poor imitation'' of "Le
Desert," by Felicien David, who had made a sensa-
tional success two years earlier, and was still enjoying
his ephemeral renown. A year or two later all the
critics made use of Wagner's works when they
wished to crush a new composition by unkind com-
parisons ; and this continued until quite recently,
when the same critics adopted the singular course
of exalting a priori every new work, regardless of its
worth, and generally to the detriment of the old
masterpieces. Such are the strange vicissitudes of
criticism.

One of these critics in 1846, more lenient than
the rest, wrote as follows : " M. Cesar Franck is
exceedingly naive, and this simplicity, we must

* M. Georges C. Franck possesses some curious letters from
celebrated composers dealing with this subject.

38 CESAR FRANCK

confess, has served him well in the composition of
his Biblical oratorio Ruth,'' Twenty-five years
later, September 24, 1871, a second performance of
Ruth was given at the Cirque des Champs Elysees,
and the same critic, moved to enthusiasm, and
oblivious, perhaps, of the fact that he had already
heard the oratorio, wrote : '' It is a revelation !
This score, which recalls by its charm and melodic
simplicity MehuFs * Joseph,' but with more tender-
ness and modern feeling, can most certainly be
described as a masterpiece."

Hard times were in store for the Franck family.
The rich amateurs who formed the young men's
chief clientele almost all left Paris, alarmed by the
political outlook, and with them vanished the pecu-
niary resources of the Francks.

Cesar chose this moment to marry.

For some time past he had been in love with
a young actress, the daughter of a well-known
tragedian, Madame Desmousseaux, and he did
not hesitate to marry her in spite of bad times
and the recriminations of his parents, scandalised by
his bringing a theatrical person into the family.

The marriage took place at the church of Notre-
Dame de Lorette, where Cesar Franck was then
organist, on February 22, 1848, in the very midst
of the Revolution. To reach the church the
wedding -party had to climb a barricade, and the

HIS LIFE 39

bride and bridegroom were willingly helped in this
delicate operation by the insurgents who were massed
behind this improvised fortification.

Very shortly after his marriage, Franck, having
lost all his pupils, and being misunderstood by his
father, whom he could no longer supply with funds,
found it necessary to leave his parents and make an
independent home of his own. He was now com-
pelled to work twice as hard as before, in order to
replace by quantity the quality of the lessons he had
lost, and to undertake many inferior tasks. But, his
time being henceforward at his own disposal, he
resolved at all costs to reserve an hour or two daily
for composition, or the study of such musical and
literary works as would be elevating to his mind —
" time for thought," as he himself used to say.

To the last days of his life nothing was allowed to
interfere with his resolution. We owe to it all his
great works.

In 1 85 1 Franck made his first attempt at a
dramatic work : an opera, as it was called in those
days. He did not return to this form of composition
until near the end of his career.

For his first effort he chose a Dutch subject, the
action of which takes place towards the close of the
seventeenth century. Alphonse Royer and Gustave
Vaes, fashionable librettists of the day, supplied him
with a book which was neither better nor worse

40 CESAR FRANCK

than those in use at that period. Full of enthusiasm,
the musician set to work, and gave himself no rest
until he had finished the first three acts of his Valet
de Ferme (" The Farmer's Man ''), as the opera was
entitled. As he found it impossible to give up his
teaching and daily occupations, even for an hour, he
devoted the greater part of his nights to composi-
tion, and worked so hard that the opera, begun
in December 1851, was finished and orchestrated
early in 1853. Poor Franck paid dearly for this
overwork ; for he fell into such a state of ner-
vous prostration that, for a time, he not only
lost all power of composing, but could not
even think, every mental effort leaving him utterly
exhausted.

And, after all, it was time wasted from a practical
point of view, for when a few years later Alphonse
Royer became Director of the Opera — which must
have seemed to Franck a most unlooked-for piece of
luck — he absolutely declined to mount Le Valet de
Ferme, on the specious pretext that, being himself the
author of the libretto, the regulations of the Opera
forbade him to do so. It may be said with truth
that he had already been well paid out of the scanty
emoluments of the poor composer who had almost
ruined his health over the work.

Towards the close of his career the master did not
greatly value this hastily written score. " It is not

HIS LIFE 41

worth printing," he used to say to those who spoke
of it to him.*

In the meanwhile the Abbe Dorel, a worthy
priest who, as curate of Notre-Dame de Lorette, had
upheld the young organist in his first trials, and had
taken an active part in his marriage, was appointed
to the parish of Saint-Jean-Saint Francois au Marais,
a church which had just been presented with a fine
organ by Cavaille-Coll, the gifted inventor, who died
young. The worthy Abbe lost no time in appoint-
ing his young friend at Notre-Dame de Lorette to
the post of organist, and Franck, dehghted to find
himself in possession of such a splendid instrument,
declared that his organ " was an orchestra ! "

It was not, however, until some years later that
he found that quiet and fixed haven which — I
have no hesitation in affirming — was the starting-
point of a new phase of his art, and from which dates
what may be described as his second musical period.
The existing basilica of Sainte-Clotilde had just been
completed, replacing the modest church of Sainte-
Valere, and Cavaille-Coll, then at the zenith of his
genius as a poet-craftsman, had just constructed his
masterpiece for it, that wonderful instrument that
even now — after fifty years use — has kept all its
freshness of timbre and fulness of tone.f

• Information received from M. Georges C. Franck.

t " If you only knew how I love this instrument," " Father "

42 CESAR FRANCK

It was a very different affair from the modest
orchestra of Saint-Jean-Saint-Fran^ois, and so Cesar
Franck, actuated far more by artistic feeling than by
the thought of gain, tried for the post of organist
to Sainte-Clotilde — where he had been choir-master
since 1858 — and obtained it, in spite of intrigues and
many rival competitors.

Here, in the dusk of this organ-loft, of which I
can never think without emotion, he spent the best
part of his Hfe. Here he came every Sunday and
feast-day — and towards the end of his life every
Friday morning too — fanning the fire of his genius
by pouring out his spirit in wonderful improvisations
which were often far more lofty in thought than
many skilfully elaborated compositions ; and here,
too, he assuredly foresaw and conceived the sublime
melodies which afterwards formed the groundwork of
The Beatitudes.

Ah ! we know it well, we who were his pupils, the
way up to that thrice-blessed organ-loft — a way as
steep and difficult as that which the Gospel tells us
leads to Paradise. First, having climbed the dark,
spiral staircase, lit by an occasional loophole, we
came suddenly face to face with a kind of ante-
diluvian monster, a complicated bony structure,

Franck used to say to the Cur6 of Sainte-Clotilde ; " it is so supple
beneath my fingers and so obedient to all my thoughts ! " Quoted
from an address delivered by Canon Gardey, October 22, 1904.

HIS LIFE 43

breathing heavily and irregularly, which on closer
examination proved to be the vital portion of the
organ, worked by a vigorous pair of bellows. Next
we had to descend a few narrow steps in pitch-dark-
ness, a fatal ordeal to high hats, and the cause of
many a slip to the uninitiated. Opening the narrow
janua Cceli, we found ourselves suspended as it were
midway between the pavement and the vaulted roof
of the church, and the next moment all was forgotten
in the contemplation of that rapt profile, and the in-
tellectual brow, from which seemed to flow without
any effort a stream of inspired melody and subtle, ex-
quisite harmonies, which lingered a moment among
the pillars of the nave before they ascended and died
away in the vaulted heights of the roof.

For Cesar Franck had, or rather was, the genius
of improvisation, and no other modern organist, not
excepting the most renowned executants, would bear
the most distant comparison with him in this respect.*
When, on very rare occasions, one of us was called
upon to take the master's place, it was with a kind
of superstitious terror that we ventured to let our
profane fingers caress this supernatural thing, which
was accustomed to vibrate, to sing, and to lament

• I recollect a certain offertory based upon the initial theme
of Beethoven's seventh Quartet which nearly equalled in beauty
the work of the Bonn master himself. Those who heard thio
improvisation will certainly not contradict my opinion.

44 CESAR FRANCK

at the will of the superior genius of whom it had

become almost an integral part.

Sometimes the master would invite other people,
friends, amateurs, or foreign musicians, to visit him
in the organ-loft. Thus it happened that on
April 3, 1866, Franz Liszt, who had been his sole
listener, left the church of Sainte-Clotilde lost in
amazement, and evoking the name of J. S. Bach in
an inevitable comparison.

But whether he played for some chosen guest, for
his pupils, or for the devout worshippers during
service, Franck's improvisations were equally thought-
ful and careful, for he did not play in order to be
heard, but to do his best for God and his conscience*
sake. And his best was a sane, noble, and sublime
art.

To describe these improvisations, the true value
of which we only realised when there was no chance
of hearing them again, would be an impossible task ;
I must leave to those who, like myself, were habitual
guests at these musical feasts the delight of a memory
which will vanish all too soon, even as these inspired
and ephemeral creations have already passed away.

Thus for ten years Franck lived the quiet and
retiring life of an organist and teacher, and the
feverish creative activity of his youth was succeeded
by a period of calm, during which he composed
nothing but organ pieces and church music. But

HIS LIFE 45

this calm was only the precursor of a new and
decisive development, which was to enrich musical
art with many a sublime masterpiece.

All through his life Franck had desired to write
a musical work on that beautiful chapter of the
Gospels, The Sermon on the Mount. He had already
made several attempts (which I shall consider in the
critical part of this work) on this subject which was
so well suited to his devout mind and strong, ardent
temperament. In 1869 he was at last able to set to
work upon a poem, which may fall short as regards
poetry and versification, but at least shows respect
for the scriptural text ; while paraphrasing it in
such a way as to allow of many fine musical
developments.

No sooner was he in possession of this literary
basis, than he threw himself into the task with such
energy that he composed the first two parts without
a break.

This work was interrupted by an event to which
no Frenchman could remain indifferent — the Franco-
Prussian War of 1870. Although born in Belgium,
Franck was French in heart, and by adoption.

Too old to take active service himself, Franck saw
his young disciples dispersed by the ill-winds of our
reverses. Abandoning counterpoint, organ and piano,
for bayonet and rifle, they joined those valiant
improvised armies which, for six months, France

46 CESAR FRANCK

succeeded in mustering in opposition to the victorious
invaders. Several of these young men never saw their
dear master again — others, like Alexis de Castillon,
succumbed when the war was at an end, worn out by
the hardships of the winter campaign.

Three of them, like Franck himself, were shut up in
Paris : Henri Duparc, Arthur Coquard, and myself.
At that time I had not yet ventured to show the
master any of my formless attempts at composition.

One evening, during an interval between mounting
guard at the outposts, we went to see him in his
quiet rooms in the Boulevard Saint-Michel, and found
him quivering with emotion over an article in the
Figaro which celebrated in poetic prose the virile
pride of our dear Paris, wounded, but resisting to the
end. ** I must set it to music," he exclaimed as soon
as he caught sight of us. A few days later he sang
us, with febrile enthusiasm, the result of his work,
which overflowed with patriotic inspiration and the
ardour of youth :

I am Paris, queen of all the cities, &:c.

This ode has never been published, and it was the
first time that a musician had ventured to set music
to a prose poem.

In 1872 a very curious event happened in the
master's career : he was appointed, nobody knows
how — and he himself, a stranger to all intrigue, under-

HIS LIFE 47

stood it less than the rest — Professor of Organ at the
Conservatoire.

Benoist, who had reached the age limit (he entered
on his duties in 1822, the year which saw the founda-
tion of the Conservatoire), retired into well-earned
repose ; how did it happen that a Minister — clear-
sighted by some lucky chance — hit upon the organist
of Sainte-Clotilde, who was so singularly unofficial in
mind and manner ? The mystery has never been
elucidated.

Be it as it may, Cesar Franck took over the organ
class on February i, 1872, and became from that
moment an object of animosity, conscious or uninten-
tional, to his colleagues, who always refused to regard
as one of themselves an artist who placed Art above all
other considerations, and a musician who loved Music
with a sincere and disinterested devotion.

The same year, interrupting his work on The
Beatitudes J he wrote, almost without intermission, the
first musical setting o^ Redemption, an oratorio in two
parts, to a rather poor libretto by Edouard Blau, and
Colonne, then at the beginning of his career as a
conductor, directed the first performance at a Concert
Spirituel, on Thursday in Passion Week, 1873.

The performance was far from satisfactory. Colonne
had not then the experience he has since acquired,
and another composer, whose oratorio of imposing
dimensions was to be given on Good Friday, took up

48 CESAR FRANCK

nearly all the rehearsals which should have been
divided between the two concerts. Good " Father "
Franck, guileless and trusting, had to be satisfied —
and actually was satisfied, being the most unexacting
of men — with a most perfunctory performance, which
did not do the work justice in any way. So scanty
were the hours of rehearsal that he had to cut out
the symphonic interlude between the two sections of
his work, a number which he subsequently rewrote.

With the exception of Les Eolides^ a symphonic
poem on a subject by Leconte de Lisle, which made
a passing appearance in 1876 on the programme of
one of the concerts at the Porte Saint-Martin, con-
ducted by Lamoureux, and was not in the least
understood by the public, Franck devoted the six
years which followed the completion of Redemption
to his oratorio The Beatitudes, which was only
completed in 1879, and consequently occupied ten
years of his life.

Conscious that he had produced a fine work, the
musician, whose simple nature made him the per-
petual prey of illusions in all questions of practical
life, imagined that the Government of the country to
which his genius did honour could not fail to take
an interest in the performance of such a lofty mani-
festation of art, and that if the Minister once became
acquainted with his work he would undoubtedly
appreciate its beauty and forward its success. He

HIS LIFE 49

therefore organised a private performance of The
Beatitudes at his own house, after carefully inquiring
what date would be likely to suit the Minister of
Fine Arts, and personally invited the critics of the
leading papers and the Directors of the Conservatoire
and the Opera. The solos were confided to pupils
of the Conservatoire, and the choruses — which are
such an important part of the work — to some twenty
singers, disciples of Franck, or pupils in his organ
class.

Delighted at the prospect of this performance in
miniature, Franck intended to preside at the piano in
person, but — first disappointment of many to come —
he sprained his wrist the day before, in closing a
carriage door. He came at once to ask me to take
his place, and, proud as I was of the honour, I was
somewhat oppressed by the responsibility, for I had
but one day in which to master the score so that I might
play it fairly well to the select company on whose
support the musician was putting implicit reliance.

All was ready, and the performers awaiting only
the arrival of the guests in order to begin. At half-
past eight a message arrived from the Minister to the
effect that, *' to his great regret, he found it impossible
to be present," &c. The Directors of the Con-
servatoire and the Opera had already made excuses ;
while as to the leading critics, they were detained
that evening by something far more important than

D

so CESAR FRANCK

the hearing of a work of genius : it was the first
night of a new operetta at one of the women's
theatres.

One or two of these gentlemen of the Press did put
in an appearance, but fled in a few minutes from this
region, so remote from the chief Boulevards. Only
two of the guests stayed to the end ; Edouard Lalo
and Victorin Joncieres paid Franck this mark of
respect.

Franck was somewhat depressed and disenchanted
by the result of this performance from which he had
hoped so much. Not that he had lost faith in the
beauty of his work, but because not one of us, his
best friends, scrupled to tell him that a performance
of The Beatitudes m its entirety, at any concert,
seemed to us impossible ; for which we are now ready
to cry mea culpa. In consequence of this, he made
up his mind — not without some bitterness of heart
— to cut up the work into sections ; and it was in
this form that he offered it to the Committee of the
Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire, who kept
him waiting a long time before they included one of
the eight parts in their programmes.

Fourteen years later, Colonne, who wanted to
atone for the failure of Redemption, gave the whole of
The Beatitudes with all the care necessary to ensure an
artistic performance. The effect was overwhelming,
and henceforth the name of Franck was surrounded

HIS LIFE 51

by a halo of glory, destined to grow brighter as time
went on. But the master had been dead for three
years.

After the ill-fated private performance of The
Beatitudes, the Minister of Fine Arts, overcome,
perhaps, by remorse, attempted to get Franck
appointed to one of the classes for composition at the
Conservatoire, vacant on the retirement of Victor
Masse ; but Ernest Guiraud, composer of " Madame
Turlupin," was preferred to the creator of The
Beatitudes.

In consequence of this, a signal mark of favour
was bestowed upon the composer by the Government,
by way of compensation ; in company with ^' the
butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker,'' and all
manner of '^ purveyors," he was raised to the high
dignity of officer of the Academy ! Most artists were
profoundly astonished to see the purple ribbon
accorded to one who seemed worthy of the red ; the
only person to whom this refusal of justice seemed
quite natural was the master himself.

We, his pupils, were indignant, and did not
hesitate to show it. One of us went so far as to
express this feeling in Franck's presence ; but the
composer only replied in low, confidential tones :
'' Be calm, be calm — they have given me every hope for
next yearP It was not, however, until ^w^ or six
years later that Franck received the ribbon of a

52 CESAR FRANCK

Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, several music-
asters, loafers in the Ministerial ante-rooms, having,
of course, received precedence of him. But it
would be wrong to suppose that this honour was
bestowed upon the musician, the creator of the fine
works which do honour to French art. Not in
the least ! It was to the official who had completed
over ten years service that the cross was presented,
and the decree of August 4, 1885, only says:
'* Franck (Cesar Auguste), professor of organ."
Decidedly, the French Government was not happy
in its dealings with him !

It was in consequence of this nomination, and to
show that he was something better than 2i professor of
organ, that his friends and pupils raised a subscription
to cover the expenses of a concert devoted entirely
to his compositions.

The " Franck Festival" took place on January 30,
1887, at the Cirque d'Hiver, under the baton of
J. Pasdeloup and the composer himself. The pro-
gramme was as follows :

FIRST PART

CONDUCTED BY M. JULES PASDELOUP

1. Le Chasseur Maudity symphonic poem.

2. VaTiations Symphoniques, for piano and orchestra.

M. Louis Dimmer.

3. Second Part of Ruth, a Biblical eclogue.

Mile. Gavioli, M. Auguez and Chorus.

HIS LIFE S3

SECOND PART

CONDUCTED BY THE COMPOSER

4. Mart^ and Jir de Ballet^ with chorus, from the

unpublished opera Hulda.

5. Third ana Eighth Beatitudes.

Mmes. Leslino, Gavioli, Balleroy.
MM. AuGUEz, DuGAs, G. Beyle.

The performance by an orchestra lacking in
cohesion and insufficiently rehearsed was a de-
plorable affair. Pasdeloup, courageous innovator
and first champion of symphonic music in France,
was then growing old and losing authority as a
conductor ; he went entirely wrong in the tempo of
the finale of the Variations Symphoniques^ which ended
in a breakdown. As to Franck, he was listening too
intently to the vibration of his own thoughts to pay
any attention to the thousand details for which a
conductor must always be on the alert. The inter-
pretation of The Beatitudes suffered in consequence,
but such was his good-nature that he was the only
person who did not regret the wretched performance,
and when we poured out to him our bitter com-
plaint that his works should have been so badly
given, he answered, smiling and shaking back his
thick mane of hair : *' No, no, you are really too
exacting, dear boys ; for my own part, I was quite
satisfied ! "

The last years of Franck's life brought to light

54 CESAR FRANCK

four masterpieces which will always stand out clear
and luminous in the history of French music : the
Violin Sonata, composed for Eugene and Theophile
Ysaye, the Symphony in D minor, the String Quartet,
and, lastly, the three Chorales for organ, which were
his swan-song.

The Symphony was given for the first time on
February 17, 1889, by the Societe des Concerts du
Conservatoire. The performance was quite against
the wish of most members of that famous orchestra,
and was only pushed through thanks to the bene-
volent obstinacy of the conductor, Jules Garcin.

The subscribers could make neither head nor tail
of it, and the musical authorities were in much the
same position. I inquired of one of them — a pro-
fessor at the Conservatoire, and a kind of factotum
on the Committee — what he thought of the work.
" Thaty a symphony ? " he replied in contemptuous
tones. ** But, my dear sir, who ever heard of
writing for the cor anglais in a symphony } Just
mention a single symphony by Haydn or Beethoven
introducing the cor anglais ? There, well, you
see — your Franck's music may be whatever you
please, but it will certainly never be a symphony ! "
This was the attitude of the Conservatoire in the
year of grace 1889.

At another door of the concert-hall, the composer
of " Faust," escorted by a train of adulators, male

HIS LIFE 55

and female, tulminated a kind of papal decree to the
effect that this symphony was the affirmation of
incompetence pushed to dogmatic lengths. Gounod
must be expiating these words in some musical
purgatory ; for, coming from an artist such as he
was, they can neither have been sincere nor dis-
interested.

For sincerity and disinterestedness we must turn
to the composer himself, when, on his return from
the concert, his whole family surrounded him, asking
eagerly for news. ** Well, were you satisfied with
the effect on the public } Was there plenty of
applause?" To which '* Father" Franck, thinking
only of his work, replied with a beaming counten-
ance : "Oh, it sounded well, just as I thought it
would ! " *

The Violin Sonata^ which Eugene Ysaye took all
over the world, was a source of mild delight to
Cesar Franck ; but his greatest surprise was the
unprecedented success of his String Quartet^ at one
of the concerts of the Societe Nationale de Musique,
which has done so much for the improvement or
French taste, and of which Franck, who helped to
found it in 1871, had been elected president a few
years later .t

• Told by M. Georges C. Franck.

t The players who took part in this first performance were
MM. L. Heymann, Gibier, Balbreck, and C. Li^geois.

S6 CESAR FRANCK

At the performance of April 19, 1S90, the
members of the Societe Nationale, who were only
just becoming initiated into any novelties in form,
showed unanimous and sincere enthusiasm for the
work. The Salle Pleyel resounded with such
applause as was rarely heard within its walls ; the
audience all rose to clap, and call for the composer,
who, not being able to realise that a quartet could
meet with such success, persisted in believing that
these acclamations were intended for the performers
When, however, he reappeared on the platform,
smiling, shy, and bewildered — he was so unaccus-
tomed to the situation — he could no longer doubt
the evidence of such an ovation, and the next day,
filled with pride at this frsi success (in his sixty-ninth
year !), he said to us quite naively : *' There, you
see, the public is beginning to understand me.'*

A few days later, April 27, a second triumph
awaited him at Tournai, when he took part in a
concert of his own works given by the Ysaye
Quartet.

But these pleasant impressions were not of long
duration. One evening, in the month of May of
this same year (1890), on his way to his pupil, Paul
Brand, he was struck in the side by the pole of an
omnibus. He continued his way, but fainted on his
arrival at Brand's house. When he recovered con-
sciousness, he played the second piano in the Faria-

HIS LIFE 57

tions Symphoniques, which he was obliged to go
through twice, and afterwards returned home to the
Boulevard Saint-Michel completely tired out.

Careless of physical suffering, he continued to
lead his usual hard-working life, renouncing only
his personal pleasures. When his colleagues on the
Committee of the Societ6 Nationale invited him to
preside at their dinner, after which he was to enjoy
the surprise of a second private performance of his
Quartet^ he was obliged, on account of ill-health, to
refuse himself the pleasure of taking part in these
friendly festivities. He wrote to the Committee as
follows :

**May 17, 1890.

" Dear Friends,

*' I very much regret that I cannot join you
to-night at the banquet which closes our year, from
which I have never before been absent.

" My regret is all the keener because I am aware
of the pleasure in store for me — the second per-
formance of my Quartet, which was so admirably
played on April 19.

" A thousand thanks for all the kindnesses and
charming attentions you invariably show me, and be-
lieve in my unchanging devotion to our dear Society,

" CisAR Franck."

Towards the autumn, however, he was forced to

58 CESAR FRANCK

take to his bed on account of a very serious attack
of pleurisy, and complications, due to his accident
which had not been properly treated, having set in,
he died on November 8, 1890.

Shortly before his death he wished to drag himself
once more to his organ at Sainte-Clotilde in order
to write down the proper combination of stops for
the three beautiful Chorales that — like J. S. Bach
a hundred and thirty years earlier — he left as a
glorious musical testament.

The Chorales^ the last prayer of this sincere
believer, were lying on his death-bed when the priest
of the basilica which had so often echoed to his
serene improvisations came, at his express desire, to
bring him the last consolations of the Church.

His funeral was as modest as his life had been.
By special authorisation the service was celebrated
in Sainte-Clotilde instead of the parish church of
Sainte-Jacques, and Monseigneur Gardey preached a
touching funeral sermon ; after which, without pomp
or display, the procession took its way to the
cemetery of Montrouge, where the earthly remains
of the Master were interred in a retired corner. A
few years later they were exhumed and taken to the
cemetery of Montparnasse.

No official deputation from the Ministry or the
Department of Fine Arts accompanied the body of
Cesar Franck to its last resting-place. Even the

HIS LIFE 59

Conservatoire, which reckoned him among its pro-
fessors, neglected to send a representative to the
funeral of this organist whose lofty views of Art
had always seemed dangerous to the peace of this
official institution. The Director, Ambrose Thomas,
who had all his life been given to pouring forth plati-
tudes on less worthy tombs, quickly took to his bed
when he heard that a member of Franck*s family
had come to invite him to the funeral. Other im-
portant professors followed suit, and were con-
veniently taken ill in order to avoid compromising
themselves.*

Only the Master's numerous pupils, his friends,
and the musicians whom his untiring kindness had
won over to him, formed a respectful and devoted
circle around his grave. At his death Cesar Franck
left a legacy to his country in the form of a vigorous
symphonic school, such as France had never before
produced.

Very just were the words with which Emmanuel
Chabrier, who only survived Franck a f^w years,
ended his touching funeral oration, delivered at the
grave in the name of the Societe Nationale de
Musique :

" Farewell, Master, and take our thanks, for you
have done well. In you, we salute one of the

* The pall-bearers were Dr. Ferr6ot, the Master's cousin, Saint-
Saens, Delibes and H. Dallier, who represented his organ pupils.

6o CESAR FRANCK

greatest artists of the century, and also the incom-
parable teacher whose wonderful work has produced
a whole generation of forceful musicians, believers,
and thinkers, armed at all points for hard-fought
and prolonged conflicts. We salute, also, the
upright and just man, so humane, so distinguished,
whose counsels were sure, as his words were kind.
Farewell ! . . ."

Fourteen years — almost to the day — after this
intimate and afi^ectionate leave-taking, the same
disciples, friends, and musicians, their number some-
what depleted, alas ! by death, assembled once more
in the square opposite the basilica of Sainte-Clotilde
at the inauguration of the monument raised to the
memory of their beloved Master. But this time
they were joined by an enthusiastic crowd. With
the exception of one member of the Institute, whose
inexplicable jealousy pursued Franck even beyond
the grave, the leading ofl[icials had shown a desire to
be prominent in the places of honour ; the Director
of the Beaux- Arts, and the head of the Conservatoire
himself, delivered addresses which were much com-
mented upon.

What had taken place during these fourteen years ?
Quietly, and almost unobserved, the name of Cesar
Franck — once held in reverence by a few who
believed in him — had now become famous.

This Administration, this Conservatoire that had

HIS LIFE 6i

ignored, even if they had not misunderstood, this
obscure organ -teacher during his hfe, now hastened
to assert their claim to him. Numbers of composers
who would have considered themselves compromised
had they asked his advice in earlier days now dis-
covered, as if by magic, that they had once been his
pupils.

The Institute, however, could not be represented
officially at the inaugural ceremony, because, al-
though it had welcomed to its venerable bosom
such flagrant nonentities as the composer of *' Les
Noces de Jeannette " or " Le Voyage en Chine " —
to mention only the dead — it had never opened its
doors to one of the greatest musicians who ever did
honour to our native land.

But what do these transient titles and distinctions
matter to those who, like Veuillot in literature, Puvis
de Chavannes in painting, and Cesar Franck in music,
have earned by the beauty and sincerity of their work
the right to be known as creative artists I

II

THE PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL

MAN

Physically Franck was short, with a fine fore-
head and a vivacious and honest expression,
although his eyes were almost concealed under his
bushy eyebrows ; his nose was rather large, and his
chin receded below a wide and extraordinarily ex-
pressive mouth. His face was round, and thick grey
side-whiskers added to its width. Such was the out-
ward appearance of the man we honoured and loved
for twenty years ; and — except for the increasing
whiteness of his hair — he never altered till the day of
his death. There was nothing in his appearance to
reveal the conventional artistic type according to
romance, or the legends of Montmartre. Any one who
happened to meet this man in the street, invariably
in a hurry, invariably absent-minded and making
grimaces, running rather than walking, dressed in an
overcoat a size too large and trousers a size too short
for him, would never have suspected the transformation

that took place when, seated at the piano, he explained

62

THE PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL MAN 63

or commented upon some fine composition, or, with
one hand to his forehead and the other poised above
his stops, prepared the organ for one of his great
improvisations. Then he seemed to be surrounded
by music as by a halo, and it was only at such
moments that we were struck by the conscious will-
power of mouth and chin, and the almost complete
identity of the fint forehead with that of the creator
of the Ninth Symphony. Then, indeed, we felt
subjugated — almost awed — by the palpable presence
of the genius that shone in the countenance of the
highest-minded and noblest musician that the nine-
teenth century has produced in France.*

The moral quality which struck us most in Franck
was his great capacity for work. Winter and summer
he was up at half-past five. The first two morning
hours were generally devoted to composition —
"working for himself,** as he called it. About
half-past seven, after a frugal breakfast, he started to
give lessons all over the capital, for to the end of his
days this great man was obliged to devote most of
his time to teaching the piano to amateurs, and even
to take the music classes in various colleges and
boarding-schools. All day long he went about on
foot or by omnibus, from Auteuil to I'lle Saint-

* M. Georges C. Franck possesses a portrait of his father by
Mme. Jeanne Rongier which is undoubtedly the best and most
faithful picture of the Master.

64 CESAR FRANCK

Louis, from Vaugirard to the Faubourg Poissonniere,
and returned to his quiet abode on the Boulevard
Saint- Michel in time for an evening meal. Although
tired out with the day*s work, he still managed to
find a few minutes to orchestrate or copy his scores,
except when he devoted his evening to the pupils who
studied organ and composition with him, on which
occasions he would generously pour upon them his
most precious and disinterested advice.

In these two early hours of the morning — which
were often curtailed — and in the few weeks he
snatched during the vacation at the Conservatoire,
Franck's finest works were conceived, planned, and
written.

As I have already remarked, the musical work
which was his everyday occupation did not prevent
him from taking an interest in all manifestations of
art, and more especially of literature. During the
holidays spent in the little house that he rented for
the summer at Quincy, he set aside a certain time for
reading books, both old and new, and sometimes
very serious works. Once when he was reading in
the garden with that close attention he gave to all his
pursuits, one of his sons, seeing him smiling frequently,
inquired what he was reading that amused him so
much. " Kant*s * Critique of Pure Reason,' " answered
his father ; " it really is very amusing.'* Do not
these words from the lips of this musician, who was

THE PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL MAN 65

both a believer and a Frenchman, constitute one
of the shrewdest judgments ever passed upon the
heavy and indigestible " Critic " of the German philo-
sopher ?

If Franck was an arduous and determined worker
(during two months' holiday in 1889 he wrote
the four movements of his String Quartet and
mapped out the last two acts of his second opera,
Ghisele), his motive was neither glory, money, nor
immediate success. He aimed only at expressing
his thoughts and feelings by means of his art, for,
above all, he was a truly modest man. He never
suffered from the feverish ambition that consumes
the life of so many artists in the race for worldly
honour and distinction. It never occurred to him,
for instance, to solicit a seat in the Institute ; not
because — like a Degas or a Puvis — he disdained the
honour, but because he innocently believed that he
had not yet earned it.

This modesty, however, did not exclude that self-
confidence which is so necessary to all creative
artists, provided it is founded on a sound judgment
and is free from vanity. In the autumn, when the
classes were resumed and the master, his face lit up
with a broad smile, used to say to us, " I have been
working well these holidays ; I hope you will all be
pleased,'* we knew for certain that some masterpiece
would soon blossom forth. On these occasions the

66 CESAR FRANCK

great joy of his busy life was to keep an hour or two
in the evening in which to assemble his favourite
pupils round the piano while he played to them the
work he had just finished, singing the vocal parts in
a voice which was as warm as it was grotesque in
quality. He did not even scorn to ask his pupils'
advice on the new work, or, better still, to act upon
it, if the observations they ventured to make seemed
to him really well founded.

Untiring assiduity in work, modesty, a fine
artistic conscientiousness — these were the salient
features in Franck's character. But he had yet
another quality — a rare one — namely, goodness : a
goodness that was serene and indulgent.

The word most often used by the master was the
verb *' to love." " I love it," he would say of a
work, or even of a detail which appealed to his
sympathies ; and in truth his own works are all
inspired by love, and by the power of love and his
high-minded charity he reigned over his disciples,
over his friends, and over all the musicians of his day
who had any nobility of mind ; and it is out of love
to him that others have tried to continue his own
good work.

We must not, however, infer from this that the
master's temperament was cold and placid — far from
it; his was a fervent nature, as all his works un-
doubtedly bear witness.

THE PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL MAN 6^]

Who among us can fail to recall his holy indigna-
tion against bad music, his explosions of wrath when
our awkward fingers went astray on the organ in
some ugly harmonic combination, and his impatient
gesture when the bell at the altar cut short the
exposition of some promising offertory ? But such
displays of irritability on the part of " a Southerner
from the North " were chiefly directed to artistic
principles, very rarely to human beings. Never
during the long years I spent in his society did I hear
it said that he had consciously given a moment's pain
to any one. How, indeed, could such a thing have
happened to him whose heart was incapable of
harbouring an evil thought ? He would never be-
lieve in the mean jealousy that his talent excited
among his colleagues, not excluding those of some
reputation, and to the day of his death he was always
kindly in his judgments upon the works of others.

In an essay published in 1890 M. Arthur Coquard
relates a very typical anecdote bearing on this
subject.

** With what perfect sincerity," writes M. Co-
quard, " he enjoyed all that is beautiful in contem-
porary art ! With what simplicity he did justice to
his more fortunate felJow workers ! Living com-
posers had no juster or kinder judge than Franck
— whether they bore the name of Gounod, Saint-
Saens or Leo Delibes. Some of his last words to

68 CESAR FRANCK

me concerned M. Saint-Saens, and I am glad to
repeat them exactly.

" It was on the Monday evening, four days before
his death. He was feeling a little better, and I
brought news from the Thedtre Lyrique * which greatly
interested him. Naturally, I told him all about the
first night of the season, and how ' Samson et Dalila *
had obtained a great success, and I spoke en passant
of my admiration for M. Saint-Saens's masterpiece. I
can see him still, turning his worn and suffering face
towards me, and saying eagerly and almost joyfully
in that deep and vibrant tone so familiar to all his
friends : * Very fine ! very fine ! ' '*

Yes, in truth, the creator of The Beatitudes passed
through life his eyes fixed on a lofty ideal, without
the will, or even the power, to suspect the inherent
meanness of human nature, from which the artistic
brotherhood is, unhappily, far from being exempt.

This untiring force and inexhaustible kindness
were drawn from the well-spring of his faith ; for
Franck was an ardent believer. With him, as with
all the really great men, faith in his art was blent
with faith in God, the source of all art.

Some short-sighted writers, who are perhaps
entirely lacking in the critical sense, have tried to
compare Franck's ideal of Jesus Christ, so divinely

• One of the many " Lyric " theatres started in Paris since
1^70, all of which had a very brief existence.

THE PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL MAN 69
loving and merciful, with that ambiguous philan-
thropist whom Ernest Renan has presented to us
under this name. These people can never have
grasped any of the meaning of The Beatitudes, and
would assuredly never have written such nonsense
had they been privileged, like some of us, to frequent
the organ gallery at Sainte-Clotilde and to witness
every Sunday the act of faith so simply fulfilled by
the master when, at the moment of the Consecration,
interrupting the improvisation he had begun, he
would leave the organ-bench, and, kneeling in a
corner of the gallery, prostrate himself in fervent
adoration before the Almighty Presence at the altar.
Franck was undoubtedly a believer, like Palestrina,
Bach, or Beethoven before him ; confident in a life to
come, he would not lower his art for the sake of fame
in this one ; he had the ingenuous sincerity of genius
Therefore, while the ephemeral renown of many
artists who only regarded their work as a means of
acquiring fortune or success begins already to fall
into the shadow of oblivion, never again to emerge,
the seraphic personality of " Father " Franck, who
worked for Art alone, soars higher and higher into
the light towards which, without faltering or com-
promise, he aspired throughout his whole life.

THE ARTIST AND HIS MUSIC

I

THE GENESIS OF HIS WORKS

Those who wish to judge an artist's work syntheti-
cally and sincerely must begin by turning back to its
first causes — often very remote — and by trying to
trace the sources of its origin.

Whatever our views may be as to the greater or
less importance of what we agree to call artistic
personality, it is an undeniable truth, as laid down by
the rough-and-ready good sense of Bridoison, that
" One is always the son of somebody." Neither man
nor a work of art is the outcome of spontaneous
generation ; they are invariably linked to some pre-
established order, often, as I have already said, quite
remote, of which they remain the direct emanation
even at the most diverse epochs.

The evolution of Art might therefore be justly
compared with a tree whose invisible roots draw
nourishment from the fluids of the earth, which are
the sources of its material life, just as the religions of
the past form those of the artistic life. Soon the
rhythm of the tree becomes apparent ; it forces a way

73

74 CESAR FRANCK

through the nourishing crust of earth and emerges
into the open air, rather as a passive result than as an
active cause. In the same way the first craftsman of
genius, profiting unconsciously by the work which has
been accomplished by hidden forces, begins to reveal
himself in works which are rather the incorporation of
doctrine than actual forms of beauty.

From this stem, so fragile at first, which we may
call Art, branches are gradually put forth, which,
in their turn, engender a fresh set, and in the same
way the various forms of expression in art may be
said to come into existence. Every branch that is
firmly grafted upon the parent stem will bring forth
leaves, flowers, and fruit by the help of the fecun-
dating sap ; but every branch which from accident,
disease, or unwillingness to receive into itself the
nourishing moisture becomes separated from the
organic whole is inevitably destined to wither and
perish.

Such branches the Gospels tell us will be cut down
and cast into the fire.

The life of Art resembles that of the tree ; every
creative artist, like every branch, has a mission to
fulfil — namely, to contribute to the growth of the
parent-stem from which he sprang. He may, of
course, grow as he pleases in the direction best adapted
to his nature ; his fruits may be infinitely varied ; but
while he is ever pushing upward, he must not cease

THE GENESIS OF HIS WORKS 75

to draw nourishment from the traditional source.
Such are the imprescriptible laws of true progress.

Because it sought its sustenance at the long-dried
well-spring of pagan art, the Renaissance, although
moving in leaps and bounds, and in spite of glorious
and inspired efforts, never succeeded in producing
anything but a sterile form of art which had no real
aesthetic value.

Franck was the exact opposite of a disciple of the
Renaissance. Far from regarding form as an end in
itself, as did most of the painters and architects of
that period, thus creating a conventional type of beauty
injurious to the normal development of the art — still
more remote from the system of certain modern
" renaissants " who tend to do away with all forms
because they are incapable of creating them efficiently —
Franck never considered that manifestation of a work
which we cAlform as anything but the corpo?''ea/ p^Lrt
of the entity of an art work (" I'^tre oeuvre d'art "),
destined to serve as the visible outer covering of

o

the idea, which he called " the soul of the music/*
We shall see, in fact, how in his works thQ form is
modified according to the nature of the idea, while
still remaining firmly based upon those great founda-
tions which constitute the natural tradition of all
art.

Although Franck owed nothing to the Renaissance,
he had, on the other hand, much greater affinity,

76 CESAR FRANCK

through his qualities of clearness, luminosity, and
vitality, with the great Italian painters of the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries. Flis ancestors were
Gaddi, Bartolo Fredi, and Lippi rather than the
artists of the later periods. Even Perugino's angels,
with their somewhat affected attitudes, have already
scarcely anything in common with the angels of
Redemption ; and if we may re-discover the Virgin of
The Beatitudes in some fresco by Sano di Pietro, it
would never enter into our heads to invoke Franck's
presentment of her while looking at La Fornarina,
who served Sanzio for model, or even at some cleverly
grouped Pieta by Van Dyck, or Rubens.

Franck's art, then, like that of the primitive
Sienese and Umbrian painters, was an art of clear
truth and luminous serenity. His light was entirely
spiritual, excluding the least touch of violent colour ;
for although Franck was an "expressive" artist, he
was never a colourist in the true sense of the word ;
we must acknowledge this defect in him ; and in this
respect, again, it is impossible to associate him with
the Dutch or Flemish schools.

But continuing our researches into the question
of his atavic links, we shall discover another line of
artists to whom he is closely related — those modest
and admirable craftsmen to whom we owe the
wonderful typical beauty and eurythmy of our
French cathedrals. As will be seen from the picture

THE GENESIS OF HIS WORKS ^^

which I have endeavoured to draw of Franck*s moral
nature, he shares not only the modesty, simplicity,
and self-abnegation of our gentle " imagers " and
builders of the thirteenth century, but also their
absolute sincerity of inspiration and naive conscien-
tiousness in the execution of a work.

I run no risk of contradiction in asserting that
no modern musician was more single-hearted and
sincere, both in his work and in his life, than Cesar
Franck. None possessed in a higher degree the
artistic conscience which is the touchstone of genius.

We may find the proof of this assertion in several
of the master's compositions. In truth, an artist who
is really worthy of the name can only express well
that which he has himself experienced, and finds it
extremely difficult to use his art as a medium for the
expression of feelings which are foreign to his nature.
It is remarkable that, by reason of his incapacity to
suspect evil, Franck never succeeded in depicting
human perversity with any success. Whenever he
was compelled to deal with such feelings as hatred or
injustice — in short, with evil — these situations are
undoubtedly the weakest parts in his works. It is
only necessary to look at the chorus of the Rebellious
Spirits, the Unjust and the Tyrants in the fifth and
seventh Beatitudes^ to be convinced of this ; not to
speak of the greater part of the role of Satan in the
latter number, in which the Prince of Evil takes on

78 CESAR FRANCK

the pompous and theatrical air of some demon in a
picture by Cornelius or Wiertz.

It is natural, therefore, that, besides the absolute
music in which he excelled, Franck — whose gifts
were bound to conform to the great sincerity of his
character — should have been attracted by scenes from
the Bible and the Gospels, such as The Angel and the
Child, The Procession, The Virgin at the Cradle^ Ruth,
Rebecca, Redemption, The Beatitudes, in which radiant
hosts of angels, such as might have been dreamt of
by Filippo Lippi or Giovanni da Fiesole, join with
all the Just in proclaiming the infinite perfection of
the Most High.

His work, like that of our poets in stone, the
builders of the French cathedrals, is all a splendid
harmony and a mystic purity. Even when he is
dealing with secular subjects Franck cannot get
away from this angelic conception. Thus one of his
works is particularly interesting in this respect ; I
mean Psyche, in which he aimed at making a musical
paraphrase of the antique myth.

This score is divided, as we know, into choral
sections, in which the voices play the part of the
classic historicus, relating and commenting upon the
fable ; and into orchestral sections, little symphonic
poems meant to depict the actual drama which takes
place between the two acting characters.

Let us take the principal number in the work, the

THE GENESIS OF HIS WORKS 79

" love duet '* we might call it, between Psyche and
Eros. It would be difficult to regard it otherwise
than as an ethereal dialogue between the soul, as the
mystical author of '' The Imitation of Christ " con-
ceived it, and a seraph sent from heaven to instruct
it in the eternal verities. This, at least, has always
been my own impression of this fascinating musical
picture.

Other composers called upon to illustrate the
same subject would not have refrained from trying
to depict love either in its physiological and most
realistic aspects (as in *' Le Rouet d'Omphale,"* for
instance), or that kind of discreet and quasi-religious
eroticism which was quite the fashion a few years
ago C Eve " and " Marie- Magdeleine " t).

I think Franck chose the better part ; and I will
even venture to affirm that in acting thus, almost
with naivete, he came nearer to the true meaning of
the old myth which has had so many reincarnations
in mediaeval and even modern poetry, including
" Lohengrin."

But it is particularly as regards the inspired feeling
for architecture that the comparison between Franck
and our French artists of the thirteenth century
impresses us most clearly : the judicious choice of
the first elements, infallible judgment as regards the

* Symphonic poem by Saint-Saens.
t Two sacred cantatas by Massenet

8o CESAR FRANCK

value and quality of the materials to be used, and,
finally, a wonderfully balanced perception of the way
to build up these materials, and of the logical
sequence in which they should be presented in order
to secure the perfect harmony and solidity of a
musical edifice.

If, therefore, by his purity and luminousness of
invention, Cesar Franck may be linked with the
primitive Italians of the beautiful period which pre-
ceded the sixteenth century, and if his Walloon
descent may be considered to account for the ease
with which he grasped combinations which will seem
very complex to other minds, he still remains emi-
nently French by the sense of order, style, and
balance which prevail in all his works.

And perhaps this is the reason — for I prefer not
to set it down to prejudice, or the misconception of
what is art on their part — that the Germans do not
yet understand his music, the logical clearness ot
which is not easily assimilated by minds, profound
enough, I am willing to own, but lacking the sense
of balanced proportion and good style ; the incon-
gruous Greek Walhalla near Ratisbonne, the abstruse
canvases of Boecklin, and the over-lengthy symphonic
poems of Richard Strauss are flagrant cases in point.

Among the art critics who have written more or
less intelligently about Franck, no one has better
understood and expressed the exceedingly French

THE GENESIS OF HIS WORKS 81

side of his artistic temperament than M. Gustave
Derepas, Professor of Philosophy, who, in 1897,
published a very accurate study of the life, the
works, and the teaching of the composer of Re^
demption. I should be to blame were I not to
quote some passages from this pamphlet, which is
probably no longer to be found, although as far as
intimate knowledge of Franck's mind is concerned,
it is far more valuable than many more pretentiously
written articles emanating from " authorised "
critics.

In the course of a comparison between the Wag-
nerian conception of art and Franck's own views
M. Derepas says : *' Cesar Franck's mysticism is the
direct expression of the soul, and leaves him his full
consciousness in his aspirations towards the divine.
The human being remains intact amid the accents of
love, joy, or grief. This is because the God of Cesar
Franck has been revealed to him by the Gospel, and
is as different from Wotan in the ' Nibelungen ' as
midday from the pallid twilight. Franck leaves to
the Germans their nebulous dreams ; he clings to
that part of the French temperament which, perhaps,
we do not value sufficiently : good sense, clear reason,
and moral equilibrium."

Later on he adds : " The atmosphere in which
Franck moves is illuminated by a very clear light, and
animated by a breath which is really that of life.

F

82 CESAR FRANCK

His muslc'makes us neither beast nor angel. Keep-
ing a steady balance, as far removed from materialistic
coarseness as from the hallucinations of a doubtful
mysticism, it accepts humanity with all its positive
joys and sorrows, and uplifts it, without dizziness, to
peace and serenity, by revealing the sense of the
divine. Thus it tends to contemplation rather than
to ecstasy. The hearer who abandons himself with
docility to its beneficent influence, will recover from
the superficial agitation at the centre of the soul, and,
with all that is best within himself, will return to the
attraction of the supremely desirable which is at the
same time the supremely intelligible. Without ceasing
to be human he will find himself nearer to God.
This music, which is truly as much the sister of prayer
as of poetry, does not weaken or enervate us, but rather
restores to the soul, now led back to its first source, the
grateful waters of emotion, of light, of impulse ; it leads
back to heaven and to the city of rest.'' * In a word, it
leads us from egoism to love, by the methods of the
true Christian mystics : from the world to the soul,
from the soul to God (ab exterioribus ad interiora,
ab inter iorib us ad superior a).

To love, to leave self behind in order to rise above
it — this is actually the method of which we have

* Cesar Franck, etude sur sa vie, son ense'ignement, son ceuvre, par
Gustave Derepas, docteur es lettres, agrege de philosophic. Paris,
Fischbacher, 1897.

THE GENESIS OF HIS WORKS 83

been speaking, and practised instinctively by the
noblest geniuses ; it was Franck's method, and gives
the clue to the secret of his style.

Let us now leave these generalisations and these
questions of artistic atavism, and endeavour to apply
the preceding remarks to the composer's works
themselves ; in the course of a synthetic analysis of
his productions we shall not fail to be struck by the
profound classicism which emanates from them. M.
Paul Dukas, who wields a sure and graceful pen,
contributed a worthy appreciation of the master's
style, written with the most complete accuracy of
observation. He says : " Franck's classicism is not
purely that of form ; it is not a mere filling in, more
or less sterile, of scholastic outlines, such as resulted
by the hundred from the imitation of Beethoven, and
later of Mendelssohn, and continue to grow every
year out of respect for useless traditions. Franck's
music, it is true, seems to follow by preference the
regular designs consecrated by the genius of the
classical masters, but it is not from the reproduction
of the forms of the sonata or the symphony that it
derives its beauty. These great musical structures,
which are in keeping with the kind of idea that needs
for its full expression the vast spaciousness and
ample periods that such large forms can offer, build
themselves up in a suitable manner under the stress
of impulse necessary to the development of the idea.

84 CESAR FRANCK

With Franck this idea is classical ; that is to say, as
general as possible, therefore it naturally adopts a
classical form ; but for this reason only, and not on
account of a preconceived theory, or a reactionary
dogmatism that would subordinate the thought to
the form.

" Works of this kind, like bodies in which the
function creates the organ, are as widely different
from the schematism of most of the neo-classicists as
a living organism from an anatomical model. They
are as firmly cohesive on account of their hidden
principle as the works in which the form is not
engendered by the thought are disconnected and
weak. The former will flourish and endure, while
the latter will languish and pass away."

To this I would add on my own account that it
is precisely because Franck continually draws upon
tradition, instead of remaining the slave of convention^
that his ideas have acquired the power to be absolutely
original, and have put forth a sane and vigorous
branch from the tree of tradition, thus bringing his
personal contribution to the progress of music.

Beethoven, the noble outcome of classic force, who
began by writing purely formal symphonic works,
before he won the place of a genius in the upward
progress of his art, marked out by the works of his
third period (i 8 15-1827) a new road, and although
he himself did not travel far along it, he left it open

THE GENESIS OF HIS WORKS 85

for such of his successors as were endowed with a
sufficiently robust temperament to force their way
along it, knowing also how to avoid the dangers
they might encounter.

The question involved no less than the trans-
formation, or rather the renovation, of the sonata-
form, that admirable basis of all symphonic art which
had been accepted by all musicians from the seven-
teenth century onward by virtue of its harmonious
logic. Beethoven indicated the manner of this reno-
vation, somewhat unconsciously perhaps, but not the
less surely, by associating with the architectural plan
of the sonata two other forms which had, so far, been
essentially divided from it.

One, namely, the fugue ^ had enjoyed, with J. S.
Bach and his predecessors and contemporaries, a
moment of ineffable splendour ; the other, the great
variation-form — which, let me say at once, has
nothing in common with the " theme and variations "
(" theme varie ") which was the joy of Haydn's
audiences and the despair of pianists of the romantic
school— had already been anticipated by that universal
spirit, J. S. Bach, and in a few very rare instances by
some other composers.

These two forms, traditional perhaps, but from
which the vitalrty appeared to be gradually ebbing
away, were employed by Beethoven to revivify the
languishing form of the sonata, and this was the

86 CESAR FRANCK

point of departure of a new system of musical
structure, which was, however, solidly based upon
classical tradition.

As this is not the place in which to give a history
of Beethoven's music, I will merely give as examples
of this transformation the pianoforte sonatas 0pp. io6
and no, and the quartets Opp. 127, 131, and 132.
Those among my readers who have carefully studied
these works, which were ahead of their time, will
understand my meaning.

Having cleared and lit up the way by these
colossal beacons, Beethoven died ; and, strange to
say, at that moment not a single individual in the
three artistic nations appeared to have observed these
lights. Italy, the pride of music in the sixteenth
century, was then in a condition of meretricious
degeneracy, from which even now she has by no
means rallied. France, caught in the toils of the
Judaic school of opera, was producing nothing in
the sphere of symphonic music, for the quintets
" of all work " of Onslow are not more worthy in
this sense than Gounod's quartets, Halevy's over-
tures, or Meyerbeer's marches. As to Berlioz,
passionate admirer of Beethoven as he shows himself
in his writings — did he really understand him ? This
is a matter which still needs elucidation. At any
rate, he remained as remote from him as possible in
his art ; and it would be difficult to find two artists

THE GENESIS OF HIS WORKS 87
more completely at the opposite poles of creative
thought than the creator of the "Symphonie Fan-
tastique" or "La Damnation de Faust" and the
mind which planned the '' Missa Solemnis " and the
Twelfth Quartet.

As to Germany, she had in no way profited by
Beethoven's indications ; not a single composer
attempted to take over this heritage, bequeathed,
like the legendary sword of the Northern sagas, to
the worthiest.

Neither Mendelssohn's elegant symphonies nor
those of Spohr contributed any new elements to the
old form ; Schubert and Schumann, so spontaneous,
so truly original in the sphere of song or small
instrumental pieces, are considerably hampered in
the sonata or the symphony, — perhaps because
they knew too little of the things about which
Spohr and Mendelssohn knew too much ; Brahms,
himself, in spite of a sense of development which
may be compared, without exaggeration, to that
of Beethoven, did not understand how to benefit
by the valuable lessons left by the latter for future
generations, and his weighty symphonic baggage
must be regarded as a continuation rather than a
progress.

The thread of Beethoven's discourse, broken by
fate, lay unused until a young man of nineteen con-
ceived the idea of trying to knot it up to his own

88 CESAR FRANCK

ideas and to make it a solid link between new musical
forms and expressions.

It was towards the close of 1 841, fourteen years
after the death of Beethoven, that Cesar Franck of
Liege wrote his first Trio (in F sharp).

How this young pupil of the Paris Conservatoire
came to conceive the idea of constructing an im-
portant work upon the basis of a single theme,
concurrent with other melodies which also reappear
in the course of the work, thus creating a musical
cycle — a form which Liszt alone foresaw without
ever arriving at a perfect development of it — this,
indeed, is and will probably always remain a mystery.

In any case, this first Trio^ with its two generative
themes, treated either fugually or in the form of the
variation, as Beethoven meant it to be, was actually
the point of departure of that entire synthetic school
of symphony which sprang up in France late in the
nineteenth century ; and, for this reason, it marks an
event in the history of music.

In the work of Franck himself, the Sonata^ the
Quintet^ the sublime Quartet^ the Chorales^ and The
Beatitudes are all the result of the assimilation of
Beethoven^s heritage by a truly creative mind.

Hence the blend of tradition and classicism in the
construction and synthetic style of his works, and, as
the result of this, complete freedom in the expression
of his individuality, which he felt to be so firmly

THE GENESIS OF HIS WORKS 89

stayed by tradition that he could leave himself a free
hand in the matter of melodic progression and har-
monic aggregations ; and it is with perfect justice
that in the article already quoted M. Paul Dukas
goes on to say : " Cesar Franck's language is strictly
individual, of an accent and quality hitherto unused,
and recognisable among all other idioms. No musician
would hesitate as to the authorship of one of his
phrases, even if it were unknown to him. The
character of his harmony and his melodic line distin-
guish his style from that of other musicians as clearly
as with Wagner and Chopin. Perhaps it is only
permissible for one endowed with such powerful
musical originality to have recourse to the breadth
of expression, the note, impersonal by its generality,
which is the characteristic of classical art. In any
case we need not fear to be mistaken in saying that
it is to the union of this kind of expression, mani-
fested in traditional forms, witii a vocabulary and
syntax hitherto unknown, that Cesar Franck's music
owes all its greatness."

To understand the truth of this observation it is
necessary to analyse the master's style more closely,
and this analysis, as we shall see, will prove that in the
generality of his works the sense of what is novel
and first-hand — the sense of individuality — is simply
due to his conscientious application of his intimate
artistic thoughts, so clear, so definite and sincere, to

90 CESAR FRANCK

the three primordial elements of musical expression :
melody, harmony, and rhythm. What, indeed, are
the principal characteristics of Franck's style but the
following qualities :

The nobility and expressive value of his melodic
phrase ;

The originality of his harmonic combinations ;

The solid eurythmy of his musical structure ?

Our master is a melodist in the highest meaning
of the word. His themes have nothing in common
with what the frequenters of the Italian Opera during
the greater part of the nineteenth century erroneously
termed melody ; nor do they resemble the short-winded
successions of notes which in certain modern scores
are labelled motives. Franck's themes are true melodies,
amply constructed upon a serious and solid basis ; he
sought them without haste, and almost always found
them in the end. In his music everything sings
continuously. He could no more conceive a piece
of music that had not a carefully chosen but very
definite melodic outline, than Ingres could have
thought of a picture apart from unimpeachable
drawing.

Equally to the richness and abundance of his
melodic vein Franck's harmony owes all its originality.
If we consider music horizontally, following the
fruitful principles of the mediaeval contrapuntists,
rather than vertically according to the custom of

THE GENESIS OF HIS WORKS 91

composers who are only harmonists, we shall find
that the outlines of the various melodic phrases
which are superimposed form, in this kind of music,
particular combinations of notes which constitute a
far stronger and more attractive style than the
commonplace and incoherent sequences of chords
ranged in order by music-makers who look no higher
than their treatises on harmony.

But it is chiefly in the sphere of rhythm, taken
in its widest sense, or, if my readers prefer it, in
the sphere of musical architecture, that Franck has
made himself a place quite apart from other com-
posers. Taking up the art of construction precisely
where Beethoven left it, he created what we now call
the cyclic style — a discovery as important to symphonic
music as the Wagnerian procedures were to opera —
and founded on the tradition of the great classics of
the past a new method of musical construction of
which I shall presently give some striking examples.

In addition to this, the chief preoccupation of
his whole life was to find in every divergence
of musical radiation new forms — I had almost said
waves- — while keeping as his basis of investigation
the sure and immovable principles laid down by the
gathered traditions of the great musical geniuses.

II

PREDILECTIONS AND INFLUENCES

Before 1 enter upon a special study of Franck's
work as a whole, I should like to say a few words
about what I may call his musical affections, as well
as about his methods of working, if it can really be
asserted that he consciously raised his habits to the
level of a method.

The first of Franck's predilections, I might almost
say his first love in music — and here we have
proof of that racial atavism already alluded to —
was for the works of the French musicians of
the close of the eighteenth century ; Monsigny,
for whose opera **Le Deserteur,'* a little master-
piece of graceful expression, he had an unbounded
admiration ; Dalayrac, from whose operas he
took some of the themes of his early pianoforte
pieces ; * Gretry, certain pages of whose music he
could not re-read, even in his maturity, without being
sincerely affected ; Mehul, by whose " Joseph " he
was completely carried away. " How can I describe

* Two fantasias for piano on Gulistan (see list of works).

92

PREDILECTIONS AND INFLUENCES 93

his joy and enthusiasm," writes M. Arthur Coquard,*
" when one day he accidentally came upon the admir-
able duet descriptive of jealousy from * Euphrosine
and Coradin ' ? He sang it through several times,
enraptured, and I can still see him getting up
from the piano and saying with quick emotion :
* This is dramatic music — and music into the bar-
gain ! ' "

Indeed, during the long period of nearly twenty
years which covered the first phase of his talent it is no
uncommon thing in his melodic inspiration to come
upon a suggestion of the composer of " Stratonice."
Certain themes in the first and fourth Trios^ that of
the Ballade in B major {or piano, many pages in Ruth^
and even in later works, might pass for motives from
Mehul, if there was not already apparent a faintly
discernible but unmistakably personal savour which
afterwards became the typical aroma of Franck's
melody. Such was the hint of future suffering
which now and then crops up in the Mozartian
melody of Beethoven's earliest works.

It was only in his second stage of development
that Franck began to assimilate and originalise (if
I may be forgiven for coining the word) this
melodic style taken from his beloved French masters,
which, under the influence of Bach, Beethoven, and

* Cesar Franck, by A. Coquard, a pamphlet which appeared in
1890 and was reissued in 1904 in the Monde Musical.

94 CESAR FRANCK

Gluck, ended by becoming — from the early organ
pieces to The Beatitudes — that inspired and personal
melody, mentioned in the foregoing pages, which no
thoughtful musician could possibly mistake for that
of any other composer.

Continuing the list of Franck's predilections, I
must relate how certain great works signified for him
the incarnation of absolute beauty, and how he would
sometimes become so absorbed in them as to forget
all possible contingencies. Henri Duparc recollects
some pianoforte lessons at the College de Vaugirard
which were entirely taken up by the master's enthu-
siastic reading of an act from " Iphigenie en Tauride,"
organ works by Bach, and certain passages from
Weber's '' Euryanthe."

When the time had flown by, the poor professor
was overcome with remorse for having spent the
lesson in these diversions instead of exercising his
pupils' fingers by copious streams of scales and
suitable studies. Yet how far more valuable to these
budding intelligences must have been these lessons on
works !

Besides Mehul, Gluck, Bach, and Beethoven, the
perpetual objects of his admiration, the master was
very fond of certain composers of intimate melody,
such as Schumann, and particularly Schubert, whose
Lieder were a constant source of fresh delight to him ;
he had a somewhat inexplicable affection for some of

PREDILECTIONS AND INFLUENCES 95

Cherubini's works, and also for the '* Preludes et
Chants" of Ch. Valentin Alkan, whom he regarded
as a " poet of the pianoforte."

As to the particular melodic influences which are
reflected in Franck's music, is there any useful object
to be gained by seeking them out and defining
them ?

When I have pointed out certain melodic outlines
which occasionally resemble those of J. S. Bach — not
so very surprising, considering his cult for the art of
the great Cantor — such as the chief theme of the
fourth Beatitude :

i.

fe

ft^fi

when I have brought out the curious coincidence,
from an aesthetic point of view, of the likeness
between the initial subject of the Symphony:

■\^^'.

i

and even that of the third Beatitude

I

to the mysterious interrogation at the end of
Beethoven's Quartet, Op. 135 :

96

CESAR FRANCK

-7^-U

^

v/

Muss es sein?
hen, again, I have called attention to the Meyer-
beerian cut of certain — inferior — passages in The
Beatitudes^ as, for example :

All?

i

%

^

^^

i

^

and the few traces of Wagnerian influence to be
found in the chromaticism of Les Eolides, or the use,
probably quite unconscious, of the '' bell theme '*
from *' Parsifal"* (there was a time, I remember,
when he studied Wagner ardently, although he
cannot really be counted among the Wagnerians ot
his day) ; — when I have shown all these examples, can
it be said that I have explained my master's style
any better than by my preceding observations ? I
think not ; moreover, I do not believe that we ought
to attach very great importance to melodic resem-
blances. The great contrapuntists and polyphonic
masters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries lost
nothing of their originality because — and how often
does it not occur ? — they treated the same themes.

* In the Prelude J Choral et Fugue for pianoforte.

Ill

METHODS OF WORK

In the first part of this book I have already spoken
of the master's regular habits when engaged upon
creative work, and of his assiduous use of the com-
paratively few hours which his life as a teacher
permitted him to devote to composition. I want
now to say something as to the manner in which
he profited by these precious hours, during the
twenty years or so that I had occasion to observe
him.

Without going too deeply into technical details,
it seems indispensable at this point to remind — or
inform — my readers that the creation of any work
of art, plastic or phonetic, demands, if the artist is
really anxious to express his thoughts sincerely,
three distinct periods of work : the conception^ the
^planning out^ and the execution.

The first, which wc have described as the period
of conception, is subdivided into two operations : the
synthetic and the analytic conception. That signifies
for the symphonist the laying down of the broad

97 G

98 CESAR FRANCK

lines, the general plan of the work, and the deter-
mination of its constituent elements — the themes, or
musical ideas, which will become the essential points
of this plan.

These two undertakings generally succeed each
other, but are nevertheless connected, and may
modify each other in this sense, that the nature of
the idea (the personal element) may lead the creative
artist to change the order of his preconceived plan ;
while, on the other hand, the nature of the 'plan (the
element of generality) may invoke certain types or
musical ideas to the exclusion of others. But
whether it be synthetic or analytic, the conception is
always independent of time, place, or surroundings —
I had almost added of the artist's will ; he must, in
fact, wait until the materials from which his work
will be built — materials which will account for the
form while they are also influenced by it — present
themselves to his mind in a completely satisfactory
way.

This mysterious period of conception is sometimes
of long duration, especially with the great composers
(look at Beethoven's sketch-books), for their artistic
consciences compel them to exercise extreme severity
in the choice of their utterances, whereas it is the
characteristic of second-rate musicians, or those who
are infatuated with their own merits, to be satisfied
with the first matter which comes to hand, although

METHODS OF WORK 99

its inferior quality can only build up a fragile and
transient edifice.

The second period in the creation of a work,
which we call the planning out or ordering, is that
in which the artist, profiting by the elements pre-
viously conceived, definitely decides upon the dis-
position of his work, both as a whole and in all its
minutest details.

This work, which still necessitates a certain
amount of invention, is sometimes accompanied by
long moments of hesitation and cruel uncertainties.
It is the time at which a composer undoes one day
what it has cost him so much trouble to build up the
day before, but it also brings the full delight of
feeling himself to be in intimate communion with
the Beautiful.

Finally, when the heart and the imagination have
conceived, when the intelligence has ordered, the
work, comes the last stage, that of execution^ which
is mere play to a musician who knows his business
thoroughly ; this includes the actual writing, the
instrumentation, if it is required, and the plastic
presentation on paper of the finished work.

If, as regards the general conception and execution
of the work, the procedure is more or less identical
with all composers, it is far trom being uniform in all
that concerns the thematic conception and the dis-
position of the various elements. One musician has

100 CESAR FRANCK

to await patiently the blossoming of his ideas ;
another, on the contrary, will endeavour to force
their coming with violence and excitation ; a third —
like Beethoven — will write in feverish haste an in-
credible number of different sketches of a single
musical thought ; a fourth — Bach, for instance —
will not give his theme plastic shape until it is
absolutely established in his own mind.

" Father " Franck was of those who, like Gluck
and many others, required some excitant in order to
find his ideas. It was not, however, in artificial
stimulants that he sought his inspiration ; he had
recourse to music itself.

How often we used to see him pounding away
on his piano in a jerky and continually increasing
fortissimo the overture to ** Meistersinger," or some-
thing by Bach, Beethoven, or Schumann ! After a
time, more or less prolonged, the deafening noise
sank to a murmur, then silence — the master had
found his idea.

All through his life, as far as was possible, Franck
had recourse to this method of invoking inspiration
by musical noise, and one day, while composing his
last works, one of his pupils caught him struggling
with some pianoforte piece which he was ruthlessly
murdering. The student expressed some surprise at
his musical selection, whereupon the master replied :
** Oh, this is only just to work me up a little. When

METHODS OF WORK loi

I really want to find something good 1 play through
The Beatitudes; that helps me better than any-
thing."

Franck possessed two faculties invaluable to a
composer : first, the power of carrying on two
musical occupations at once without one suffering
from the other ; secondly, the gift, more precious
than all others, of being able to take up his work
just where he had left off without needing an interval
in which to get into the way of it again.

It often happened, in the course of his lessons —
about which, however, he was extremely conscien-
tious— that he would jump up and write down in n
corner of his room a few bars that he did not want
to forget, after which he would come straight back
to his pupil and go on with the demonstration or
examination in which they were engaged. Im-
portant works were written in this way, in fragments
jotted down here and there ; and yet they kept u
logical and unbroken sequence. It was the dis-
position of his ideas with which he was most pre-
occupied ; for, as I have already observed, while
remaining a follower of classical tradition, he
thirsted all his life after new forms, not only in
the structure, but in the constituent elements of a
work. Unlike Beethoven, whose thematic or ele-
mentary sketches are innumerable, but who, his
themes once found, seems by this fact alone able to

I02 CESAR FRANCK

map out the whole development of a composition,
so that he often neglects to note its progress in his
sketch-books, Franck set down in pencil and rubbed
out many pages before he definitely settled the
disposition of a work.

Very critical of others as regards musical structure,
he was still more severe towards himself, and when
he was in doubt as to the choice of a relative key, or
the progress of some development, he liked to consult
his pupils, to make them understand his perplexity
and ask their advice.

Following nature's law which — whatever we may
say to the contrary — demands that the majority of
composers who live long enough should pass through
three phases of expression, we find in Cesar Franck's
music three clearly defined styles, each of which
corresponds to some external change in his life, and
is representative of his fullest development in that
particular phase of which it is the perfect flower,
because it displays all its characteristic features while
it synthetises this particular phase as regards form.

I divide the master's career into three periods.
The first, extending from 1841 until 1858, includes
the four Trios^ the fugitive pieces for piano, and a
number of vocal melodies. This period culminates
in his first oratorio, Ruth.

The second period extends from 1858 to 1872,
and is the period of his sacred music, masses, motets.

METHODS OF WORK 103

organ pieces, &c. ; it ends with his second oratorio,
Redemption.

His third style embraces all his orchestral music
from 1875 onwards, the admirable examples of
chamber music, the two operas, the last chorales, and
is crystallised in the sublime epic The Beatitudes.

These three periods I now wish to lay before my
readers in an historical and analytical review, as
succinct as possible, of the master's principal works.

IV
FIRST PERIOD (1841-1858)

There was a time — long gone by — when red-hot
Wagnerians went into convulsions if any one ventured
to say in their presence that the art of** Tannhauser '*
and " The Flying Dutchman" was at all inferior to that
of ** Tristan " or " Parsifal.'* This is still the way —
and always will be — with people of preconceived ideas
who will not, or cannot, reason out their opinions.
For my own part, I cannot help seeing something
touching in this tendency to idolise men of genius or
talent, although it does not assist the ends of justice.
In any case, as I am now undertaking to write a
criticism, I must refrain from passing judgments
which are influenced by the affection I shall always feel
for my lamented master. Such judgments are bound
to be partial ; therefore I shall have the courage to
say that although Franck's first manner presents
some extremely interesting peculiarities, it was far
from foretelling all the grandeur, novelty, and sub-
limity that the master's art was eventually to bring
forth.

FIRST PERIOD (1841-1858) , 105

In this first period, apart from certain typical
compositions, Franck's personality is to a great
extent absorbed by external influences : that of
Beethoven in the Trios ; of Liszt and the romantic
school in the pianoforte pieces ; finally, of M6hul
and the French school of the late eighteenth century
in all the vocal compositions. These influences are
particularly noticeable in his general melodic style
and the disposition of his works ; as regards synthetic
rhythm and musical structure, the chief features of
his two later styles, they hardly exist in this first
period. It is with surprise that we see much more
clearly a kind of embarrassment and timidity in the
construction of most of these works, which results in
downright monotony, and even becomes the cause of
defects that Franck would never have tolerated thirty
years later in his pupils.

There are, however, certain exceptions to this rule.
I have already called attention to one — the first Trio
in F sharp, which is all the more remarkable because
the master described this work as forming part of his
Op. I. I am inclined to think, however, although
I am not in a position to prove it, that several piano-
forte pieces and a number of songs are anterior to
the Trio in question.

Op. I was published under the following title :
Trois trios concertans pour piano, violon et violoncelle,
dedies a Sa Majeste Leopold /., roi des Beiges^ par

io6 CESAR FRANCK

Cesar-Auguste Franck, de Lihge. The first edition
was issued by Schuberth and Co. (Hamburg and
Leipzig), at the price of 3 reichsthdler (about 95. 6d),
the composer retaining the rights in the work for
France.

The Trio in F sharp is built upon two principal
cycHc themes, of which the first serves as basis for
all three movements of the work, and engenders in
its various transformations the greater part of the
developments ; while the second, which is unmodified,
is fully reproduced in each movement.

If it were permissible to attribute a romantic
origin to the work, we might say that the first theme
strives by means of intricate snares and subtle trans-
formations to draw the second into its restless
circumventions ; but the latter holds out to the end
by the sole strength of its simple and serene purity.

The first of these generative themes is of the
complex nature demanded by the activity of the part
it plays ; it necessitates a counterpoint which, whether
it accompanies the subject or moves independently,
becomes one of the most active agents in the thematic
structure of the work :

VCBlle

Theme A

Contresujet a

Piano

s

J 4 d-^ ■•' j *".* j ' ij

^5^^^

^

FIRST PERIOD (1841-1858)

107

m:

m

c?

?

i

s

^

i

The opening movement is in the form ot an
y4ndante,d.nd consists of five sections, or compartments,
which are only a series of expositions of the two
germinal ideas, theme A being the subject of the
first, third, and fourth sections, while the melodic
theme B :

the subject of the second and fifth sections, brings in
the key of F sharp major, in which the work closes.
In this early effort Franck already shows his pre-
dilection for those sharp keys which afterwards
supplied him with the subject-matter of such lofty
inspirations.

It should be observed that this Andante, conforming
to the old Italian style, only modulates by a change
of mode ; it is therefore — and the composer intended
it to be — a simple exposition of the two musical
personalities which play their parts in the succeeding
movements.

The second movement, in the subdominant (B

io8 CESAR FRANCK

minor), presents the type of the great Scherzo-form,
with two Trios, and follows step by step in the
tracks of Beethoven's tenth and fourteenth quar-
tets, with this peculiarity — that the second Trio, the
culminating-point of the movement, is formed by
the generative theme B, upon a rhythm which has
already been heard in the opening Andante, and has
also been used as the principal subject of the first
Trio :

Theme B.

Rythme

thematique.

I

M

fi

rr^

iA

^

SL

g

^m

^

et&

^

5:^

Like the preceding Andante, the Scherzo only
modulates by a simple change of mode, but after
some ingenious developments furnished by the com-
bination of the counter-subject a, and afterwards
the theme A, with the subject proper of the move-
ment, it runs straight into the overwhelming Finale

FIRST PERIOD (1841-1858) 109

in F sharp major, the chief melody of which, in all
its generous simplicity, is only an expressive amplifi-
cation of the first generative theme (A). In the same
way, by a most logical symmetry, the second subject
of this Finale, given out in D flat major (for C sharp,
the dominant) is heard above continuous pizzicati
for violoncello, the rhythm being that of the counter-
subject a.

This Finale is in first-movement form (sonata-
form), and its development, which advances steadily
towards the light, offers some curious simultaneous
associations of ideas peculiar to the Finale itself with
the theme A and the counter-melody a ; it culminates
in an almost dramatic episode in D major which leads
to the recapitulation.

By way of crowning the work, the primitive theme
returns, intact and immaculate, winding up trium-
phantly in the key of F sharp major. This last
movement is the only one of the three which shows
those gradations of colour due to tonal combinations,
which Franck afterwards used to such good purpose.

If I have dwelt long upon the analysis of this work,
it is because — in spite of the poverty of literary
language to describe music — it was important to
show how far Franck's art is allied to that of the
latest sonatas and quartets of Beethoven.

We may pass lightly over the Second and Third
Trios, The former (in B flat major), which is very

no CESAR FRANCK

much influenced by Weber and Schubert, and labelled
by the composer himself with the odd and restrictive
title of Trio de Salon, has few points of interest beyond
a few rhythmical experiments in the Andante^ and
more particularly in the Finale, As to the third Trio
in B minor, the developments of which are more con-
cise than those of the two earlier examples, I cannot
conscientiously compare it with the work I have just
been analysing as far as its leading ideas are con-
cerned. The Finale, composed much later than the
other movements (further on 1 give the reason for
this), is the only one of them which offers in its
Beethoven-like spirit some curious alternations oX
rhythm and ingenious combinations.

The Fourth Trio (Op. 2), also in B minor, is dedi-
cated To my friend Fr. Liszt, and the French rights
are in the hands of the publisher Schlesinger. It has
a history, which our master frequently related to us.

In 1842 young Cesar Franck, who, as we saw in
the first chapter of this book, had been obliged to
leave the Paris Conservatoire, was in Brussels, where
Liszt, then in the heyday of his fame as a virtuoso,
was astounding all the drawing-rooms and carrying
away the hearts of all the ladies. The great pianist,
who showed himself all through life extremely well
disposed towards his brother musicians — a rare virtue
in the artistic world — and above all towards those
who seemed to him endowed with genuine artistic

FIRST PERIOD (1841-1858) in

feeling, did not disdain to receive the young com-
poser of twenty with affability when he came to show
him his first attempts.

The three Trios interested him enormously. He
was exceedingly enthusiastic over the Finale of the
third (in B minor), and told Franck that this move-
ment seemed to him complete in itself and worthy of
being published separately, and that, in this form, he
would make a point of playing it and making it known
in Germany.*

Young Franck lost no time in conforming to the
advice of his illustrious friend ; he cut out the Finale
of the last Trio from his Op. i, and replaced it by
the one with which the work now concludes.

This is why the Fourth Trio^ Op. 2, consists only
of a single movement in sonata-form in which the
expositions are inverted, so that the last begins by
delivering the second theme, keeping the initial phrase
for the end. In spite of the incontestable value of
this work, we might complain that the first idea was
over-extended and the second too concise, which, in
spite of a system of compensation, is fa:- from resulting
in general harmony and balance.

* Liszt kept his promise, as we may see in the interesting
*' Memories of a Musical Life," by Dr. Mason, of New York, who
worked with Liszt from 1850 to 1854. Mason kept a diary during
his stay in Weimar, from which the following extract is quoted :
"Sunday, April 24, 1853, at the Altenburg, II a.m. Liszt played
two Trios by Cesar Franck with Laub and Cossmann " (p. 122).

112 CESAR FRANCK

Apart from this defect, the work is quite in the
master's inspired style, and very superior to the two
earlier Trios,

It was not performed in France until January 25,
1879, when it was given for the first time at one of
the concerts of the Society Nationalc de Musique by
MM. Delaborde, Paul Viardot, and J. Griset.

Liszt remembered Cesar Franck, always met him
again with pleasure, and never ceased to admire him.
Besides his opinion on the organ pieces, of which I
will speak later on, I know that he warmly recom-
mended the music of our French master to German
artists, and I remember the delight and friendly
enthusiasm with which he received the score of
Redemption^ which Franck charged me to take to him
in Weimar, on my first visit to Germany in 1873.
In this respect he was very different to Brahms, for
whom I had to undertake the same commission ; for
he laid the book down on some piece of furniture
with an air of supreme boredom, without so much as
glancing at the reverential dedication which our dear,
good Franck had inscribed on the first page.

Of all the vocal works composed by Franck
between 1840 and 1853, the most beautiful, and cer-
tainly the most spontaneous, is the setting of RebouFs
verses '* UAnge et FEnfanty I think it would be
difficult to find a more intimate communion of

FIRST PERIOD (1841-1858) 113

thought between poet and musician ; Franck's angel
(the earliest of all his angelic presentments) is truly the
guardian angel of the Catholic faith, watching tenderly-
over the soul of the little child, joyfully sheltering
it from earthly dangers and bearing it aloft in un-
stained innocence to its heavenly home. This song,
which does not call into requisition a single strange
harmony, or even a modulation, is really a little master-
piece of expressive melody, such as we should be glad
to meet with more often in music. It dates from
1846.

Passing on to the pianoforte pieces, I must first
point out a curious fact which, as far as I know, is
quite peculiar to the composer with whom we are
dealing ; namely, that his works in this sphere may
be portioned out very exactly between the beginning
and close of his career.

Between 1841 and 1846, the first six years of his
creative activity, we find, apart from the Trios,
scarcely anything but pianoforte works, amounting
in all to fourteen. Then, quite suddenly, Franck
ceased writing for the instrument beloved of Chopin
and Liszt, and it was not until forty years later, at
the close of his life, and during another period of
six years — from 1884 until his death — that he began
to be haunted by a wish to invent new formulas
applicable to the keyboard instrument, and not only

114 CESAR FRANCK

succeeded in finding them, but was led on as it were
by destiny to the discovery of aesthetic forms, hitherto
unknown, which resulted in those perfect musical
types which none of his successors has yet turned
to good account.

But we have not yet come to the superb produc-
tions of his last style, and at present I must confine
myself to the works belonging to the early years ot
his artistic career?

The first pianoforte pieces, which are also the
master's earliest essays in composition, date as far
back as 1835, when Franck was thirteen, and are to
be found at the end of a manuscript book, extremely
neat as regards writing, containing all the exercises
he did under Reicha, from June 24, 1835, ^^
May 15, 1836. These exercises show that Reicha
taught him harmony and counterpoint conjointly.'^

After numerous attempts at melodic construction
upon themes given by the teacher, we find on one of
the last pages this triumphant headline : " Songs by
me, to be accompanied," above several little melodies
which are actually the first authentic compositions set
down by the author of the Quartet in D major,

* This manuscript is in the possession of M. Ch. Malberbe, the
erudite archivist of the Opera, who very kindly pern^itted me to
see it and to copy the little piece quoted above. In the Library
at Boston, U.S.A., is another of Franck's manuscript books, but it
contains no attempts at composition.

•FIRST PERIOD (1841-1858) 115

Half-way through the book there is an ingenuous
reference to the death of the professor who had so
far guided the master's first steps in his art.* I
cannot resist the pleasure of quoting one of these
na'ive melodies :

4 Octobre
1835

^^m

^^

^m

fe

^^^

^

^

^

s

• This reference, which occurs again in almost identical terms
at the end ot the book, runs as follows : " M. Reicha, my pro-
fessor, who wrote the preceding maxims, died on May 26, 1836,
rue duMont Blanc, 50, Paris. May 27th, 1836. Cesar-Auguste
Franck."

ti6

CESAR FRANCK

^

^^

')--r- P

^^

P

^

^^

§

^

^^

?:?=jc

i±

if[ f r.f

^

?o:

I

i

^^

^

m

^

3

s

» ^ »-r

s

r r r»'^..

^

i

FIRST PERIOD (1841-1858)

117

» rrr.J

w~~w

Vo.

^^

M

fef#

i

Of all the other pianoforte works of this period,
only two seem to me worthy of mention, on account
of the very advanced experiments in instrumental
forms which they contain. The first is entitled
Eclogue, Op. 3, and bears the sub-title of Hirten-
Gedicht C' Shepherd's Song " ) ; it is dedicated to
Baroness Chabannes, and was published in 1842,
by Schlesinger. The exposition of the phrase in
E minor — the " Shepherd's Song " — gives rise to
some curious combinations of pianistic writing,
which we shall rediscover in the pieces of his latest
period.

Like Weber, Franck had very large hands ; conse-
quently he often writes chords which demand a great
stretch between the thumb and little finger. On
account of these stretches it was difficult to write
certain passages on two staves, especially when, as in

ii8 CESAR FRANCK

the Eclogue^ there is a melody to be divided between
both hands ; a melody, moreover, which it is not
very easy to pick out among the swarms of notes and
chords with which it is surrounded. At this period
Liszt alone had ventured to write pianoforte music on
three staves, but unknown composers, such as the
young Cesar-Auguste, were not authorised by the
publishers to take any such licence ; therefore the
execution of these pieces of Franck's becomes at times
extremely arduous, on account of the way in which
they are printed. How much clearer to the reader
the frequent statements of the second theme would
have appeared in this form :

^ij_vi|»!v ^ ||,t> F>

^m

gi-"< ifr==f.

^m

r

i

fese

±

^

etc.

The second interesting piece is the first Ballade,
Op. 9, dating from 1844. It must have been pub-
lished, but it is now impossible to buy it, or even to
find a trace of it in any of the publishing houses

FIRST PERIOD (1841-1858) 119

which succeeded those existing in 1844. No copy
was sent to the Biblioth^ue Nationale, nor to the
library of the Conservatoire ; the manuscript alone
has been preserved in the master's family, and belongs
to M. Georges C. Franck. The work is written in
the key of B major, to which " Father " Franck was
particularly partial; a tonality invariably favourable to
his inspiration, from the Trios to the sublime Larghetto
of the Quartet,

After an introduction of forty-nine bars the Ballade
opens with a series of statements in single notes, of a
theme the na'ive mood of which recurs in the works
of Franck's maturity. To this succeeds an Allegro in
B minor, of which the highly pianistic forms only
tend to a discreet inflexion to the key of the dominant,
leading back to a restatement of the primitive theme
ornamented by semiquavers, according to the formula
then in general use.

It is interesting to note, in this connection, that all
the master's early pianoforte works, without exception,
be they called eclogue, ballade, caprice, or fantasia,
are all written on one and the same plan : an Allegro
enclosed between two statements of the same theme,
sometimes preceded by a brief introduction. They
are, moreover, rendered rather monotonous by the
entire lack of modulation (to which we have already
called attention in the Trios) ; but, on closer examina-
tion, we may discover in them the embryonic forms

120 CESAR FRANCK

of the great works of later years, and the anxiety to
write brilliantly for the instrument is not so intense
that it does not often give way to the pursuit of
purely musical forms. Obviously at this period
Franck, who was urged by his father to produce
''saleable pieces'' at any price, did not understand
that art of composition which he afterwards taught
so thoroughly ; therefore the future master of
modern musical structure, being well aware of his
inferiority, prudently restricted himself to a simple
form which offered no pitfalls. Later on he took
his revenge !

The same remarks apply to Ruth, a Biblical
eclogue, dating from 1843, and only published by
Hartmann in 1871.

The fresh and ingenuous melodies of this work,
so evidently the outcome of his frequent study of
Mehul's works, often reveal a certain originality to
those who know Franck's music as a whole ; but the
forms are still tentative and confused, and sometimes
show a timidity which not only surprises us, but even
provokes a smile.

The phrase for violin in G minor with which the
Prelude opens is very closely allied in outline to one
of the themes in the first Trio; it is already the
earliest lisping of the true Franckian melody :

FIRST PERIOD (1841-1858)

121

Ruth

i^T Trio

The first part of the oratorio, describing the
departure of Naomi, is constructed upon sombre
tonalities which are very appropriate to the situation.
Only Ruth's generous resolution, when she exclaims
that she will not leave her mother, but will follow
her everywhere, sounds a brighter note by establish-
ing the key of A major, which comes like a streak of
sunshine lighting up the preceding gloom. Unfor-
tunately the air sung by Ruth is essentially too
operaticy and its opening melody is more reminiscent
of Meyerbeer's dramatic songs than predictive of the
creator of Redemption,

In the second part, after various Choruses of the
Reapers, which were our admiration at twenty,
followed by a kind of sad melopoeia for Naomi, in
which the continuous line of the cor anglais recalls
too often a certain well-known passage in Hal6vy's
" La Juive," we come to a duet between Ruth and
Boaz which is to my mind the culminating-point in
all the melody written by Franck during his first
period of development, and at the same time a page
of real interest as regards dramatic expression.

122 CESAR FRANCK

The simple dialogue, very much resembling that
of the scenes between Jacob and Benjamin in Mehul's
" Joseph," is continuously intertwined with a pure
melodic line :

the effect being somewhat like that of the arrange-
ment of certain draperies in the frescoes of Orcagna
or Botticelli. The sweet and clinging musical
phrase moves in, or near to, the key of B flat major,
and ends with Ruth's confident exclamation :

Ah ! je ne suis plus etrangere !

which, indicating an emotional change in the young
Moabite, introduces, according to the principles of dra-
matic .construction, an entirely new tonality bearing no
relationship to the one which has so far predominated ;
this is the wholly radiant key of B major, in which
the first section is now repeated, and the scene ends.

The third part contains a second duet for Ruth
and Boaz, similar to the one of which I have just
spoken, which is one of the most truly Franckian
numbers in the score.

In connection with this scene it is interesting to
observe the variety of impressions which can be pro-
duced by one and the same melodic outline : one of
the chief motives, which is used here to depict the
paternal tenderness of Boaz, is identical in design
with a theme employed by M. Massenet to express

FIRST PERIOD (1841-1858) 123

the somewhat unhealthy passion of Des Grieux for
the lively Manon :

i

9 I -— -^

"S » S "^ d.

nil

1

W^

^--^ fii ^ j- ' y p

^^m

mf^=j=4=4=^

nii^j j>

^

5

^

^^ijBi—^

yp "riij. j

\ 'f ^f ^

^¥f=^

124 CESAR FRANCK

and yet, in spite of the fact that the succession of
notes is the same, how different the impression !

There could be nothing more calmly chaste than
the melody forming the basis of the final number in
Ruth, which, starting in D major, eventually brings
back the luminous colouring of B major, a tonality
that has already made its appearance in the duet in
the second part.

Thus, in the score of Ruth Franck has summed
up the fullest capacities of his first stage of develop-
ment, as much by the musical importance of the
work as by its dramatic tendency, which was quite a
new feature in his work.

We shall now see how entirely he abandoned this
course in order to soar completely above it into fresh
artistic spheres.

V

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872)

With the commencement of this second period we
are confronted with a chronological problem, the
solution of which continues to present some diffi-
culties.

At the outset of his career, instigated in all
probability by his father, Franck carefully catalogued
everything that came from his pen with the sense of
order which never left him till the day of his death.
To each work he appended a number, upon which,
apparently, we might rely for a general classification.
And yet, in spite of this care, certain numbers
belonging to this period are surrounded with doubt,
such as the Solo for Piano ^ accompanied by String
Quartet, Op. 10, of which no vestige can be traced
either at his publishers' or in the memories of his
most intimate friends ; and, again, the Fantasia for
Pianoforte, Op. 13, announced on the cover of the
Fantasias upon Gulistan (Richault, publisher), at the
same time as other works, " by the same composer,"
which I strongly suspect to have been advertised

^5

126 CESAR FRANCK

but never written, or at any rate never sent to the
engraver.

But the most curious thing in this connection,
and one to which I desire to call attention at the
beginning of my study of Franck's second manner,
is the fact that the organ pieces, which are the first
manifestations of his true innovating genius, bear the
following opus numbers: 1 6, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21.
Now there is an earlier Op. 16 — Trois petits riens
(" Three Trifles") for piano; and also another Op. 1 7,
the Grand 'Duet for Four Hands on Lucile (Richault),
both these works dating from 1845. In the same
way the Mass for Three Voices is labelled ''Op. 12,"
and yet the same number was assigned in 1844 to
the Second Fantasia on Gulislany published by
Richault.

Did Franck intend to repudiate some of his
earlier pianoforte pieces, written under paternal
pressure, as unworthy to figure in his artistic work ?
It is not impossible. Yet, at the same time, he per-
mitted the existence of other compositions (the Duet
on "God Save the King" and the Souvenir of Aix-
la-Chapelle) which cannot have been in any way
superior to the first-named. The question will never
be solved.

On the other hand, none of the numerous Melo-
dies, composed and published between 1840 and
1850, bear opus numbers; and after the piece

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 127

entitled Quasi Mania, for harmonium, numbered
Op. 22, the master abandoned the practice of
numeral designation.

In any case, the six great pieces for organ mark
the start of the symphonic production which charac-
terises this second period. I lay stress on the word
symphonic because there is no doubt that a number
of motets and other sacred works, as well as the two
Masses, are anterior to this time ; although we have
already seen that Franck was not in the habit of
numbering his vocal pieces.

We might call this second period in the life of
Cesar Franck the period of religious composition.
With the exception of a few songs, an attempt at an
oratorio, and Redemption, this portion of his career
produced nothing but music intended for church
use.

Observe that I say intended for church use, not
actually church music, and this necessitates a {^^
words of explanation.

The origin of Music, like that of all the other
arts — although we vainly endeavour to refer them to
other causes — is to be found incontestably in religion.
The earliest song was a prayer. To praise God, to
celebrate the beauty, the joy, and even the terrors of
religion, was the sole object of all works of art for
nearly eight hundred years. In this way the artists
of those days gave expression to life^ to men's

128 CESAR FRANCK

emotions, such as love, hope, joy, and grief, and
we may say in passing that they expressed these
things with far more depth and truth than do those
who, under the pretext of actuality, can only give
utterance to the superficial, futile, and fleeting side of
existence.

The Renaissance, by a change of tendency which
had its origin in an erroneous idea, gave us a few
personal masterpieces ; but it caused a terrible up-
heaval in the logical progress of the Arts, and sacred
music, more particularly, became from this time forth
a kind of conventional art, which, abolishing all truth
of expression, and disdaining the fine rhythm of the
old monodies, and the harmonious architecture of
vocal counterpoint, introduced into the church the
symphonic style, or, worse still, a style which had
no place, or reason, within the sacred precincts.

Thus church music, so-called, degenerated with
appalling rapidity, and became merely the prey of
convention and fashion.

In the seventeenth century it was pompous,
following the etiquette of the Court of the Grand
Monarch. In the eighteenth century it became
frivolous, for the distraction of the people of quality,
or the snobs who, on leaving a supper-party, felt
bound by their social position to put in an appearance
at church. Finally it became quite bourgeois and
stagnated under the influence of ready-made formulae

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 129

which characterised the reign of *' the happy medium.'*
It was this last style, which lacked the dignity of the
seventeenth and the charm of the eighteenth centuries,
that lasted on to the close of the nineteenth ; and,
strange to relate, schools were actually formed for
the purpose of teaching young composers the art
of manufacturing expressionless music for church
purposes.

Cesar Franck never really lost himself in those
shameful depths wherein lie the so-called Kapell-
meister^ or " choir-master's," compositions. He was
incapable of such descents. Nevertheless, in his
church music he could not entirely free himself
from the influences of his time, and after an im-
partial examination of his works we are compelled
to observe the strange fact that although he was
perhaps the only religious musician at the end of
the last century, yet his sacred music is undoubtedly
inferior to that which he accomplished in other
branches, orchestral, pianoforte, and chamber music.

There are two reasons for this. In the first place,
Franck, who was so learned in all that concerns
modern music and that of the eighteenth century,
was very indifferently informed as regards the
admirable and monumental polyphonic schools of
France and Italy in the sixteenth century, editions
of which were rare and not very accessible in his
day.

130 CESAR FRANCK

He knew nothing about the erudite and defini-
tive researches of the Benedictines into the subject of
Gregorian music, and M. Charles Bordes, in an article
written immediately after Franck's glorification,* was
quite right when he characterised the master*s position
in the sphere of sacred music as follows :

" In his church music Cesar Franck remains, with
a few rare exceptions, a soloist. He stands upon the
threshold of that Dextera the ensemble of which lives
as a superb piece of pure music, but the initial phrase
of which unfolds itself with the amplitude and
majesty of certain statues seen in churches of the
rococo style, of which it is impossible to deny the
theatrical and anti-religious appearance.

** In his Mass, of which the Kyrie is an exquisite
prayer and the Agnus Dei a gem of musical ingenuity,
how shall we qualify the noisy Quoniam Hi solus sanctus,
which is less worthy of a soloist than of a chorister
in rather a merry condition ? Side by side with these
pages which do no credit to the master, we may
place the incomparable opening of the offertory ^u^
est ista, which is worthy of Bach, and the admirable
Domine non secundum^ with its counter-point of a very
human kind, and — with the sole exception of the final
reprise in the major, which only aims at effect — so
sober that this motet might be cited as a model of
modern church music.

* Le Courrier Musical, November i, 1904.

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 131

" Paores such as these fill us with bitter regret that
Franck started his career too soon to take part in
our movement to reform sacred music. Knowing
little of Palestrina, with whose beauties, as he in-
formed me himself, he had only superficially come
in contact, and whose religious appropriateness he
did not appreciate, as with so many musicians of his
generation, his interest stopped short at the writing
and artifices of that style of composition. But what
would he not have written for the Church if only
his noble soul had once been awakened to all the
serene beauty of the earlier masters ! He would
have continued to draw upon himself for his deepest
emotional aspects, but, made wise by precept, he
would not have overwhelmed us quite so much with
his natural gifts. With his certainty of touch, what
pure masterpieces he would have bestowed upon us,
written from his intellect, it is true, but glowing
with the movements of his charitable and loving
soul !

'' Probably he would have found it difficult not to
look within himself and his own music for the
elements of expression which would have tempered
these liturgical formulas, but what fine art-forms
would have been the outcome of these conflicting
influences, amid which Franck would have remained,
in spite of all, just the divine Pater seraphicus whose
ingenuousness and modesty were limitless 1 "

132 CESAR FRANCK

Another reason for the inferiority of Franck's
church music is quite fortuitous. When he was
appointed to the future basilica of Sainte-Clotilde
it was not the rich parish church that it afterwards
became. The funds were not sufficient for the pur-
chase of music, having regard to the solemnity of
the services. Thus, existing for the " ordinary "
upon their repertory and old material, the clergy
unconsciously followed the customs of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries in counting upon the
organist and choir-master to supply the necessary
new music, and so add to the brilliancy of important
parish ceremonies.

Cesar Franck, like Bach and Palestrina, composed
all the music that was required for the celebrations
of great feast-days ; but on account of the haste and
exigencies of modern life he could not devote enough
time to thinking out and writing fine works. There-
fore, in spite of the indisputable beauties pointed
out by M. Charles Bordes in the article we have
quoted above, the master's religious music, which
in consequence of his early training was not very
liturgical, does not present, when judged from a
true artistic standpoint, an interest at all propor-
tionate to that which characterises his work in other
styles.

Only his organ works, which are evidently destined
for church purposes, but belong more to the sym-

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 133

phonic order, survive amid the choral music, and will
remain an imperishable monument to the art beloved
of Frescobaldi and J. S. Bach.

It is with these compositions that I propose to
start my review of the second period of my master's
career.

With the appearance of the Fantasia in C we
become aware of the true style of the composer of
The Beatitudes.

If the construction of this piece — which is indeed
fantastic, with its central point on the subdominant
and its ending, somewhat curtailed, but full of
charm — reminds us of the hesitations of his first
manner, the Lied 2Lt the commencement, flowing along
calmly and without modulation, shows us what
eventually became the general characteristic of his
third style which linked him so closely to the radical
qualities of Beethoven, namely, the gift of evolving
a living melody from a pre-established harmonic
condition. (Compare the third Variation of the
Adagio of Beethoven's Twelfth Quartet.) And if we
reflect that, in its kind, this harmonic condition is
itself the result of a melodic canon — a favourite
device of Franck's — we shall have no difliculty in
reconstituting by means of this example the table of
affiliation to which I drew attention at the beginning
of this chapter : to the early Italians for the purity

^34

CESAR FRANCK

of his monodic line ; to an unconscious reversion to
the polyphonic composers of the sixteenth century
for his easy mastery of counterpoint; to Bach for
his style of writing and to Beethoven for general
rhythmic disposition. If it were not that I regard
these comparisons as futile, I could even discover in
this piece the prescience of Wagner (at this moment
completely ignored in France), since the theme which
flows on the keyboard of the great organ from the
architectural combination of which I have spoken is
the one known by the label of the "motive of sleep "
in " Die Walkiire " and throughout the whole epic
of the '* Nibelungen."

^

^

-&■ -p-

u

^

i

m

etc.

In the Grande Piece Symphonique we find ourselves
confronted, for the first time in the progress of the
master's work, with a true sonata, or rather a sym-
phony, since it is the custom to describe in this way
a sonata coloured by various timbres.

This is the first of all those organ symphonies

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 135
which have since enriched modern music, and if I
may express my personal opinion, this way of com-
posing symphonies by means of the numerous and
varied timbres of an organ by Cavaille-CoU seems to
me far preferable to combining organ with orchestra.
These two forces do not agree, and the effect of the
juxtaposition of two similar forces is invariably the
overshadowing and weakening of the one for the
useless profit of the other. Berlioz, the genius of
the chemistry of limbre, had already called attention
to the uselessness of such a combination when he
wrote in his Traite a' Orchestration^ with that imagery
which makes his writings so attractive : " The
orchestra is Emperor, the organ is Pope." It is
wiser not to revive in music the quarrel of the
" Investitures."

Franck did not commit this incongruity, which
was repugnant to his classical spirit ; * therefore his
Grande Pike, in F sharp minor, is really a symphony
in three movements, and displays all the character-
istics of this form of composition : the first move-
ment is built on two ideas in sonata-form, preceded
by an introduction which reappears in the course of

* Not one of the old masters employed the combination of
organ and orchestra in equal strength. Bach scarcely ever wrote
for organ solo with orchestra, except as a harmonic realisation. As
to Handel's concertos, the string quartet and the oboes play but
a very secondary part in them.

136 CESAR FRANCK

the development ; the Andante is in Lied-form, the
second section of which, by reason of its rapid lempo,
may be regarded as taking the place of a ScJierzo
(the composer returned to this plan of construction
later on, in his Symphony in D) ; the Finale is led up
to by a recapitulation of the chief ideas which have
been previously exposed, its principal theme being
identical with that of the first movement, now given
out in F sharp major, like an apotheosis, and de-
veloped by means of fugal devices until the con-
clusion is reached. The whole work is connected
by one leading idea.

The third piece. Prelude y Fugue ^ and Variation in
B minor, dedicated to Saint-Saens, is so well known
by the arrangement made by the composer himself for
harmonium and piano that I need not dwell upon it.
It is only necessary to observe that it contains in
embryo the new forms which he afterwards elaborated
in his last pianoforte compositions. Nor should we
fail to notice the musical charm of the fugue, which
is very different from the insipid class-room fugues,
the only kind being written at that time.

The Pastorale in Lied-f or m which follows also
presents this special feature of a fugal development
possessing real charm and melody which is the
logical fulfilment of the system indicated in
Beethoven's third period.

The last two pieces, Priere in C sharp, and Finale

SECOND PERIOD (185 8-1872) 137

in B flat major, both approximate to first-movement
form. The latter is particularly interesting on
account of its firm, Beethoven-like structure ; its
graceful second theme contrasting with the inflexi-
bility of the first ; and also because of the important
development toward the close, which leads to a
forceful and majestic peroration.

These organ works, so different from the purely
show-pieces of Lcf^bure-Wely and other organists
of that day, so lofty as regards inspiration, so perfect
in workmanship, will remain a solid monument and
mark a memorable date in the history of the myriad-
voiced instrument. Nor can we doubt that every
one possessed of the artistic spirit will share Liszt's
enthusiasm, who, coming down from the organ-loft
where Franck had just been playing these compo-
sitions to him, exclaimed with sincere emotion :
" These poems have their place beside the master-
pieces of Sebastian Bach ! *'

I must now speak of the Mass for Thr^e Voices,
first performed on April 2, 1861. It is undoubtedly
of earlier date than the organ pieces with which we
have just been dealing ; but I was particularly
anxious to make these the point of departure of
Franck's second style, and by way of excuse for this
violation of chronological order I can affirm that
the Mass was so often revised between 1859 and
1872 that it may be said to spread itself over the

138 CESAR FRANCK

whole of the second period, and to display in its
widely discrepant numbers those phases of transfor-
mation which we find in all geniuses during their
middle period of production.

The work was specially written for the church of
Sainte-Clotilde, shortly after the composer had been
appointed organist there. The Kyrie, Gloria, and
Sanctus even go back to the time when he was only
the choir-master of the basilica, M. Theodore
Dubois, the future Director of the Conservatoire,
being organist and accompanist.* On the other
hand, the Credo belongs to a more recent date, and
some years later still the soaring Agnus Dei replaced
another Agnus which did'not satisfy the master, who
completely destroyed it. As regards the Panis
Angelicus, which has passed under a multitude of
disguises into the repertory of organists and choir-
masters, it was only interpolated into the Mass in
1872, when the work was published by the firm of
Repos, in the Rue Bonaparte.

Of the Kyrie, a sweet and simple prayer, and the
Gloria, certain passages of which are really vulgar
and unworthy of the composer of Tke Beatitudes, I
will say nothing. They belong to the category of
what it was then customary to describe as sacred
music because it was hung on to a Latin text.

• See M. Theodore Dubois' speech on the occasion of the
inauguration of the Franck monument, October 22, 1504.

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 139

The Credo, which is far more and far better worked
out, has the peculiar feature of being written in first-
movement form, the exposition being in C minor,
leading to a second subject in G major at the words
Et incarnatiis est, the scene of Calvary and the
Resurrection being treated as developments of the
initial theme. But when the exposition is repeated
a modified version of the second subject replaces the
first in the progression of the sonata, at the words
Ei in spiriiiim sanctum, and continues its final de-
velopment at considerable length until it returns in
its first form, thus characterising the formula of
Christian hope, Exspecto resurrectionem mortuoruyn^ and
ending with the Amen in C major, a key which has
predominated almost exclusively from the start of
the recapitulation.

In spite of the beauties of this Credo, it must be
confessed that the use of a familiar and definite
symphonic form is not very happy in its results,
although we acknowledge attempts at a mystical and
sometimes deeply religious expression — such, for
instance, as the association in one and the same
musical idea of the Incarnation, the union of the
human and divine personality, with the Resurrection
of the body, that mysterious conquest of the divine
essence by human matter.

The Sanctus flows simply and serenely, like the
Kyrie, with a brief stress upon the Hosanna, after

140 CESAR FRANCK

which it relapses into melancholy at the Benedictus.
The Agnus Dei is a little masterpiece of concision and
melodious tenderness. After the threefold invocation
in A minor, C major, and E minor, the sopranos, as
though carried away by some sublime hope, sing a
hymn of peace, while the basses continue to re-
echo the theme of the previous invocation, and the
number ends with a pianissimo for the three voices
unaccompanied, which seems to take us to the
threshold of some myotic j anua cceli.

When I said in the opening chapter of this book
that Franck was Beethoven's continuator, not merely
in the sphere of symphony, which is indisputable,
but also in that of religious music, I had the Agnus
Dei and Kyrie of the Mass in my mind. Not that
I wish to compare the modest work of the choir-
master of Sainte-Clotilde — a work which was written
in all sincerity, but to utilitarian ends — with that
effulgent epic of divine suffering and human aspira-
tion, the Missa Solemnis, which I regard as the most
perfect of the creations of the Titan of Symphony.
Nor do I pretend to place the sweet, confiding Dona
nobis pacem of the Mass we are analysing in the same
rank with the breathless, incomparable appeal for
peace which rises amid the distant sounds of war in
the dramatic Agnus Dei of Beethoven. But it seems
as though, in spite of the musical inequality of the
two works, the spirit of one must have passed into

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 141

the spirit of the other with less forceful human
expression, but with more divine confidence.

Do we not find, to begin with, the same funda-
mental error which causes the Mass in D minor —
one of the most sublime monuments in music — to
stand quite outside the liturgical framework of true
church music by reason of its dramatic tendency?
Do we not find the same somewhat conventional
pomp and grandiloquence employed precisely in the
same places ? But, on the other hand, without
wishing to draw a useless assthetic parallel between
these two works, may we not say that if Franck falls
into the same mistakes as his great ancestor as regards
the liturgy itself, his Mass approaches more closely
in certain passages of the Kyrie, Sanclus, and par-
ticularly in the Agnus Dei^ to what must be
considered as the legitimate style of church music ?
It is in this sense that I have ventured to point to
Franck as Beethoven's continuator in sacred music,
because, starting from the same conventional pro-
cedure, the composer of the Mass for Three Voices
seems to be striving for a development which never
comes to completion in his church music, but shows
its full results in his oratorios and symphonic
works.

Franck's Mass is, however, an unequal work, and
M. Ricciotto Canudo, an Italian critic, is not alto-
gether unjust when he makes the following criticism :

142 CESAR FRANCK

^' The sweet and luminous Kyrie makes us think of a
paradise of distant lights and far-away music ; it is
a profound and beautiful expression of prayer, like
the Agnus in the same Mass. But side by side with
these is an almost commonplace Gloria^ lacking in
melodic idea and crushed by the noisy, dynamic
preponderance of the instruments. Full of inequali-
ties, the Mass, like all Franck's music, is a curious
dream, half mystic, half secular, in which the flow
of ecstatic sentiment is sometimes complete and
superb, and sometimes interrupted by rhythms and
affectations which are essentially theatrical." *

The most important work belonging to Franck's
second style, the one which sums up all the qualities
and defects of this period, is undoubtedly Redemp-
tion^ an oratorio disguised by its authors under the
singular title of a Poem-Symphony — a very inappro-
priate designation for a composition of this kind,
which is neither a symphony nor a poem.

The subject, which, in spite of the rather ordi-
nary versification of Edouard Blau, is not lacking in
grandeur, sets forth the material and the spiritual
redemption ; the first effected by Christ's coming
upon earth, the second won during future ages by

* " Cesar Franck e la giovane nuova scuola musicale francese,"
par Ricciotto Canudo ; extract from the Nuova Aniologta, April I,
1905.

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 143

means of prayer. This conception was quite in
harmony with Franck's ideas, who willingly dis-
coursed on this subject, emphasising his discourse
with warmth and enthusiasm.

As to the music, having watched its evolution
day by day, I shall endeavour to speak of it with
justice and sincerity in spite of the natural partiality
we feel for the child we have known from its birth.

This oratorio has a history, and I think the details
which I can give de visu will be read with interest,
and will be both instructive to composers and a
lesson to their pupils.

No sooner had Franck received the text than,
laying aside The Beatitudes^ upon which he had already
made a start, he threw himself into the musical
realisation of the poem with such ardour that in
spite of the small amount of time he could devote
to the task, the work was finished in six months.

It is advisable to explain at this juncture the
existence of two versions of Redemption^ differing
very considerably from each other. If the second
offers a fine chorus and the admirable symphonic
interlude which now forms part of the repertory of
most concerts, the first, it must be confessed, was
obviously superior as regards the general plan of the
work, which was constructed upon a perfectly novel
basis, such as only Franck could have conceived and
realised.

144 CESAR FRANCK

In order to make this plan understood, 1 must
give an outline of the poem :

Part I. Men move amid the egotistical darkness of
paganism ; they think to find happiness in enjoyment and
hatred, which bring forth only the works of death. Suddenly
space is illuminated by a flight of angels, one of whom
announces redemption through the Saviour's coming upon
earth, and regenerate humanity unites in a Christmas hymn.

Part II, Symphonic Interlude. (Here I give the argument
of the poem for the orchestra only, as it was imagined and
revised by Franck himself). " Centuries pass. The joy of
the world transformed and flourishing by the word of Christ.
The era of persecution is started in vain, Faith triumphs
over all obstacles. But now the modern period has come !
Belief has perished, and mankind, once more possessed by a
cruel lust of enjoyment, and vain agitations, returns to the
passions of the earlier ages."

Part III. The angels, covering their faces with their
wings at the sight of the crimes committed upon earth,
weep for men, who have reverted to pagan depravity. But
the Archangel in a graver tone proclaims a new Redemp-
tion : the pardon of sins may be won by prayer. Mankind,
at peace and repentant, unite heart and soul in a hymn of
brotherly love.

Struck by the alternafaons of light and shade of
which this poem admits, Franck beUeved that a well-
established gradation of those musical tints we call
tonalities would alone suffice, by means of opposition
and contrast, to render the various shades of colour
so clearly suggested by the text. He therefore
thought out a tonal structure modelled absolutely

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 145

upon the meaning of the words, proceeding in the
first and second parts from darkness to light, while
the symphonic interlude, faithfully interpreting his
argument, should begin with a full warmth and glow
and end in the cold and lifeless tonality chosen for
the opening chorus of the work.

It was the first occasion upon which the master in
his search for poetic expression consciously applied
this fertile and traditional principle of tonal archi-
tecture, which he had hitherto used in a tentative
way, but which afterwards became the most forcible
element of his teaching.

I will give a brief analysis of the work, that my
readers may have some precise notion of the inspired
logic which guided his method of composition.

Part I. A short introduction, foreshadowing
at an almost imperceptible distance the prophetic
song of the angels, the suave melody of which is
given out pianissimo by means of a canon in the tenth
below, and in the key of A major :

^h.vujISL

w

ifc

g

5

^

i

s

^

nrv

Wfm

After this rough sketch, the key of A minor is
abruptly introduced, creating a sombre atmosphere

146 CESAR FRANCK

in which we discern, swarming and howling, all the
vilest passions of the heathen world. Here, for the
first time, we must make a remark which will have a
still more striking application to The Beatitudes : the
unfortunate musician goads himself in vain in his
endeavours to express evil and moral hideousness
such as his own simple beauty of character forbade
him to conceive. Consequently this first chorus
shows us the delights of paganism in a somewhat
turgid and conventional light ; we never get out of
the key of A minor, and the number ends in a stretto
which is more noisy than powerful, according to the
custom of the operas of that period.

After this all grows luminous, and the radiant
prophetic theme soars majestically above human
misery. This time it is delivered by the chorus in
E major, the dominant of the key of the prelude,
while the violins repeat the melody like an echo.
This use of canon^ already noticeable in his organ
pieces, becomes more and more frequent in Franck's
music, of which it may be said to be the hall-mark.
But it differs from the kind of scholastic canon, too
often substituted for the spirit of Bach, because the
melody suitable to imitation is never twisted and
deformed to fit the exigencies of the case, but is
always simple and natural in its modulations, and the
imitation flows along in so logical a way that it
seems a mere addition.

After a few brief and hesitating answers from man-

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 147

kind which bring back the sombre tones of doubt,
the prophecy of the Archangel bursts forth, preced-
ing another exposition of the theme in A major, and
progressing towards the light until we reach a
dazzling modulation in F sharp major, which marks
the triumphant entry of the melody long sought by
the composer, whereby he personifies the idea of
redemption.

This having been established, and Faith and Love
having shone upon the earth, all becomes immovably
fixed, and the men's voices are heard, repudiating
their hatreds and gathering strength in this new
tonality (F sharp major) preparatory to singing
'' Noel " at the cradle of the Infant Divinity.

The Symphonic Interlude which formed the second
part of the work, and of which no traces now remain
— except, perhaps, in the hands of a few collectors who
were prudent enough to preserve the first edition —
was far from equal to the number now known by this
title. It was not, however, lacking in musical interest.
After a short introduction the violas and violoncellos
gave out a joyous theme in A major :

Cantahile

All

oM

p

g

^

148 CESAR FRANCK

and soon afterwards a more tender subject, exposed
at considerable length in F major :

mkh^i'^'rfm^

espr.

The piece was subsequently developed in sonata-
form, and, in the course of development, gravitating
around C major as a central point, the rhythm and
figures previously employed to depict the vileness of
the heathen seemed to creep in, somewhat timidly
at first. After the restatement of the two themes
in A and C major, the melody of redemption
established itself as a final exposition, descending
from the highest orchestral groups to the basses in
the triumphant tonality of F sharp major. Presently
it modulated to the less luminous key of A major, as
though to mingle with the initial joy of mankind ;
but the latter, refusing the divine goodness, plunge
once more into discord and egotism, and the piece
ended with a brief restatement of the pagan theme,
which is lost in the distance amid the glooms evoked
by the key of A minor.

The poetic and musical basis of this orchestral
interlude was really admirable ; the only thing to be
regretted — apart from some rather tedious moments

SECOND PERIOD (i 858-1872) 149

in the course of its execution — was the fact that the
intrinsic value of the two fundamental themes was not
quite equal to the loftiness of the subject they were
intended to express.

Franck felt this himself, and in rewriting the
piece from the first to the last bars he did well.

The third part was the same as we now know it,
with the exception of the opening chorus, which had
no place in the original scheme, for reasons which I
will presently explain. The angels, taking flight from
rebellious earth, sing sadly, and, as on the first
occasion, the violins repeat their song in a melancholy
echo ; but although constructed in the same style
as the first, and noticeably allied to it melodically,
this chorus gives quite a different impression. The
angels do not weep with human feeling, as they
rejoiced in the first chorus. To express their angelic
sorrow Franck has found a melody which is both
plaintive and serene, a sublime chant of pity suited
to these immaterial beings. Only he himself could
have discovered this melody.

The chorus is written in F sharp minor, thus
contrasting with the gladness of Christmastide in
the first part by the mere change of mode.

Gradually the light which has been extinguished
for a time filters back through the darkness of
human error. Hope reappears with the Archangel
in an air more classical in spirit than the enthusiastic

150 CESAR FRANCK

hymn in the first part. Modulating from B minor
to B major, it gradually introduces (in the latter
key) the ardent prayer of repentant humanity, above
which, soaring as it were between earth and heaven,
the angels sing the joyous theme of prophecy.

If we have carefully followed the order of
the keys which Franck employs in this work, we
shall be convinced of the evident intention of their
disposition, an intention which the composer made
no effort to conceal, and of which he was very proud.
" In this score," he used to say to us, ^' I have only
used sharp keys, in order to render the luminous idea
of Redemption.'*

How admirably logical is the succession of sharp
keys in this work !

Starting with a neutral and colourless key, J minor^
the first part is illuminated by degrees ; as by a
ladder, we seem to rise to tht greatest light by means
of E, the dominant, A major, and F sharp major.

The central symphonic number, carrying out its
poetic significance, takes us downwards from the
bright key of A major to the primitive obscurity
of A minor ; but the last part, which begins sadly
in F sharp minor (the relative of the preceding
bright tonality), is again penetrated with luminous
tints, and ends triumphantly in B major, a definite
key in absolute contrast with the gloom of A minor,
of which we now perceive that the "Noel'* in F

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 151

sharp, in the first part, was only the dominant
herald.

This solid architectural design, which made up
a perfect and wonderfully balanced structure, was
unfortunately modified in the second edition of the
work — the only one now extant. It is the history
of this modification which I am about to relate — not
without some hesitancy, I must confess, for I myself
am partly accountable for this regrettable change of
plan, and it is, I believe, the sole cause of self-
reproach in my relations with my respected master.
The confession of my mistake will unburden my
conscience of the remorse which has long pursued
me — ever since, in fact, I have come to know what
musical composition really is.

The first performance of Redemption took place
on Thursday in Holy Week, April 10, 1873, at the
Concert Spirituel at the Odeon, under the direction
of Colonne. The rehearsals did not go ofF without
some hitches. From the beginning it was evident
that the orchestral parts had been so badly copied
that it was necessary to pull up the players at every
bar in order to correct the most glaring mistakes ;
a condition of things that invariably throws an
orchestra into confusion and generally sets the musi-
cians against a work. The rehearsal for Redemption
was therefore broken ofl^ and all the parts sent back to
poor Franck, who was much annoyed by this mishap.

152 CESAR FRANCK

The second rehearsal was at hand, and only two
days remained in which to correct all these parts, and
even to recopy some which were illegible. I was
very well acquainted with the score, because, at my
master's request, I had accompanied on the piano
all the choral practices. I therefore proposed, with
the assistance of my fellow workers, Henri Duparc
and Camille Benoit, to undertake this task myself;
an offer which he accepted very simply, having,
indeed, no time in which to be responsible for it
himself.

We little knew what we had undertaken, and
from the beginning we were alarmed at the mere
manual labour to be got through in so short a time.
However, we started bravely, working in Duparc's
room, he taking possession of the paste-pot, Benott
collating, and I taking charge of the copies. In one
day and two nights, during which we were kept
awake by Duparc's brandy and Benoit's puns, all
was finished and laid on the desks of the orchestra
at the appointed time. Unfortunately, for reasons
on which I will not dwell, the two remaining
rehearsals were so curtailed that there was no time
to work at the symphonic interlude which formed
the second part of the work, and it was simply
decided to cut it out, to the great vexation of
the composer, who hud to look on at the ruth-
less overthrow of the beautiful and harmonious

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 153

structure so long and so lovingly pondered and
elaborated.

The final chorus of the first part almost shared
the same fate. The orchestra, disgusted by the
fingering necessary for the key of F sharp major,
and in accordance with the attitude generally
assumed by the executants of those days towards a
newcomer (Franck, alas ! was making a public dehut
at fifty !), declared the final number impossible.
The composer promptly and energetically refused
to permit this further mutilation of the work ;
consequently the performance suffered deplorably
from the ill-will of the players.

Redemption formed only the second half of the
programme, the first part being as follows :

Psalm : Cczli enn arrant . . Saini-Sagns

Air from the Sia^at Mater . . Mme. de Grandvat

Two airs with chorus from Fiesque E. Lah

Duet from the Stabat Mater . . Rossini

The performance of Franck's oratorio was poor.
The chorus did not always sing in tune, and Mme.
de Caters, who had only agreed to interpret the
** queer, ineffective music " of the Archangel on
condition that she should be consoled by some
taking cantilena of Rossini, bustled through her
part with perfunctory indifference. Consequently
the public did not understand the work at all, and

154 CESAR FRANCK

displayed their boredom so conspicuously that at
the end of the concert only fifty people at most
were left in the room.

Far more upset at the unfortunate defeat of our
hopes than the composer himself, we, his pupils, set
ourselves to account for the cause of it in the diffi-
culties of execution which we thought to be the
actual obstacle to a suitable performance of the
work. Therefore we resolved to besiege the master
with our objections until he consented to change the
unlucky key of F sharp major, which we believed to
be the source of all the evil.

I first undertook to broach the subject to him. 1
must own that I was not very well received on the
first occasion, and, having sinned yet a second time,
*' Father " Franck, throwing aside his usual amenity,
forbade me, with some severity, to mention the
subject again. But after several of his favourite
pupils, led by Henri Duparc, had returned to the
attack, he ended by resigning himself to the trans-
position of the Archangel's aria and the whole of the
last number of the first part into E major. But the
entire design of the work was changed, for although
it is easier to play in E major, this key is far from
giving that effulgency which we derive from F sharp,
which is the dominant, not the subdominant, of the
final tonality.

To realise the difference, we need only compare
the triumphal modulation in the first edition (p. 40) :

SECOND PERIOD(i858-i877.) 155

^

fe

erese moito

•J [-9- ^ ^ -(

I

f A - A f w !zaz:
kssED Gsaa UbbU @S9

l»f f — I

^

i

If^

i^

wSm

^0

gutg

1^

i i.i

..^«._ .if

^^

^

p

with the corresponding page in the second edition,
which appeared in 1875 :

iS6

CESAR FRANCK

rr^^iYdlJiffl

m=0i\0^^0i

f^ -^ -^

FTTTTT

gjga^f^

^^pe€o. - ' jnef ^a

SECOND PERIOD (1858-1872) 157

The orchestral interlude {Symphony it was called
in the first edition) was also subjected to such
numerous and important modifications, with which
Franck was never satisfied, that he ended by entirely
rewriting it on such different principles that he
only followed the first edition in bringing back at
the very end the central theme of the work, now
transposed from B to D, and eventually leading to
the peroration.

This entire remodelling of a long number,
already engraved, which had cost its author so much
trouble, is a curious example of the power of the
artistic conscience ; but it is to this conscience that
we owe the superb initial melody :

y i— ' j ^ J J J ^ "^

to which we cannot listen without emotion, since it
is " music's self," as Chabrier said of it. This new
number is in D major, and its poetic meaning is less
complex than that of its predecessor, because it only
attempts to depict *' the joy of the world which is
transformed and expanded by the words of Christ.'*
It therefore remains tonal, and has no need of the
dramatic change of key-colour towards darkness
and obscurity, as in the original version. For this
reason, wishing, however, to describe the condi-
tion of man when he returns to pagan disbelief.

158 CESAR FRANCK

Franck had to introduce as a counterfoil the male
chorus in D minor which, in the second part, pre-
cedes the plaintive chorus of angels, and foreshadows
a new style, the chief points of which we shall
consider in the next chapter.

VI

THIRD PERIOD (1872-1890)

We now find ourselves confronted with an entirely
new man. Franck has become an artist of definite
principles, whose genius is no longer tentative and
uncultured, as in the first period, nor dreamy and
tending towards new horizons, as in the second.
He has now attained to perfect self-consciousness,
knowing what he wants and possessed of a gift
which, thanks to traditional atavism, combined with
reflection and experience, is now capable of daring
all things and building masterpieces both simply
and solidly.

At this moment a final transformation takes
place : Franck both wishes and knows how to com-
pose. The hesitations of youth and the almost
cloistral calm of his maturity are left behind ! As
his pupil Ropartz * has remarked, it seemed as
though he had *' reposed a certain number of years
in order to acquire the necessary strength to sustain
this new career which opened out before him just as

• Revue Internationale de Musi^ue, December 1890.
159

i6o CESAR FRANCK

he had reached the age of fifty, like a dazzling path
leading to new joy and radiance, towards which he
pressed onwards, sure of himself and filled with
fervent faith and youthful enthusiasm."

He now knows how to work out his numerous
inspirations and wills to create. And his creations
become radiant with vitality and brimming with
beauty.

He does not intend to be a stranger to any form
of his art, symphony, vocal music, chamber music,
even lyric drama — he attacks them all in turn; there
is not one realm in the universe of music that he
fails to explore. And in the course of the conquest
of this vast and new world he makes many rich
discoveries, and effects the logical and inspired
renascence of traditional forms.

I think I have already said enough as to what
constitutes the originality of Franck's classical
spirit, and need hardly return to it here ; besides,
it is only necessary to read through the works of his
later years in order to realise it. I will not weary
the reader with a dry and futile analysis of all the
remarkable compositions which remain as the monu-
ment of his third style, but will confine my atten-
tion to the chief examples, reserving to myself the
right to devote a more detailed study to the three
immortal masterpieces — the Quartet in D major, the
Chorales of 1890, and The Beatitudes.

THIRD PERIOD (i 872-1 890) 161

It is with regret that I must only make bare
mention of the fascinating Eolides and the Three
Pieces for Organ, written expressly for. the inaugura-
tion of the colossal organ at the Trocadero during
the exhibition of 1878, a collection which contains
the Cantahile in B major, with its suave and devo-
tional theme which will ever remain the typical
prayer of an artist who was also a true Christian.
Twice the prayer is heard ; and here again we
cannot fail to admire the wonderful canon which,
moving with unbroken ease, forms the adornment
of the melody, written by the master on purpose
to display the warm, expressive quality of the new
clarinet stop, recently discovered by Cavaille-Coll.

Nor must I linger over the triumphal Qu'ntet
in F minor, the first chamber work which had
appeared since the Trios in 1841, played at a con-
cert of the Societe Nationale, January 17, 1880,
Saint-Saens being at the piano, assisted by MM.
Marsick, Remy, Van Woefelghem, and Loys ; nor
yet over Rebecca and Le Chasseur Maudit, first per-
formed at the Societe Nationale, on March 31, 1883.
I must, however, call attention to one rather curious
development which I pointed out in speaking of the
works of Franck's first period : I mean his return
to the composition of piano pieces, a style which he
had completely neglected for nearly forty years.

For some time past composers had ceased to

h

i62 CESAR FRANCK

write serious works for the pianoforte. After the
avalanche of fantasias and the plethora of concertos
which filled the first half of the nineteenth cen-
tury, it seemed as though this instrument, which
had been the inheritor of all the masterpieces of
Bach, Haydn, and Mozart, and had acquired with
Beethoven its true patent of nobility — was now
destined, artistically speaking, to a sterile decadence.
Although the great specialists of the piano had added
to its technique some new and ingenious details ;
although, to express the poetry of his soul in inspired
trifles, Schumann had invented a style of writing for
this instrument more orchestral than his orchestra-
tion itself, which blossomed forth in fascinating and
intimate sonorities ; although Liszt had swept away
at one stroke all the scaffolding of classic *' pianism,"
enriched the instrument by means of combinations
hitherto unsuspected, and given a decisive impulse
to virtuosity — as yet no musician had added any
fresh artistic material to the monument which Beet-
hoven had left us. In short, though the technique
of the piano and the style of writing for it had
become transcendent, the music intended for the in-
strument alone\i2i(i certainly degenerated ; and every
form which does not progress ends by becoming
atrophied and dying out.

The important movement started in France by
the Societe Nationale de Musique had only brought
forth a very few interesting pieces for piano solo, its

THIRD PERIOD (1872-1890) 163

activity being chiefly directed to encouraging orches-
tral or chamber music. Cesar Franck, struck by
the lack of serious works in this style, set to work
with a youthful fervour which belied his sixty years
to try if he could not adapt the old aesthetic forms
to the new technique of the piano, a problem which
could only be solved by some considerable modifica-
tions in the externals of these forms.

It was in the spring of 1 8 84 that he first spoke to us
of this wish, and from that moment until 18 87 his eyes
dwelt perpetually upon the ivory of the keyboard.

He began by a piece for piano and orchestra, a
kind of symphonic poem based upon an Oriental
subject from Victor Hugo's Les Djinns^ in which
the pianist is treated as one of the executants, not as
the soloist of a concerto, as custom had hitherto
demanded. This work, which is not, properly
speaking, a musical adaptation of Hugo's poetical
" lozenge," * and is not even very closely connected
with the subject, was only a first attempt, which
soon found completion in the admirable Prelude,
Chorale, and Fugue for piano solo. In this com-
position all is new both as regards invention and
workmanship. This work was destined to add

* The expression, which seems cryptic to those unacquainted
with Hugo's poem, can be easily understood by reference to " Les
Orientales," No. 28, p. 115. Les Dj inns opens with short lines
which gradually lengthen to a climax and die down again, with

an effect on paper somewhat resembling this figure : ^ \ — R. N.

i64 CESAR FRANCK

interest to the programmes of the Societe Nationale,
under the auspices of which it was first brought
out by Mme. Poitevin, January 24, 1885. Franck
started with the intention of simply writing a prelude
and fugue in the style of Bach, but he soon took up
the idea of linking these two movements together by
a Chorale, the melodic spirit of which should brood
over the whole work. Thus it came about that he
produced a work which was purely personal, but
in which none of the constructive details were left
to chance or improvisation ; on the contrary, the
materials all serve, without exception, to contribute
to the beauty and solidity of the structure.

The Prelude is modelled in the same form as the
prelude of the classical suite. Its sole theme is first
stated in the tonic, then in the dominant, and ends
in the spirit of Beethoven with a phrase which gives
to the theme a still more complete significance.
The Chorale, in three parts, oscillating between E
fiat minor and C minor, displays two distinct
elements : a superb and expressive phrase which
foreshadows and prepares the way for the subject of
the Fugue, and the Chorale proper, of which the three
prophetic words — if we may so call them — roll forth
in sonorous volutions, in a serene, religious majesty.

After an interlude which takes us from E flat
minor to B minor — the principal key — the Fugue
presents its successive expositions, after the develop-
ment of which the figure and rhythm of the com-

THIRD PERIOD (1872-1890) 165

plementary phrase of the Prelude returns once more.
The rhythm alone persists, and is used to accompany
a strenuous restatement of the theme of the Chorale.
Shortly afterwards the subject of the Fugue itself
enters in the tonic, so that the three chief elements
of the work are combined in a superb peroration.

When interpreting this dazzling conclusion, it is
evidently the subject of the Fugue that should be
brought out by the pianist, for it is the keynote,
the reason for the existence of the whole work. We
find it as early as the second page of the Prelude in
a rudimentary but quite recognisable form :

it grows more distinct in the initial phrase of what
I have called the first element of the Chorale :

I

jj

Sujet

^

#^^L!Llfi_U_^^^

finally, after its full exposition in the first entry of
the Fugue :

^ Sujet *

m

s^

^

i — : etc..

the peroration to which I have referred above recalls
the subject combined with the other elements :

i66

CESAR FRANCK

THIRD PERIOD (i 872-1 890) 167

BfrnfffifflBa i|i I tl J, t ^n

^

*

*

m

^p

etc.

i68 CESAR FRANCK

From this moment it appears in its full significance,
and enfolds us in its triumphant personality until
the final peal which brings the work to a close.

Very different in construction is the Prelude^ Arla^
and Finale^ dedicated to Mme. Bordes-Pene, and
played by her for the first time at the concert of the
Societe Nationale, on May I2, 1888. This work
does as much for the renovation of sonata-form as
its predecessor does for the prelude and fugue.

Here the theme of the Prelude is a long phrase in
four sections of extraordinarily sustained inspiration.
It is repeated in the relative key about the middle of
the piece, and reappears at the close in the tonic (E
major), with slight modifications. We recognise the
form of the Andante in the sonata.

The Aria is the twofold exposition of a simple,
tranquil melody which modulates from A flat major
to A flat minor, framed as it were between a short
introduction and a conclusion which reappears in the
Finale.

As regards this last movement, it has the appear-
ance and essential anatomy of sonata-form, with this
difference — that the principal tonality appears for
the first time with the restatement of the second
subject and continues without any change until the
end. The joyous effect of the return to this key is
all the more intense because it has been recaptured
with difiiculty by means of a wonderfully varied

TPIIRD PERIOD (i 872-1 890) 169

gradation of tonalities. After the traditional deve-
lopment of the themes, the Jria is heard again, calm
amid its animated surroundings, and in the key of
D flat major. 1 hen, after the re-exposition of the
themes is accomplished, the noble melody of the
Prelude establishes itself forcibly amid the principal
tonality, to conclude, in a scries of expressive tone-
gradations, with the elements of the Aria. Contrary
to the preceding work, this one has no tintinnabulant
peroration, but dies away softly as though the melody
evaporated and vanished in thin air.

It is difficult to decide which of these two works
is the most inspired, but we may assert with absolute
confidence that both gave a revivifying impulse to
the literature of the pianoforte, which seemed about
to perish between the Scylla and Charybdis of vir-
tuosity and emptiness.

Between these two typical renovations of the art
of writing for the piano we must place the Variations
Symphoniques for piano and orchestra,* the continua-
tion, as I have observed, of that amplification of
this form which Beethoven began with such a
master-hand.

To this period of very active production belong
also the completion of The Beatitudes, the composi-
tion of Hulda, and the Sonata in A for Violin and

* First performed at the Soci^te Nationale de la Musique
May I, 1885, M. L. Dimmer being at the piano.

I70 CESAR FRANCK

Piano, dedicated to Eugene Ysaye, about which I
should like to say a few words, for this sonata is one
of the most striking examples of the application of
a system of lofty variation to traditional forms.

The melodic basis of this masterpiece consists of
three themes, of which the first — the germ of the
work — is presented in the beginning as a rhythmic
figure :

I

¥

±=±

and dominates in various forms the whole organism
of the work.

As to the two remaining themes :

^»r r If »i'

and

t-

W

P

etc.

elc^

they appear in succession as the work progresses, and
attain their full development when it reaches its
climax.

I need hardly say that the first of these organic
germs quoted above is used as the theme of all the
four movements of the work, and that in the last
movement (a bold transformation of the old rondo-
form) it gives birth to an admirable example of

THIRD PERIOD (i 872-1 890) 171

melodic canon, such as hitherto Franck alone was
capable of inventing.

From this moment cyclical form, the basis of
modern symphonic art, was created and consecrated.

The majestic, plastic, and perfectly beautiful
Symphony in D minor is constructed on the same
method. I purposely use the word method for this
reason : after having long described Franck as an
empiricist and an improvisor — which is radically
wrong — his enemies (of whom, in spite of his incom-
parable goodness, he made many) and his ignorant
detractors suddenly changed their views and called
him a musical mathematician, who subordinated
inspiration and impulse to a conscientious manipu-
lation of form. This, we may observe in passing, is
a common reproach brought by the ignorant Philis-
tine against the dreamer and the genius. Yet where
can we point to a composer in the second half of the
nineteenth century who could — and did — think as
loftily as Franck, or who could have found in his
fervent and enthusiastic heart such vast ideas as
those which lie at the musical basis of the Syfnphofiy,
the Quartet, and The Beatitudes ?

It frequently happens in the history of art that a
breath passing through the creative spirits of the day
incites them, without any previous mutual under-
standing, to create works which are identical in form,
if not in significance. It is easy to find examples of

172 CESAR FRANCK

this kind of artistic telepathy between painters and
writers, but the most striking instances are furnished
by the musical art.

Without going back upon the period we are now
considering, the years between 1884 and 1889 are
remarkable for a curious return to pure symphonic
form. Apart from the younger composers, and one
or two unimportant representatives of the old school,
three composers who had already made their mark
— Lalo, Saint-Saens, and Franck — produced true
symphonies at this time, but widely different as
regards external aspect and ideas.

Laic's Symphony in G minor, which is on very
classical lines, is remarkable for the fascination of its
themes, and still more for charm and elegance of
rhythm and harmony, distinctive qualities of the
imaginative composer of " Le Roi d'Ys."

The C minor Symphony of Saint-Saens, displaying
undoubted talent, seems like a challenge to the
traditional laws of tonal structure ; and although
the composer sustains the combat with cleverness
and eloquence, and in spite of the indisputable interest
of the work — founded, like many others by this com-
poser, upon a prose theme, the Dies Ir^e — yet the
final impression is that of doubt and sadness.

Franck's Symphony^ on the contrary, is a continual
ascent towards pure gladness and life-giving light,
because its workmanship is solid, and its themes are

THIRD PERIOD (i 872-1890) 173

manifestations of ideal beauty. What is there more
joyous, more sanely vital, than the principal subject
of the Finale^ around which all the other themes in
the work cluster and crystallise ? while in the higher
registers all is dominated by that motive which
M. Ropartz has justly called " the theme of faith." ^

This Symphony was really bound to come as the
crown of the artistic work latent during the six
years to which I have been alluding.f

Psyche is a work which I particularly cherish,
because the master did me the honour of dedicating
it to me, joining to my name the precious designation
of " friend." It was first performed at the Societe
Nationale on March 10, 1888, and revived at the
Colonne Concerts on February 23, 1890.

I have already spoken of the mystical significance
of this work, which, in spite of its antique title, has
nothing of the pagan spirit about it, and still less of

* J. Guy Ropartz, Symphonies Modernes ; extract from Notations
Artistiques. Lcmerre, 1891.

t We must in justice deal with the erroneous view of certain
misinformed critics who have tried to pass oft" Franck's Symphony
as an offshoot (they do not venture to say imitation, because the
difference between the two works is so obvious) of Saint-Saens'
work in C minor. The question can be settled by bare facts. It
is true that the Symphony, with organ, by Saint-Saens was given
for the first time in England in 1885, but it was not known or
played in France until two years later (January 9, 1887, at the
Conservatoire) ; now at this time Franck's Symphony was com-
pletely finished.

174 CESAR FRANCK

the Renaissance, but, on the contrary, is imbued with
Christian grace and feeling, recalling the frescoes in
the Arena of Padua or the Fioretti of St. Francis of
Assisi. I wish, however, to call the attention of my
readers to what M. Derepas says on the subject in
the pamphlet previously mentioned ; for his opinion
is the result of minute observations which, coming
from a learned and perfectly unbiassed critic, cannot
fail to interest all those who are endowed with
artistic feeling.

"According to the old myth. Psyche, touched by
love, but tempted by an indiscreet haste for know-
ledge, and yielding to curiosity, falls back upon
herself, powerless to rise again, and deprived for
ever of the direct vision of the world beyond.
Franck did not hesitate to break away from pagan
tradition. His poem ends in a more optimistic
spirit. Psyche falls asleep, ignorant of all external
sounds. The Zephyrs — her pure inspirations — bear
her to the garden of Eros, the desired paradise. Her
celestial spouse awaits her. But she imprudently
wishes to pierce the mystery in which he has
enveloped himself. The sublime vision disappears.
Fallen again to earth, wandering and plaintive,
Psyche breathes forth her woe. Eros forgives the
legitimate ambition which he himself had inspired.
Together they soar back to the light. It is the
apotheosis ; the love which has no need for faith.

THIRD PERIOD (i 872-1 890) 175

because it sees and possesses. It is indeed a true
Redemption.

*'Even more than its libretto, the music of
Psyche is quite modern and Christian in its inspira-
tion. The choruses are developed in so pure and
suave a polyphony, kept at so high a level in a region
of shadowless radiance, that neither the chorus of
angels in ' La Damnation de Faust ' nor ' L'Enfance
du Christ ' evokes so clearly the idea of heaven.

" Eros and Psyche do not express themselves in
words. Their emotions are interpreted by the
orchestra, and for this reason : they are not person-
alities. Franck, forgetful of the mythical hero and
heroine, makes them the symbols of the human
Soul and of supreme Love. Pure music, without the
association of words, is the most adequate medium
of expression for these immaterial actualities, pre-
cisely because its notes convey no definite significance,
nor its phrases a precise meaning. In this oratorio,
therefore, there are no solos. The orchestra plays
the most important part ; it depicts Psyche^s trans-
ports, regrets, and final happiness, and the invisible
but fruitful action of Eros. At the most, the
chorus, anonymous and impersonal, sing here and
there in a few words the movements of the drama.

"It is obvious that the entire work is impregnated
with a breath of Christian mysticism. The sorrow
of the exile on earth partakes of the accent of

176 CESAR FRANCK

prayer. The exceedingly sustained harmony of the
strings, the lines traced by the violins, the episodes
allotted to the wind, never betray the least sign of
sensuous preoccupations, but only express the highest
desires of a heart penetrated by the Divine Spirit." *

This mystical tendency — but towards a charming
and holy mysticism — is still more accentuated in
The Procession (first heard at the Societe Nationale,
April 27, 1889), in La Vierge a la Creche ("The
Virgin at the Cradle *'), an exquisite picture, recalling
the primitive Umbrian School, in which the sincere
charm of the music atones for the somewhat
namby-pamby character of the words. It is as
though some little Madonna by Bartolo di Fredi
had left a wall in San Gimignano to make music in
Paris.

Traces of this religious tenderness may be seen
also in most of the versicles for the Magnificat^
published after Franck's death under the common-
place title of LOrganiste, 59 Pieces pour Harmonium,

Which of us has forgotten our master's delight
when, alternating with the choir, he improvised
upon his organ the versicles of the Hymn to the
Virgin with which the vesper service closes ? Then
there was no need for preoccupation, as at the
morning service, when the melodic and tonal con-
struction of an offertory or communion required to
• Gustave Dcrepas, of. cit.

THIRD PERIOD (1872-1890) 177

be swiftly but seriously thought out. Gone the
questioning look on his mouth, the momentary
hesitation as his hands hovered over the registers.
This Magnificat was one continual smile ; a broad
smile upon a radiant face ; a smile which was full of
confidence and knew nothing of death— in a word, the
smile of our " Father " Franck.

He threw himself into the improvisation of these
versicles like a child into a round-game, and when
towards the close of his life a publisher who knew
what he was about asked him to fix these fugitive
impressions in a collection of a hundred pieces for
harmonium, he jumped at the suggestion, and set
to work with such ardour that he often wrote four
or ii^^ of these trifles in one morning. The work
was cut short by his death.

M. Gardey, priest of Saint-Clotilde, who had
known him for twenty-five years, and who came at
his request to administer the last sacrament to him,
told us that on the occasion of one of his visits to
the dying geniu — to whom his presence probably
recalled these Sunday improvisations — Franck turned
to him, his worn features still lit up with some of
the old joyousness, and said : ^' Ah ! that Magnificat !
How I loved it ! What a number of versicles I
have improvised to those beautiful words ! I have
written down some of them — sixty-three have just
been sent to the publisher, but I do want to get up

M

178 CESAR FRANCK

to a hundred. I shall go on with them as soon as
I get better — or else," he added in a lower tone,
" perhaps God will let me finish them — in His
eternity to come."

I must now turn to Franck's two attempts at
dramatic music. The first was Hulda, begun in
1882 and finished in 1885; the second Ghisele^
the finished sketch of which is signed and dated
September 21, 1889.

It may appear surprising that I should use the
word attempt in speaking of these works ; but, in
spite of their great musical value, which is indis-
putable and undisputed, they do not seem to me to
represent in the sphere of dramatic music that
progressive movement, that generous and renovating
impulse, which we find in all the symphonic works
of the master's third period.

Strange to say, Franck's operas are, to tell the
truth, less dramatic than his oratorios.

I think this aesthetic inferiority may be attributed
in a great measure to the flagrant commonplaceness
of the poems which were offered to him, which in no
way rose superior to the libretti of historic opera,
then in a moribund condition ; but we must also
add — and this is no reproach — that Franck's genius
did not tend to the theatrical.

He was never theatrical, in his life or in his works.
How then could he have conceived music solely

THIRD PERIOD (i 872-1890) 179

intended to make an effect on the stage, and to catch
the ear of the public at any price, which was all that
his operatic books were fit for ? He was too sincere
and too conscientious ever to have harboured the
mere thought of such an art. He contented him-
self, therefore, with writing beautiful music, without
seeking for any new dramatic expression which could
not have been suggested by the texts at his disposal.

At the same time he almost took the bit between
his teeth (forgive the trite expression) at one moment
while composing Hid da ; but it is remarkable that it
was the ballet that carried him away from the first,
and that was still symphonic music.

He wrote this ballet without pause or break, at
the same time as a prologue, which does not appear
in the score as it now stands, having been replaced,
no one knows why, by an epilogue. One evening
in the autumn of 1882, when Henri Duparc and I
called to see him, he came to meet us, flushed and
very much excited, and fired off these words at us,
which can only be really appreciated by those who
knew '' Father " Franck : " I think the ballet of
Hulda is a very good bit of work ; I am very pleased
with it. I have just been playing it over to myself,
and — / even da^tced it ! "

Hulda was given for the first time at the theatre
at Monte Carlo in 1894.

As to Ghisele, it was written still more rapidly,

i8o CESAR FRANCK

having been begun in the autumn of 1888, and

completed, as I have already stated, in September

1889.

This was a prolific year, in which Franck, sure of
himself, could write in his eight weeks' holiday the
last two acts of his opera and his sublime String
Quartet ! It almost appears as though he foresaw
his end, and hastened to utter all the music that still
remained within him.

At his death Ghisele was completely sketched out
as regards orchestration, the first act being quite
finished in this respect, and the five disciples who
had the honour to complete the instrumentation of
the two remaining acts were all sufficiently familiar
with the master's intimate thoughts, as well as with
his method of externalising these ideas in his pencil
sketches, to find the task an easy one.*

The first representation of Ghisele took place also
at Monte Carlo on April 5, 1896.

We now reach the last works, which form a superb
crown to an edifice of genius. Although absolute
beauty defies description, I wish as far as possible
to analyse and disclose the cause of the sensations
produced by the three masterpieces which I have
held over from the beginning of this chapter.

* The five pupils were: Pierre de Breville, Ernest Chausson,
Arthur Coquard, Vincent d'Indy, and Samuel Rousseau.

THIRD PERIOD (i 872-1 890) 181

These sensations cannot be reproduced here, and my
readers must forgive the impotence of my pen in
describing them, showing some indulgence to a
musician who is obliged to speak of his art in a
language which is not that of the art itself. I shall
endeavour to make my descriptions accessible to
those who, knowing nothing of the musician's craft,
love music and are sensible to beauty.

VII

THE QUARTET IN D MAJOR

The form of composition known as the string
quartet must be a work of maturity, if it is to have
any real artistic significance.

Do not let it be supposed that I have any in-
tention of laying down a dogmatic law. Heaven
forbid ! The assertion, however, is proved by
experience and corroborated by historical observa-
tion.

Even among musicians of genius there is no
example of a really good string quartet which dates
from a youthful period. Mozart's finest quartets
date from 1789-90, when the composer was thirty-
three — almost the equivalent of old age in this
particular instance.

Beethoven waited until he was thirty before he
ventured to handle this form of composition, having
refused at twenty-seven the tempting offers made to
him by Count Appony ; and it was not until nine

years later, with the seventh quartet, in F, that

182

THE QUARTET IN D MAJOR 183

he began to realise all that this form was capable of
becoming. The first ten or eleven of his works in
this sphere are merely essays, and the era of the true
Beethoven quartet — of those which created a new art
of music with the help of four instruments — only
dates from 1822, when the musician was in his fifty-
third year.

Edvard Grieg, in a sensational article upon his
own early studies, written for an American paper,*
relates that on his entrance to the Leipzig Con-
servatoire, Reinecke, as might be expected from a
worthy German pedagogue, directed him to write a
string quartet. The work was bad, as the composer
himself frankly owns, but the results of this early
educational mistake remained with Grieg, who, while
he was a charming improvisor of more or less
national songs, was no symphonist, and never
succeeded in becoming one.

But, it may be objected, those who can write for
orchestra must a fortiori be able to compose a quartet.
This opinion is quite erroneous, and could only pro-
ceed from persons of superficial judgment.

There is scarcely any connection between the two
methods of realising an idea by means of the string
quartet of the orchestra and realising it in the form

* Edv. Grieg, *' My First Success," The Independent, New
York, 1905.

1 84 CESAR FRANCK

of chamber music. The basis, the form, the style
of writing are in the latter case almost the opposite
to what they would be in an orchestral symphony.
Thus it comes about that youthful quartets — those
written too early in life — though they may pre-
sent certain seductive and ear-tickling qualities,
soon grow old and perish for lack of solidity of
structure.

It would be easy to explain the reasons for this,
but I should be stepping aside from my subject, for
this volume is not intended as a treatise on musical
composition. 1 will merely emphasise the fact that
the string quartet is the most difficult of all forms
to treat worthily, and that in order to attain the
variety in unity which it essentially demands, ripe-
ness of intellect and talent, together with sureness
of touch, are indispensable qualities.

It was during his fifty-sixth year that Cesar
Franck first ventured to think of composing a string
quartet; even then, in 1888, when we used to see
with astonishment his piano littered with the scores
of quartets by Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms,
he did not get beyond the contemplation of the
idea. The first actual sketches date only from the
spring of 1889.

The first movement, the dominating idea, cost
him infinite trouble. Frequently he would start

THE QUARTET IN D MAJOR 185

afresh, rubbing out with a nervous hand all that he
had believed to be permanent the day before. He
built up a good third of the opening section upon
a melodic idea, of which he afterwards modified
almost the whole elemental structure. He did not
hesitate even then to cut out what was already
written in clear copy, and to begin again according
to a second version, which in its turn failed to
satisfy him, and was destroyed and replaced by a
third and last scheme.

By way of proof, and for the edification of young
writers who believe every phrase that comes from
their pens to be immutable, I will reproduce here
the three versions of this musical thought which
plays so important a part in the development of the
work.

In the same way Beethoven made five attempts
before he definitely established the theme of the
Finale of the pianoforte sonata Op. 53 ; and yet it
seems to flow direct from the fountain of his
inspiration.

Franck had no reason to repent the laborious
conception of his first movement, for it was perhaps
thanks to his hesitations and the retracing of his
footsteps that he at last succeeded in finding the
special form which fitted this masterpiece.

1 86

CESAR FRANCK

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THE QUARTET IN D MAJOR 187

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THE QUARTET IN D MAJOR 189

This first movement is, indeed, the most wonder-
ful piece of instrumental music which has been
constructed since the last of Beethoven's quartets.
Its form, which is essentially new and original,
consists of two musical ideas, each living its own life
and possessing its own complete organism, which
interpenetrate without becoming merged in each
other, thanks to the perfect ordering of their various
elements and divisions.

Like the Quintet in F minor, the Symphony and the
Violin Sonata, the Q//^r/^/ is constructed upon a germi-
native idea which becomes the expressive basis of the
entire musical cycle ; but no other work of Franck's —
nor, indeed, of any of his predecessors — equals in dar-
ing but harmonious beauty this typical example of
chamber music, which is unique not only in the worth
and loftiness of its ideas, but in the perfection and
novelty of its structure, which is highly original.

At the risk of being too technical, and conse-
quently rather wearisome to some of my readers, I
shall — for the sake of a few others — attempt to
explain the union of these two elements of the
quartet in one organic whole ; and as I can find no
suitable term by which to qualify these two parts
of a whole, I will simply call them by the names
generally applied to them in the ensemble of the first
movement ; that is to say, one is constructed in lied-
form and the other in sonata form.

190 CESAR FRANCK

The germinative theme of the cycle forms
in itself alone the slow exposition of the lied:
(Theme X.)

LeLto _

tThenieX)

"--^^

^

fitC.

a complete exposition in the key of D major. To
this succeeds, in an Allegro^ the exposition of the
Sonata, with its two subjects, the first in D minor :
(Theme A)

Allegro

s

(Theme k.) feMT j. J^
lu — -

m

±

etc ..

the second in F major, in the classical style :
(Theme B)

(Theme B)

mm

^^

etc.

these two ideas linked together by a melodic figure :
(Motive C)

(ycdle)

(Motif C)^^

^s

i

22

which afterwards plays an important part in the
Fiftale,

The exposition of the Sonata ends in F, the relative,
and with the same figures as those of the lied.

THE QUARTET IN D MAJOR 191

Here, instead of the classical development of the
sonata, the lied reappears in F minor, but treated
fugally and with such continuity as to give it the
importance of a middle section — an andante :

i

Lento (viola) \

Lj^^J.J-1-

H etc.

an admirable and mysterious meditation v^hich un-
folds gradually like the oncoming of the twilight,
falling in more and more sombre tints.

Then the Allegro takes up the discourse once
more, and shaking off the nocturnal veil which
enwrapped the lied^ compels the music, in an ascend-
ing development, to mount again towards the regions
of light. But without success. In its restatement
the Allegro only succeeds here and there in lifting
the sable scarf, and it needs the calm and tender
close of the victorious lied to bring us back, with
the return of the principal key, to the long-awaited
brightness.

In order to make my meaning clearer, let me add
on the following page a diagram of the scheme,
which it is difficult to explain in words. It will be
easier to grasp the plan of this wonderful work if
we refer to the themes already quoted, which I have
indicated by letters, as in the demonstration of a
mathematical problem.

But, as should always be the case with fine works

192

CESAR FRANCK

M

THE QUARTET IN D MAJOR 193

of art, the hearer scarcely suspects the exceptional
and admirable structure of this masterpiece, of
which he is made sensible by the feeling that he is
face to face with something powerful and great,
while at the same time he is carried away by the
penetrating charm of the themes.

The Scherzo in F sharp minor, a frolic, " a round
danced by sylphs in a moonless landscape," as It
would have been described during the romantic
period, was composed, or at least written, in ten
days. The sketch, which has scarcely any erasures,
bears the date of November 9 ; whereas at the end
of the first movement is recorded in large, sprawling
letters, October 2gth^ i88g, followed by a note as to
the duration of the movement : " 17 minutes."

As to the third movement, the harghetto in
B major — a favourite key of the composer's — it is
also a model of purity, grandeur, and melodic sin-
cerity. I do not think since Beethoven wrote the
slow movements of his later quartets that it would
be possible to find in all musical literature a phrase
so elevated and so perfectly beautiful in thought, in
proportion, and in utterance as this long prayer.

For this, too, he sought long ere he found it.
To us, his old pupils, he made no secret of his
hopes and disappointments, his constant efforts in
this respect. With what joy he called to me from
the other end of his sitting-room, when I went to

N

194 CESAR FRANCK

see him one day : ** I have got it at last ! It is
a beautiful phrase; you must see for yourself!"
Without loss of time he hastened to the piano to
make me share in his happiness.

Ah, my master, in what hidden fold of your
'' seraphic soul " (as our fellow pupil Alexis de
Castillon used to say) did you find the germ that
afterwards flowered and bore such fruit, and now
rises up, a glorious, full-grown tree, to the honour
of musical art ?

The Finale is well worth studying, although it is
not so spontaneous in structure as the first move-
ment. It is in sonata-form, and opens with an
introduction in which the hearer will recognise in
succession the themes of the earlier movements ; a
familiar method of procedure, but one which is
rarely well carried out.

The first sketch for this introduction is rather
curious, at least as regards its conciseness, the
literary indication blending with the musical touch.
After having noted the intermediary working out
of the Finale (what the Germans call Durch-
fuhrung) :

(S n I ^ gf ibJ J J i I J

^1 { yp^

and having distinguished this quotation by the word
" Commencement," Franck writes with emphasis :

THE QUARTET IN D MAJOR 195

" A new phrase is needed here ; see the Quartet in
E flat/' * Then follows this indication : at the

end —

3rr-

^^

J. U 1^. r'TTf^

f

5

which proves that the sketches of the Finale were
thrown ofF before the composition of the Scherzo,
for which the above theme, put into ternary rhythm,
served as the theme of the Trio.-\

Immediately afterwards — occupying three staves
— comes this observation : " In the middle of the
second section, or towards the close, or else before
the return of the beginning of the Finale, bring in a
reminiscence of the Andante'^ This is followed by
the music containing this reminiscence. Finally
we arrive at a whole series of themes, all marked
by notes of interrogation, among which appears the
one which he finally fixed upon for the initial
subject of the last movement. The study of these
two pages is instructive for all who wish to be

* Beethoven, Op. 127.

t Franck gave these sketches for the quartet to his pupil, our
dear and deeply lamented comrade Ernest Chausscn. Mme.
Chausson has kindly allowed me to reproduce some fragments
from them.

196 CESAR FRANCK

enlightened as to the methods of composition
adopted by a great musician ; methods which we
find employed almost identically in Beethoven's
sketch-books.

To return to the Finale of the Quartet. It offers
this remarkable feature, that its two leading ideas
emanate, as it were, from phrases or figures already
employed in the first movement ; but they are here
presented in a new spirit and under quite different
aspects.

In the figure below we shall easily recognise the
germinative phrase of the lied (see Theme X.) :

A119 molto

g

ra^n

m

? J J j j

given out by the viola as the first subject of the
movement. As to the second subject, consisting of
three phrases, like Beethoven's second themes, it
derives its principal element — contained in its first
section —

from the subjoined motive (C) in the first Allegro :

'^1 J r] I

THE QUARTET IN D MAJOR 197
The two other phrases of the second subject :

i^lUr fnfm^

am

^g^

i

^f-f-f^

f

fe

are peculiar to the Finale, although in the first we
may trace certain affinities of melodic outline with
the first movement.

The development displays a wonderful variety of
tonal colour. Passing from C sharp major (D flat)
to F sharp and D sharp (E flat), we rest for a
moment in B flat major, an intermediate key, and
D minor and major ; after which the music goes its
way until we reach the recapitulation, which follows
classical lines as far as the final development. In
the middle of this, however, the persistent rhythm
of the Scherzo ends by recalling the radiant melody
of the Larghetto, which now appears in augmentation,
and brings this magnificent work to a close in a
spirit of almost religious solemnity.

Truly this Quartet is a work of rare beauty

VIII

THE THREE ORGAN CHORALES *

I SHALL not treat the Chorales at such length as the
preceding work, but I want to demonstrate by the
analysis of the Chorale in E the truth of what I
have said e-.rlier in the volume as to the heritage of
the great Beethoven Variation^ which Franck a^one
seems to have cherished and endowed with added
lustre.

In the present day, when every one has had a chance
of hearing Bach's Passions and Cantatas, we cannot
fail to know — if we have listened to them with
attention — what constitutes the theme of a Chorale :
the exposition of a series of short musical periods,
separated by intervals of silence, the sequence of
which forms a complete melodic phrase. This
form, the outcome of Gregorian music, in which it
blossomed out into free rhythms, became at the
time of the so-called Renaissance the typical, collec-

• Franck dedicated these three chorales to MM. Al. Guile-
man t, Th. Dubois, and E. Gigout. It is by mistake that other
names appear on the published edition;

198

THE THREE ORGAN CHORALES 199
tive choral music of the Protestant Reformation.
But how greatly it lost in aesthetic value by its
restriction within harmonic formulas, instead of the
free, expansive, Gregorian melody !

The Chorale, which after a short time came to
be merely a song, was saved as regards its musical
form by J. S. Bach, who, recapturing and raising to
the height of his own genius the methods of the
Catholic organists, created a new kind of Chorale
Variation for the organ, a discovery which should
have borne fruit, but by which, apparently, only
Beethoven and Franck knew how to profit.

Franck's first Organ Chorale in E major offers one
peculiarity — that the theme proper is first stated as
an accessory part of a whole, which is equally in the
form of a chorale, to which it serves merely as a
conclusion (or in technical terms as a Coda).

The exposition of the work is therefore a lied in
seven modulating periods, of which the sixth brings
back and determines the key of E major, and it is
completed by a seventh which seems to be super-
added, but gradually takes its place as the dominating
personality and suppresses all the others.

In order that my readers may follow this analysis
by help of the music itself, I quote the opening notes
of these seven periods ;

200

ESAR FRANCK

II.

111.

IV.

VI.

VII

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This fine exposition is succeeded by the First
Variation, in which the entire phrase we have just
heard is reproduced in a fragmentary way ; that is tO'
say, the periods II., IV., and VI. are omitted, and only
those represented by the odd num.bers are treated ;

THE THREE ORGAN CHORALES 201

while the seventh already asserts itself in a way that
marks it as more important than a mere Coda.

The Second Variation is rather a harmonic emana-
tion (after Beethoven) than a commentary on the
theme. Nevertheless it develops Nos. I. and IV.
very clearly, although before long the seventh period
alone carries on the whole musical discourse. Then
the Third Variation takes possession of No. VII. and
drags it with difficulty from the darkness in which
the other periods have held it back, so that gradually
it rises towards that final outburst in which, stated
by the full power of the organ, it triumphs over all
its companions in a joyful peroration in the key
which has been reconquered at last.

This triumph " Father " Franck tried to explain
to us in words which we could not grasp, because we
did not know the work at that time : " You will see
the real chorale," he used to say. " It is not the
Chorale ; it is something that grows out of the work'^

The two other Chorales^ in B and A, are also con-
ceived in the great variation form, and are equally
fine. But to analyse them here would be to abuse
my reader's patience, and the first one suffices to show
how Franck assimilated (I do not say imitated) the
principle of amplification which strikes us so greatly
in all the later works of the composer of the Ninth
Symphony.

IX

THE BEATITUDES

How singular has been the destiny of that style of
composition called Oratorio, and how well worth a
special study, for it constitutes one of the most
curious examples of transformism in the whole history
of the art.

Starting as a kind of mystical opera, oratorio soon
became purely lyric, and then approximated to the
symphonic form by adopting the style of the Cantata.
But in our modern days, in this agitated period
when all is provisionary, when faith, subjected to the
assaults of disbelief, can no longer find its natural
expression in art, musical oratorio has been imper-
ceptibly led to replace and continue a literary form
that was completely discarded : the Epic.

The epic, that poetic monument which we only
approach with a kind of superstitious awe, because its
manifestations, easily enumerated, have only occurred
at long intervals in history, which we meet with
only in ages of transition and under peculiar con-
ditions, remained for long something which marked

202

THE BEATITUDES 203

the passage from an established way of life to a
new artistic and social state.

To the purely mystic and theocratic influences
which have always sheltered the cradle of all young
nations and civilisations, there invariably succeeds an
era of strife, heroic in ancient times, chivalric in the
Middle Ages, which precedes the period when the
human being, even his physical personality, becomes
the sole objective of the social movement, until the
beginning of a new cycle which reproduces the order
of those which have gone before.

It is, therefore, amid the period of agitation, of
titanic wars, of internal strife, of sublime deeds and
monstrous crimes that this mysterious lotus-flower of
literature — the epic poem — invariably flourishes.

Such are the Homeric epics, fixing the language
and mythology of Greece on the threshold of its
civilisation ; such is the "^neid," a lily which grew
upon the very boundary-line which separated the
heathen world at its most advanced stage of scep-
ticism from that impulse of fervent faith whereon
was grafted all Christian civilisation; such, also, is
the Comedy to which the epithet Divine has been so
justly linked, which, originating amid the increasing
struggles that rent all Italy, was nevertheless a work
of pacification, wherein are gathered and concentrated
all the learning of its day, all the exuberant faiths of
which the Crusades were the generous outcome.

204 CESAR FRANCK

When the epic attempts to blossom outside its
own environment or at unfavourable moments it
loses a part of its meaning. It may be a skilfully
versified poem, having a semblance of grandeur, like
" Pharsalus," * " Paradise Lost," or " The Messiad," f
but it remains all the same a v^^ork of artificial culture,
and is not the long-awaited, needed, and universal
manifestation.

In our day the human soul is too restless, too
tossed and driven in every sense, to be equal to the
literary creation of a work of simple faith such as
the epic ought to be. The vague chant of rhythmic
verse, be it in assonance or even in rhyme, no longer
suffices to awaken the interest of the nations and
bear to all men the poet's lofty message. Another
element is now needed to act as intellectual inter-
preter— an element endowed with a mysterious and
half-divine influence— an element which is still young,
which, by reason of its expressive nature, can adapt
itself to that craving for dreams and ideals which
will always exist in the depths of the human heart,
in spite of all efforts on the part of the apostles of
materialism to uproot it.

This vitalising element is music.

The nineteenth century has witnessed, from Beetho*
ven to Franck, passing through Schumann, Berlioz,
and Wagner, the birth of a great number of works,
* By Lucan. t By Klopstock.

THE BEATITUDES 205

sacred and secular, which are nothing more or less
than musical epics.

Such is the Missa Solemms, m which the composer
of the nine symphonies relates the life of Christ,
the sublimity of His doctrine, and the thirst for
fraternal peace which is the dream of the modern
spirit. Epics, incomplete perhaps, but epical in
their contents, are the ** Faust " in which Schu-
mann paraphrases Goethe's colossal poem, and the
" Damnation " wherein Berlioz strives to assimilate
this same masterpiece in the French spirit. An
epic, too, is the Tetralogy in which Wagner has
re-created, to the greater glory of music, the myths
and symbols of Northern beliefs, as Homer before
him condensed the Mediterranean legends. Finally
the epic of The Beatitudes^ in which " Father " Franck
recounts, almost with naivete^ the beneficent action
upon human destiny of a God Who is all love.

In this musical poem all the conditions needful
in classic ages for the constitution of an epic are
fulfilled : unity, sublimity, plenitude and interest of
subject, the fitness of the poet and the environment,
the former creating a work of faith in an age under-
mined by unbelief, himself firmly convinced of all
that he relates, and dominating even sceptics by his
musical eloquence, vaguer, but more universally
captivating than a versified poem. The Beatitudes^
then, are the long-expected work of the close of the

2o6 CESAR FRANCK

nineteenth century, the masterpiece which, in spite
of a few inevitable weaknesses {aliquando bonus dor-
mitat Homerus)^ will remain a superb temple, solidly
based upon the traditional foundations alike of
faith and music, and rising above the agitations
of this world like a fervent prayer ascending to
Heaven.

As is almost invariably the case with all great
monuments of art, the appearance of The Beatitudes
was preceded by a very long period of preparation
in the life of its creator. As in the Vita Nuova we
find some foreshadowings of the Divine Comedy^ so
we shall recognise with astonishment the sketch
of the theme which afterwards served as the hall-
mark of the Ninth Symphony in a simple //W which
Beethoven jotted down in 1804.

The Beatitudes had always existed, for they were
the work of Franck's whole evolution.

From his early youth, from the moment when he
felt that he was no longer a virtuoso, but a creative
musician, he began to think of a musical setting of
that beautiful poem of ideas — the Sermon on the
Mount. How could this Christian, in his strong
and simple faith, fail to be attracted by this promise
of future bliss ? How could this Christ, moving
amid the multitude and shedding among them words
of justice and peace, be for Franck anything but the

THE BEATITUDES 207

musical incarnation of a God of Love, healing with
a gesture the sufferings of humanity ?

Franck loved this text, and constantly re-read it.
A copy of the Holy Gospels which he had won as a
prize at the end of a school year is preserved in his
family, and the page containing in eight paragraphs
the Divine Sermon shows traces of being worn by
frequent use ; moreover, in the margin beside each
of Christ's sayings there are nail-marks — those nail-
marks which we, his pupils, knew so well, because
when he had no pencil within reach he used to
underline in this way such passages in our exercises
that he wished to praise or blame.

A very old piece for the organ, dating from his
start as an organist, the manuscript of which has
been lost, bore these words : " The Sermon on the
Mount " ; the same title reappeared on a Symphony
for Orchestra^ in the style of Liszt's symphonic
poems, which also dates from an early period and
has not been published.*

To transcribe this Divine poem in a musical
paraphrase worthy of the subject was the master's
constant thought ; but for this he required a versified
text.

Having too little confidence in his literary training,

• M. Georges C. Franck possesses the manuscript of this
symphony, together with a number of unpublished studies and
pieces by his father.

2o8 CESAR FRANCK

he did not venture to undertake the work himself,
and (happily !) the librettists of the hour did not
care to lose valuable time in supplying this obscure
organist with a book for which the pecuniary return
was extremely doubtful.

Franck, who was not the shy and unapproachable
ascetic described by certain ignorant critics, very
gladly accepted friendly invitations to dine or spend
the evening out ; he enjoyed going to a few con-
genial houses as a relaxation after the hard work of
the day, and was often to be met in the family circle
of M. Denis, then professor at the Lycee Saint-
Louis. Struck by the enthusiasm with which his
organist friend discussed in intimate conversation
the Sermon on the Mount, the plan of which was
growing more clearly in his mind, needing only a
text in order to become music, M. Denis endeavoured
to find a literary collaborator for Franck, and dis-
covered her in the person of Mme. Colomb, the wife
of one of the professors at the Lycee of Versailles.

Mme. Colomb had a great facility for versifica-
tion, and had already published a few poems which
had gained one of the annual prizes offered by the
Institute.

The musician, in several interviews, explained to
her the outline of the poem as he conceived it,
and as he had pondered it for many years, and
on this basis Mme. Colomb supplied him with

THE BEATITUDES 209

verses which, without being remarkable as poetry, do
not hamper the music, and are certainly preferable
to anything he might have got in this style from a
professional librettist.

At last the master was provided with the text
so long and ardently desired. He set to work at
once, but everything did not run quite smoothly.
He retouched, and retouched again, and it seemed
as though, at first, the composer was not very sure
what musical style to employ, but was groping his
way ; and these tentative movements are still notice-
able, especially in the first part of the work.

1 he Prologue, however, came to him fairly easily,
and in the autumn of 1870 the first two Beatitudes
were sketched out musically. During the winter of
1 87 1, being still too much under the dominion of
the agony then weighing on the heart of the whole
French nation, and being unable to give his mind to
the creation of anything new, he devoted his spare
hours to the orchestration of these first sections,
completing them in the midst of the bombardment
of Paris. After the break caused by the composition
of Redemption, he took up the work again and wrote
the third part (" Blessed are they that mourn *'),
which seems to have given the work a definite
tendency as regards style ; then came the sublime
hymn to Justice, assigned to tenor solo, after which
there were no further interruptions, and the work

o

210 CESAR FRANCK

was finished in the autumn of 1879. He spent

ten years upon the construction of this monumental

work.

It was not until long after its completion that the
first performance of the masterpiece by the Associa-
tion Artistique took place, under the conductorship
of Edouard Colonne. This was in the winter of 1 8 9 1 ,
a year after the master*s death, and, as I have already
said, this performance assumed all the importance of
a revelation in the eyes of artists and of the public.

Shortly afterwards the second performance of The
Beatitudes was given at Liege, the composer's native
town, under the direction of Theodore Radoux, on
April I, 1894. In the same year the work was per-
formed twice at Utrecht, on June 18 and Decem-
ber 1 8 ; and in the course of the following year the
distinguished conductor Viotta * gave it in the huge
hall of the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, with a chorus
of over six hundred voices.

Meanwhile the Societe des Concerts of the Paris
Conservatoire had only ventured to give (and how
timidly !) two fragments from the work, and it was
not until 1904 that The Beatitudes figured in its
entirety — at two successive concerts — on these pro-
grammes. By that time the work no longer stood
in need of this tardy consecration in order to acquire
fame.

* Director of the Conservatoire at The Hague.

THE BEATITUDES 211

The poem falls naturally into eight sections, pre-
ceded by a prologue — or, perhaps, in order to follow
out its conformity with the traditional epic, I ought
to say into eight cantos. Each of these forms is
itself a short poem, containing antithetically a double
picture : first an exposition, sorrowful or indignant,
of the vices and evils which reign on earth ; then the
celestial affirmation of the expiation of these vices
and the healing of these evils; finally, either interpo-
lated between the two, or in the form of a conclu-
sion, the voice of Christ is heard proclaiming in a
few words the beatitude which awaits those who are
healed and sanctified. Each section of the poem,
therefore, actually resembles a triptych in the most
literal sense, in which two wings face and complete
each other by contrast, while the central panel is
occupied by the radiant figure of Christ, always
the same, yet always different by reason of His varied
attitudes.

This conception, so harmonious in the correspon-
dence and perfect balance of its constituent parts,
emanated from Franck himself; a fact which I can-
not insist upon too often, for it is remarkable at a
time when no musician thought of troubling hin>self
about the disposition and realisation of his subject,
leaving it all to his librettist.

What, indeed, could be more characteristically
" Franckian " than this work in which, apart from

212 CESAR FRANCK

the role which this incomparable musician reserved
to himself, we find a kind of pictorial atavism,
instinctively borrowing from his ancestors, artistic or
lineal, their wonderful comprehension of the triptych,
together with the genius of the architect uniting all
these pictures into a solid and powerful structure,
and, finally, the faith of the Christian reproducing
with the perfect simplicity of the primitive believers
the figure of God made Man ?

If I dwell upon the Christ of The Beatitudes^ it is
because the master has given in his work an interpre-
tation of the Divine Personality such as had never
before been contemplated in the whole history of
music. Too timid, or too respectful, the great
musicians of the polyphonic period, and that which
followed, did not venture to represent the Son of
God speaking and appearing as a real personage.
If the Heavenly Gardener meets the Magdalen* His
words are assigned, as in the dramatic madrigals,
to collective interpretation. Later on the Christ
appears occasionally in Cantatas and Oratorios, but
He almost invariably keeps the character of a rigid
Protestantism. With Handel, with Bach more
especially, He is the strong, terrible, and sublime
God enthroned above the world, shedding upon
humanity below words of peace or condemnation ;
but we never see Him stooping towards the humble

• Heinrich Schiitz, Dialogus per la Pascua,

THE BEATITUDES 213

and the insignificant ; nor do we find Him near us,
living our life, suffering our pains and pitying our
sorrows with the fatherly tenderness which we find
in every page of the Gospels. Still later He passes
with Berlioz into the phase of legendary illusion,
although bearing as yet a certain poetic stamp. For
others He remains just simply *' the fine Nazarene,"
or perhaps something worse — a mere pretext for the
writing of cavatinas and ariosos. Henceforward
nothing is left of the Divine figure, and His musical
presentment suffers terribly from this, and becomes
conventional and sickly in its insipidity.

Cesar Franck makes no attempt to run a wild-
goose chase — if I may be pardoned the commonplace
phrase. Such as he has learned to love and know
Christ, such he presents Him to us in The Beatitudes
out of the fulness of his simple, Christian heart.
In doing this he had recourse, so we are assured, to
Ernest Kenan's **Life of Christ.*' If so, it was
most assuredly to proclaim the contrary, for the
inconsistent character of the man who desired to
make himself God, as described by that vague genius,
has actually nothing in common with the image of
the God Who was made man for the comfort and
salvation of humanity — the pure conception of this
good and devout musician.

It is this figure of Christ, or rather the sound of
His voice, that constitutes the unity of the work

214 CESAR FRANCK

from the musical point of view, that forms the
centre, the principal subject, around which are
grouped the different elements of the poem. Some
of these elements, judged by their importance, their
complexity, and the lavish musical means employed,
seem calculated to absorb more than their share of
the hearer's attention ; but every time the voice of
Christ is heard, if only for a few bars, all the rest is
effaced while this Divine figure comes to the front,
touching us to the very depths of our souls. For
Franck has succeeded in finding for his Christ a
representative melody actually worthy of the Per-
sonality of whom it is the musical commentary.

This melody, so simple yet so striking that we
can never forget it after its first appearance in the
Prologue, only attains its fullest development in the
last Canto^ where it then becomes so sublimely
inspired that, hearing it unfold itself like spiral
clouds of incense rising beneath the vaulted roof of
a cathedral, we seem actually to take part in the
radiant ascension of the faithful to their celestial
dwelling.

Since to attempt a detailed analysis of this musical
epic would exceed the scope of this chapter without
being of much use to the reader, 1 must limit my-
self by pointing out to such musicians as are ready
and willing to study the score for themselves the

THE BEATITUDES 215

salient points and the hidden foundations of the
work.

The Prologue, assigned to tenor recitative, is
merely a simple representation by various instru-
mental timbres of the phrase which personifies Christ
the comforter and dispenser of charity ; Christ is
foreshadowed, but does not yet express Himself in
words.

Here the motive is not affirmative, as it afterwards
becomes, but, on the contrary, it is mysteriously
hesitating in its expressive syncopations :

m

^

snr

dr iprtr

The first section, '' Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven," is obviously the
weakest part of the work. Although in its second
aspect, which varies the first, the chorus intended
to express the twofold sentiments of the pleasure-
seekers and the disillusioned begins to approach
more nearly to the true Franckian melody, it is in
reality nothing but an operatic chorus in the style
of Meyerbeer, aggravated by a vulgar stretto. But as
soon as this theatrical number has come to an end

2i6 CESAR FRANCK

the Voice of Christ is heard for the first time : a
long melodic phrase, independent of the theme of
Charity, which impresses us by its nobility, and is
afterwards repeated and amplified by the celestial
chorus.

It should be noted that this first Beatitude is
constructed in precisely the same manner as the first
part of Redemption ; the opening chorus is in A
minor and has more than one point in common with
that of Redemption ; moreover, just as in the last-
named work, the entrance into the celestial regions
is eflFected in the key of F sharp major, which, for
Franck, always represented the light of Paradise.

I cannot remember which of his critics gave vent
to the opinion that, skilled as this master was in the
use of canon^ he rarely had recourse to fugue. With-
out mentioning some of the organ pieces and the
famous fugue for piano. The Beatitudes are a splendid
refutation of this criticism. The second section of
this oratorio (" Blessed are the meek : for they shall
inherit the earth ") can only be regarded as a fugue,
the exposition of which is perfectly regular, with its

subject :

etc.

i> y K K N M 1-^ h j^ J^ 1'^ H-'l P

i^^

stzazt^

« 0

Le ciel est loin La terreest sombre Nul rayon n'y luit;

counter-subject, its successive entries of the parts,

THE BEATITUDES 217

and its classical development, until we come to the
consolatory quintet in D, of which the fervent
melody seems to descend from the heights above
like an actual ray of hope; the choir, now subdued,
mingles with the soloists and completes the impres-
sion by a chromatic passage of exquisite tenderness,
after which the Voice of Christ, reciting the text of
the Gospel itself, puts the finishing touch to this
beautiful number.

The third part is the song of sorrow : *' Blessed
are they that mourn : for they shall be comforted."
Above a kind of persistent knell, a theme is given out
in F sharp minor, the principal subject of an Andante
in five parts, sombre in mood, concentrated in its
sadness, although, even then, somewhat theatrical in
style. The sections which pair, enclosed between
three repetitions of the theme, are devoted to the
expression of particular sorrows : here w^e have the
mother weeping for her child, the timid orphan,
the husband robbed of the tenderness of the wife.
Later we come to the slaves sighing for liberty
(here again is an instance of fugue), followed by the
thinkers and philosophers who tell of their doubts
and vain r>::searches in the identical theme of slavery
previously heard in D minor, but now transposed
into D major, as though Franck, moved by a kind
of simple irony, had intended to link philosophy to
servitude. But, after one last cry of anguish, comes

2l8

CESAR FRANCK

a sudden change, a fresh modulation from F sharp
minor to E flat major brings back the theme of
Charity, and, for the first time, the Voice of Christ
is heard singing this motive, no longer hesitant and
broken as in the Prologue, but affirmative and sure,
the manifestation of the love awaited by the unhappy
sufferers :

n,r r r I ^ m H r r r r

Heureux-ceux qui pleu. rent, Heureux ceux qui

^

±

pleu- rent, Car ils se . ront con.so - les

The melody, which was formerly sad, is now trans-
formed, and, given out by the celestial choir, it
assumes the character of a theme of consola-
tion. Presently the mystic breeze which wafted
to us the words of Christ dies away in the distance,
and everything comes to an end in calm and
serenity.

It is beautiful indeed.

In the fourth part ('' Blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after Righteousness : for they
shall be filled ") the master's genius is revealed
absolutely and without blemish. Here there is only
room for admiration.

To the orchestra is assigned the exposition of the

THE BEATITUDES 219

two principal ideas which form the basis of this
Beatitude, the element of desire :

^ Lento

ft

I

E

and the element of confidence

r^

^^

this melody, following an ascending line, is developed
in conjunction with the first, and ends by being
definitely established in the tonality of G major.
Then, upon the mediant of the key, but still in the
feeling of the opening B minor, a tenor voice pro-
claims in words that which the orchestra has just
suggested in sonority ; the phrase — a true melodic
phrase — extends, grows more fervid, and, kindling
to a paroxysm of enthusiasm, breaks forth, in the
predestined key of B major, into the theme of sup-
plication. From this moment onwards desire is
appeased and the sense of confidence alone persists,
while the Voice of Christ, combined with this theme
of answered prayer, returns to ratify the old promise :
" Ask and it shall be given unto you,'' an outburst
which comes in the long-expected key of B major.

The fifth part (" Blessed are the merciful : for
they shall obtain mercy ") shows us, as in Redemption^

220 CESAR FRANCK

humanity overrun by crime and violence. Christ
has turned away his face from the impious world ;
and here Franck has recourse to a device which would
have found favour with the mystical sculptors of our
Gothic cathedrals, for he employs the theme of
Charity hy inversion^ which invests it with a strange
aspect of sorrow and suffering :

^

f

m

f

After the tenor has set forth the situation, a
chorus of the rebellious, mad for vengeance, breaks
out in a somewhat artificial and theatrical hubbub,
which is by no means improved by a stretto written
according to the conventions of opera during its
" Judaic " period. Were it not absolutely contrary
to Franck's character — for he is always sincere even
in his errors — we might be tempted to think that
this inferior chorus had been placed there inten-
tionally in order to enhance the beauties which
follow; but such a suspicion of calculated effect
could never even have flitted through the master's
mind, and if he has only succeeded in expressing the
desire for vengeance by the use of commonplace
phrases, it is because this desire was a thing so

THE BEATITUDES 221

foreign to his nature that he could not assimilate it
even in imagination and with the sole object of
giving it expression in music. When the hubbub has
subsided, calm reigns once more. The Voice of
Christ is heard admonishing this fruitless hatred,
and at the words " pardon your brethren " a ray of
sunshine pierces the clouds ; the theme of Charity
brings back the light together with the key of D
major, the tonality in which the work closes, and
the celestial chorus completes the paraphrase of
this sunrise by a phrase of ineffable sweetness, allied
to the angelic melodies in Redemption^ but very
superior from the artistic point of view.

The sixth Beatitude is that of purity : ** Blessed
are the pure in heart : for they shall see God.'* In
this section Franck's lofty soul moves in its own
element. Apart from a few short passages in
which the interest somewhat slackens, I do not
think any truly artistic spirit could fail to be
stirred to continuous and increasing admiration by
this Beatitude.

The Heathen and Jewish women mourn for their
departed Gods in a tender lament in which the two
themes combine and mingle easily, in spite of the
double tonalities of B flat minor and D flat major;
a quartet of Pharisees, which is perhaps a trifle too
emphatic and resembles somewhat in spirit Heinrich
Schiitz's dialogue between the Pharisee and the

222 CESAR FRANCK

Publican, starts a series of vain self-justifications,
which are fortunately interrupted by a short recita-
tive for the Angel of Death, summoning both the
hypocrites and the truthful before the judgment-
seat of God.

The gates of Heaven are thrown open, and in the
scintillant brightness of the key of F sharp major
a flight of angels is heard singing the adorable
melody in which Franck's purity of heart found its
fullest expression. The exquisite cadence with
which this chorus ends :

ffflUJ hi.' ' f I J Jg»

Pour vous s'ou.vri . ra le saint lieu

is nothing more than a development of the Charity
motive, taken up at once by the Voice of Christ in
the actual words of the Gospel. After a series of
brief commentaries in which the vocal parts seem
to be weaving such garlands of flowers as we see
in representations of Paradise by Lippi and Fra
Angelico, Christ proclaims the words of consolation
once more, but this time in the definite tonality of
D major, which is that of the final outburst of
glory ; then, by the simple device of raising the A
natural to A sharp, we are brought back to F sharp
major, and the choir brings the song to a close in the
full radiance of this key.

THE BEATITUDES 223

I think this monument of artistic purity can never
fall into decay. It will remain a marvel worthy of
adoration.

It would have been difficult to keep at such alti-
tudes ; consequently with the seventh Beatitude
('' Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be
called the children of God ") we descend to earth —
and even a little lower, because a somewhat con-
ventional Satan endeavours to drag us down to
the Pit.

This personification of ideal evil — if it is per-
missible to link these terms — was a conception so
alien to Franck's nature that he never succeeded in
giving it adequate expression. I can never forget
his efforts to put on an awe-inspiring air, his frowns,
the contortions of his mouth and the queer sounds
of his voice, which caused us to smile rather than
tremble, when he sang :

•Timsx-^xu^Trwr^

Cest EDoi I'espnt du mal qui suis roi de la ter . re

Poor, dear master ! His good faith was un-
shaken, and he honestly believed himself for the
moment to be " the spirit of evil " — he who had only
lived and worked for good ! Incapable, therefore,
of drawing upon himself for the expression oi
emotions which he never felt but superficially, he

224 CESAR FRANCK

borrowed the style of the most inferior eclectics,
and here, more than in the first and fifth sections,
he falls back on Meyerbeer.
The stretto,

A day of wrath and judgment dire.
Our day at length appeareth,

would not be out of place in some new version of
" Robert le Diable."

At length Christ appears on the scene, the Devil
is cast down, and the Saviour's recitative brings to
the listener a delicious sense of refreshment, due to
the serenity of the key B flat major coming after all
the raving and ranting in minor keys which preceded
it. This suave colouring of B flat major reappears
later on in a very happy way, in the beautiful
quintet in D flat which concludes this section ; it is
definitely established at the words " Satan's myriads
lurk " as the tonal antithesis of the C minor of the
Prince of Darkness.

At this point I wish to call attention for the last
time to what 1 have already maintained in several
preceding pages of this book as to the heritage left
us by Beethoven which, in his own day, Franck was
almost the only one to gather up and render fruitful.
In The Beatitudes^ more perhaps than in any other of
his works, he makes use of the means supplied by
fugue and variation-form. The former is to be
found in the second, and, in its fullest develop-

THE BEATITUDES 225

ment, in the third section, without enumerating
other less striking instances. As regards the highest
variation-form, we meet it on every page of the
work : in the theme of Charity under its various
aspects ; in practically the whole of the first sec-
tion ; in the angelic idealisation of a theme of
human suffering like that which occurs in the third
section. This system of variation comes directly
from Beethoven's last quartets^ and has nothing in
common with the Wagnerian leitmotiv^ which does
not consist of a transformation, but of a thematic
development that finds its true application in the
drama, but would not be admissible in a work thought
out almost symphonically, like Franck's music poem.

We have now reached the crown of the work,
that eighth Beatitude which, summing up all the
others, is also an exceptional landmark in the
history of music. We might almost believe that
" Father " Franck, foreseeing a time of persecution,
and becoming himself like the vates of the old epics,
intended this masterpiece as a healing balm to those
who were to suffer for justice' sake, and wished to
compel them to look above, where peace and truth
reign for all eternity.

" Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven."

P

226 CESAR FRANCK

Satan has reappeared ; the spirit of evil, arro-
gant but devoured v^^ith unrest, tries to prove to
Christ the emptiness of Love's victory. Here he
is admirable, for his personality becomes almost
human. He is no longer the Satan of the theatre,
clothed in conventional tinsels ; he is man, whose
pride has suffered through defeat, v^ho spues forth
his hatred before the throne of his conqueror. This
feeling, which is no longer a generalisation or an
abstraction, but an expressive impulse, has been
interpreted by Franck in an outburst of superb
defiance.

But He whom Satan defies disdains to reply ; and
it is the Just, persecuted but confident in Justice to
come, whose voices are now heard singing that it is
sweet to die while proclaiming the one and only
Truth. The contrast between the key of E major
in which this fine melody is sung and the sombre
colouring employed for Satan's defiance is very
striking.

The Spirit of Hatred now apostrophises these
mortals who brave him, and condemns them to the
most horrible torments ; while the Just, calm in
spite of his threats, invoke eternity with ever-
increasing confidence. Satan, confounded, replies
with fiercer insults, and the chorus raises a third
invocation, somewhat anguished at first, but soon
giving place to complete tranquillity, and a delicious

THE BEATITUDES 227

modulation brings us back to E major, emphasising
the return of unshaken faith.

All grows dark once more, but in the mild
colouring of F minor, and the Virgin in a sub-
lime arioso, worthy of those in Bach's " Passions,"
comes to symbolise in herself the spirit of Sacrifice.
With the words of her Divine offering the key
of F major becomes established for the first time
in the score.

Satan becomes powerless, withdraws into outer
darkness, and Christ, victorious, enthroned above
the world, summons all the host of the righteous
and the elect :

O come, ye of my Father beloved,
O come to me !

At this juncture the key of D major, which has
often appeared episodically, now becomes definite,
and seems to fall upon regenerated humanity like a
new light, while the Divine Voice is heard at last
singing the long-expected song of salvation won
through Love. The theme of Charity, hitherto so
often torn asunder in so many fragmentary phrases,
now becomes a complete melody, and the orchestra
takes it up more solemnly than before, while the
celestial and terrestrial choirs sustain their long and
serene Hosannas.

In the whole of this sublime peroration there is

228 CESAR FRANCK

not one poor bar, not a note out of place, not a
single modulation which is not explicable and
approved by the dramatic situation.

This is true art. The ages to come cannot
tarnish its resplendent beauty.

In conclusion, The Beatitudes bears the impress
which seals so superbly all the strongest and most
enduring manifestations of genius ; it is the ascend-
ing progression of a harmonious whole. In spite of
some defects, which, as a historian, I may have too
scrupulously emphasised, this musical epic is un-
doubtedly the greatest work which has found a
place in the development of the art for a very long
time past. This is also the opinion of a critic whose
good faith is beyond question : *

" This work," he says, " is not merely one of the
most extensive that has been composed since Beetho-
ven's time, but it appears to me to rise above all
the other compositions of the present day. I might,
perhaps, point to more perfect works, but I know of
none of such lofty and sustained inspiration. Here
we find a radiance of the sublime ; and, wonderful to
relate, this is not due to any external aid, but simply
to the power of a unique emotion — to religious
effusion alone."

Truly our revered master has " done well," as
Emmanuel Chabrier said above his half-closed
* Rene de R6cy, La Revue Bteue, 1894.

THE BEATITUDES 229

grave, and none can doubt that the Spirit of Eternal
Righteousness has admitted him in the new life to
that Beatitude the glory of which he sang so
worthily in this world.

THE TEACHER AND HIS
HUMAN WORK

1

"FATHER" FRANCK

To teach an art with fruitful results we must first
understand our crafty then the art^ and finally the
pupil whom we have undertaken to initiate.

It seems a mere commonplace to say that a
teacher should himself be well instructed both in
his craft and in his art — two distinct branches of
study, although too often confused — but, as a ques-
tion of practice, this statement is not remarkable,
for in Germany as well as in France (Italy is not to
be considered from this point of view) in all the
teaching institutions there are very few professors
of composition who know how to teach their art^
because — it must be confessed — they only under-
stand and exercise it empirically.

In my time there were even some teachers of
composition at the Paris Conservatoire who did not
thoroughly understand their own craft, and were
therefore totally incapable of imparting it to others.

As to the knowledge of an individual pupil, our
entire system of instruction in France being based

233

234 CESAR FRANCK

upon the false principle of reducing all intellects to
one level, it is not surprising that our professors of
art, acting in agreement with systems adopted else-
where, are only employed in pouring into young
minds that are sometimes widely differentiated the
same identical and trivial material, never realising
that the pabulum which is good, or at least harm-
less, for some may be hurtful to others, to whom
it should be administered with a corrective or an
explanation. Nor do they grasp the fact that pre-
cepts necessary to limited minds can become intoler-
able to students of higher capacity, and may lead to
a dangerous or at least premature affranchisement.

It is unnecessary to dwell any further on Franck's
skill in the exercise of his craft and on the mastery
displayed in his art, but it is important to show
clearly one most valuable quality of his teaching —
that knowledge of the individual pupil which was
wanting in almost all the other professors of com-
position of his time.

Was he himself aware that he possessed this
particular faculty ? It seems doubtful ; and we
might go on to say that Franck was an unconscious
philosopher, who studied the psychology of his
pupils in spite of himself (I will explain the reason
of this later on), and understood how to give each
of them the direction and the subject-matter best
suited to his temperament. He excelled in his

■HE MONUMENT TO CESAR FRANCTv
A If red Lcnoii-, scu /it or

" FATHER " FRANCK 235

power to penetrate his pupils' thoughts and to take
possession of them, while scrupulously respecting
their individual aptitudes. This is the reason why
all the musicians formed in his school have acquired
a solid science of music, while in their works each
has preserved a different and personal aspect.

The secret of this essentially wide education lies
in the fact that Franck never taught by means of
hard and fast rules or dry, ready-made theories, but
that his whole teaching was inspired by something
stronger than law — by love itself.

Franck loved his art, as we have seen, with a
passionate and exclusive ardour, and for this par-
ticular reason he loved also the pupil who was to
become the depository of this art which he revered
above all else ; this is why he knew instinctively
how to touch the hearts of his pupils and attach
them to himself once and for all.

For the entire generation that was so fortunate
as to be brought up on his sane and solid principles,
Cesar Franck was not merely a far-seeing and lucid
teacher, but a father — and I have no hesitation in
using this word to characterise the man who gave
birth to the French symphonic school, for we, his
pupils, together with many artists who came in
contact with him, were drawn instinctively by a
unanimous, but independent, agreement to call him
** Father " Franck.

236 CESAR FRANCK

While the ordinary run of academic teachers (and
especially the professors at the Paris Conservatoire,
where their energies are chiefly directed to the pro-
duction o^ premiers prix) generally succeed in making
their pupils rivals — who often end by being enemies
— " Father " Franck only set himself to turn out
artists truly worthy of this free and noble title ;
such an atmosphere of love radiated from this pure-
minded man that his pupils not only cared for him
as for a father, but they were attached to each other
in and through him. During the fifteen years which
have elapsed since his death his beneficent influence
has continued, so that his disciples have kept up
their intimacy without the smallest cloud appearing
to darken their friendly relations.

But, besides all this, what an admirable professor
of composition he was ! How sincere and con-
scientious in examining the sketches we took him !
Merciless to all faults of construction, he knew how
to put his finger on the mistake without a moment's
hesitation ; and when in the course of his corrections
he came to the passages which we ourselves con-
sidered doubtful, although we had been careful not
to tell him so, his wide mouth would immediately
become serious, his forehead would be puckered up,
and his whole attitude expressed suffering. After
having played through the unfortunate passage two
or three times on the piano, he would raise his eyes

" FATHER " FRANCK 237

to us and let drop the fatal words : ^* 1 don't like
that ! " But when by chance in our first stammer-
ing musical utterances we hit upon some new
modulation logically brought about, or some attempt
at novelty of form which had a certain interest, he
would bend over us murmuring : *' I like this, I like
this ! " He was as happy in giving us this sign of his
approbation as we were proud to have deserved it.

But let it not be supposed that it was vanity or
presumption that caused the master to deduce his
judgments from his own likes and dislikes. Nothing
could be further from his mind than the arrogant
assertions of the art critic, announcing sententiously,
after a first — and often an absent-minded — hearing,
that " this work is sublime, and that one a failure."
" Father " Franck never criticised in this free and easy
fashion ; he listened, re-read, argued for and against,
and only formed his opinion when, after attentive
self-examination, he felt sure he was in inward com-
munion with the spirit of Beauty and could speak
in the name of Truth — not of relative, but of
absolute truth.

For — as we who live at the close of the nineteenth
century know only too well — Truth is never made
manifest through hatred, and the words ''I condemn J'
monstrous and frequent though they be, always
remain powerless compared with " Father " Franck's
simple utterance : " / like it.^^

238 CESAR FRANCK

"To love, to come out of ourselves, to leave our
egotism aside by loving something very superior —
almost unknown, perhaps — in which, however, we
continue to believe, no matter what name we give
it — here is the very basis and essence of a true
system such as Plato recommended to the wor-
shippers of the celestial Venus ; such as Bossuet
taught Christians to regard as the voice of moral
perfection. It is the system of all great artists ; it
was that of Cesar Franck. Through it he came
practically into touch with all those masters who
have best depicted the ascent of the soul towards
God." *

I now want my readers to penetrate more deeply
into this intuitive manner of teaching, and see how
much it differed from the methods employed by the
majority of professors in conservatoires and music
schools.

The first condition which Franck imposed upon a
pupil was not to work much^ but to work well ; or,
more strictly speaking, not to bring him a great
quantity of task-work, but only what had been very
carefully prepared.

The student gained greatly by this system, for he

acquired the habit, even from his preliminary studies,

of neglecting nothing and of bringing up work that

was more intelligent than mechanical. This is a

* G. Derepas, "Cesar Franck."

'' FATHER " FRANCK 239

thing which too many young people educated in
more or less official institutions cannot grasp.
Accustomed from their childhood to bring ^asks to
their professors, they cannot conceive that, in Art,
such a thing is non existent. There is no more
occasion for task-work in musical composition than
there is in painting or architecture ; all that is done
in the way of art should not be of the nature of a
daily imposition, but the result of a struggle in
which the young artist has left something of his
heart, and for the expression of which he has called
into play all his intellectual faculties. The system
of making a student produce a quantity of work
under the pretext of " getting his hand in " is a
very indifferent one for most pupils, since it accus-
toms them to write any kind of stuff and to be
satisfied with everything that flows from their pens,
provided the result is copious. Working in this
way, they form no notion of the elemental part
played by that faculty of the intelligence called ^asU,
the mission of which is to determine the choice of
materials as well as their symmetrical arrangement ;
and it is to this error that we must attribute the
production of the numerous works — as compendious
in thought as they are useless to art — which invade
the stage and the concert-room, not only in France,
but in Germany and Italy.

" Do not write much, but let it be very good,"

24Q CESAR FRANCK

" Father *' Franck used to say, and the strength of his
school has been the maintenance of this precept.

When we had finished our study of counterpoint,
which he always demanded should be melodic and
intelligent, and a course of fugue, in which he
advised his students to seek for expression rather
than mere combination, he was then prepared to
initiate us into the mysteries of composition, which,
according to him, was entirely based upon tonal
construction.

No art, in fact, bears a closer relation to music
than that of construction — architecture. In the
erection of an edifice it is first of all necessary that
the materials should be of good quality and chosen
with discernment ; in the same way a composer
must be very particular in the selection of his
musical ideas if he wishes to create a lasting work.
But in building it is not sufficient to have fine
materials without the knowledge how to dispose
them so that by their cohesion they shall form a
strong and harmonious whole. Stones, no matter
how carefully hewn, can never form a monumental
edifice if they are simply superimposed upon each
other without due order ; neither will musical
phrases, however beautiful in themselves, constitute
a great work unless their distribution and concatena-
tion follow some definite and logical order. Only
on these conditions can the structure be raised, and

" FATHER " FRANCK 241

if the elements are good and the synthetic ordei
harmoniously contrived the work will be solid and
enduring.

Musical composition is just the same. This is
what Franck — and perhaps no one else at that
time — knew how to make his pupils realise. In
practice he adhered essentially to the laws of form,
while leaving us complete liberty in the application
of them. Thanks to his habit, to which I have
already referred, of seeking in each student the
special quality to be cultivated for the profit of his
art, his instruction was exceedingly liberal-minded ;
for, while he respected as much as any one the highest
laws of our art — the laws of nature and of tradition
— he applied them intelligently, reconciling them
with those rights of individual initiative which he
always left his pupils free to exercise. Severe as
he was in pointing out the faults of form and the
scamped workmanship which undermine the very
foundations of a work of art, he was equally in-
dulgent to faults in detail or failure to observe the
letter of the law as laid down by the Schools. When
this failure seemed to him justifiable, he would say
with a smile that was more genial than ironical :
" They would not permit you to do that at the
Conservatoire — but I like it very much."

At the same time his courage in admitting every-
thing that seemed to him good did not blind him to

Q

242 CESAR FRANCK

defects of style. If, after searching investigation, he
could not conscientiously approve a disputed passage,
he was careful only to say to the student, '' That is
not good ; you must bring it to me again," like any
other professor ; only Franck went into the reasons
for its not being good, and explained them so clearly
that the pupil could not fail to be convinced.

One of the most valuable features of Franck's
lessons was his demonstration by example. If we
were perplexed in the arrangement of our work,
involved in some difficulty in the progress of a
composition, the master would at once fetch from
his library some score by Bach, Beethoven, Schumann,
or Wagner. " Look," he would say, " Beethoven
(or some other composer) finds himself here just in
the same situation as yours. Now see how he gets
out of it. Read these passages, and find inspiration
to correct your work ; but do not imitate — try to find
your own solution of the difficulty.*'

May I be allowed to relate an anecdote bearing
upon this ? It is of course personal, because it
refers to the way in which I became " Father "
Franck's pupil, but it gives an idea of his engaging
frankness.

After I had played him a movement of my quartet
(which I fondly imagined to be of such a nature as
to win his approbation), he was silent for a moment ;
then, turning to me with a melancholy air, he spoke

" FATHER " FRANCK 243

the words which I have never been able to forget,
since they had u decisive action upon my life :
" There are some good things in it ; it shows spirit
and a certain instinct for dialogue between the parts ;
the ideas would not be bad — but — that is not enough ;
the work is not finished — in fact, you really know
nothing whatever^ Seeing that I was dreadfully
mortified by this opinion, for which I was not at all
prepared, he went on to explain his reasons, and
wound up by saying : " Come to see me, if you
want us to work together. I could teach you com-
position."

When I got home — the interview took place very
late in the evening — I lay awake at night, rebelling
against the severity of this sentence, but agitated in
the depths of my heart, and I said to myself that
Franck was an old-fashioned musician who knew
nothing of a young and progressive art. Neverthe-
less, the next day, having calmed down, I took up
my unfortunate quartet and went over, one by one,
the observations which the master had made, empha-
sising his words the while, according to his custom,
by innumerable arabesques scrawled in pencil over
the manuscript, and I was obliged to own to myself
that he was perfectly right — I knew nothing. I
went to him, almost in fear and trembling, to ask
if he would be good enough to take me as a pupil,
and he admitted me to the organ class at the

244 CESAR FRANCK

Conservatoire, of which he had just been appointed

professor.

This class, which I always remember with emotion,
was for a long time the true centre for the study of
composition at the Conservatoire. At that period
(I am speaking of the far-away years from 1872
onward) the three courses of advanced compositim
were taken by the following masters : Victor Masse,
composer of comic operas, who had no notion of
symphonic music, and who, being constantly ill, was
in the habit of passing on his duties to one of his
pupils ; Henri Reber, an elderly musician of narrow
and old-fashioned views ; finally, Francois Bazin, who
had no idea of what musical composition meant. It
is not astonishing, therefore, that Cesar Franck's
lofty teaching, based upon Bach and Beethoven, but
admitting all new and generous impulses and aspira-
tions, should have attracted all the young spirits
endowed with noble ideas and really enamoured of
their art. In this way the master almost uncon-
sciously drew off all the truly artistic forces scattered
through the various classes in the Conservatoire, not
to mention the pupils outside who went for their
lessons to his quiet room in the Boulevard Saint-
Michael, the high windows of which gave out upon
a shady garden — a rare occurrence in Paris. Here
we gathered once a week ; for " Father " Franck was
not contented with instructing us at his organ class,

" FATHER " FRANCK 245

in fugue, counterpoint, and improvisation ; he invited
to his house such of his pupils as seemed worthy
of some special teaching, and this was done in
an entirely disinterested spirit, which is not usual
among professors of public institutions, in which
the gratuitous instruction announced in the pro-
spectus is, alas ! far from being a reality.

Such was Franck's affection for his disciples that
he never neglected any opportunity of proving it, or
even of giving them any information which he thought
would interest them. When, after the fatigues of
the day, he had said good-bye to those he was in
the habit of receiving in the evening, he frequently
sat down at his writing-table, not to compose or
orchestrate, but to write — often at great length —
to his pupils in the provinces, drawing up, with
the greatest care, instructions and advice for their
benefit.

I cannot refrain from quoting one example of
this affectionate solicitude, although it concerns
me personally.

Having been summoned to Antwerp, on the
occasion of the exhibition of 1885, in order to con-
duct some of his works at a festival concert, the
programme of which included a little composition by
his pupil, he still found time, amid all his occupa-
tions, to write me this letter, wherein he speaks far
more of others than of himself ;

246 CESAR FRANCK

" Antwerp, Friday y August 1 4.
** My dear Vincent,

" A thousand thanks for your kind and afFec-
tionate letter. 1 need hardly say that it is one of
those that gave me the greatest pleasure.*

" I will write you a longer letter another time,
but I want to tell you that at a concert here your
' Chevauchee du Cid ' was played perfectly, and had a
great success. Fontaine sang the solo. You were in
the same company as your master, whose march and
ballet music from ' Hulda ' were warmly applauded.
" I must say good-bye, my dear Vincent. Give
my kindest remembrances to your dear wife.
*' A kiss to the charming children.
*' Duparc is established near Pau. He has bought z.
property.

*' Your old friend,

"Cesar Franck.*'

In spite of his natural affability, Franck was
regarded with suspicion by most of the musicians of
his day, and as, notwithstanding his modesty, he could
never bring himself to cringe to the powers that be,
any more than he would conform in a flabby way to
the sacrosanct regulations of the Conservatoire when
it seemed to him necessary that they should be
broken, he was, throughout his career, the object of

* He had just been made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

" FATHER " FRANCK 247

the envy and hatred of his colleagues, who evidently
misunderstood him, because his mind was in every
way the exact opposite of theirs.

This hatred sometimes extended to his pupils — a
more serious matter, since I have known competitions
in which prizes were withheld from those who most
deserved them, merely in order to spite the professor.
The next day our good " Father " Franck, who never
suspected an injustice, would be so far from blaming
the jury that he innocently helped us to seek out all
the faults that might have brought about this adverse
decision.

It is not within the limits of my subject to find
fault with the lack of culture among the students of
the Conservatoire at this time, a deficiency which,
it must be confessed, was due to their teachers.
It will be sufficient to say that while they were
completely ignorant of all the music of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, and of a great
part of the work of the eighteenth, they usually
regarded Bach as a bore, and Gluck's style was the
butt of their wittiest jokes. They found consecu-
tive fifths in *'Armide," and — proh pudor!—
declared they had discovered them also in a fugue
sent up for competition by Franck himself! At
the present moment a change has come over the
spirit of the Conservatoire, and every student of
composition would consider himself dishonoured

248 CESAR FRANCK

unless he embellished his efforts with a multitude
of more or less conspicuous consecutive fifths.
At the time of which I am speaking Bizet's
*' Carmen," which had just been performed, found
no grace in the sight of these critics, and I knew
students of composition who then accused this work
of excessive Wagnerism, while others turned away
their eyes from so coarse a subject and cried ** Fie ! "
at the top of their voices. Finally there were some
who deliberately refused to read any music, even
the greatest masterpieces, for fear, so they said, of
" weakening their individuality " !

Of all this Franck knew nothing, and in spite
of the conventional errors of the schools, he con-
tinued to exhort his pupils to read a great deal
of fine music, old and new. He himself was as
enthusiastic as any youth over the absolute beauty
of Bach's works, which he taught us to interpret
on the organ.

Neither could he have understood— and would
have been very much surprised to hear it proclaimed
as a discovery — that Art ought to be the expres-
sion of Life — as though Art ever had been or could
be anything else ! As though the frescoes of Giotto
or Gozzoli, Rembrandt's Syndics, the west door of
Amiens Cathedral, Beethoven's sonatas, and Gluck's
music dramas were not just as admirable "slices
of life " as the most modern works of art — I

" FATHER " FRANCK 249

mean, of course, those that spring from the artist's
heart. But, according to the na'fve partisans of this
aphorism,* the word " life " dispenses us from all
preliminary study ; wc can all be born architects
and raise up a monumental edifice without having
learnt to balance the weight of our material;
every one of us guided by " inspiration " could
write a symphony straight away. These are things
that the mind of Franck was incapable of grasp-
ing ; his art, the outcome of long study and crea-
tive suffering, is the antithesis of the theories
described above.

At the same time, how truly vital, throbbing
with a sane and intense vitality, is the work of
Cesar Franck ! How ardently he expresses the
joys and griefs which he sees around him. Not
merely does he interpret in music the life and emo-
tions of others, but he expresses himself. What
does it matter that the characters in The Beati-
tudes are not represented in modern dress, if we,
men and women of to-day, are profoundly touched
by the sublime invocation to eternal justice ; if we
ourselves suffer with the persecuted, and if we dis-
cern the soul of our beloved master in the melodies
he devoted with such tenderness to the description
of meekness and purity ?

Undoubtedly Franck's art was all compounded of

• « Tranches de Vie."

250^ CESAR FRANCK

goodness and absolute sincerity, just as his teaching
was all love and charity, and on this account it will
live ; for Doubt and Hatred, although they may
have sometimes destroyed useful things, have never
constructed anything endurable. Love and Faith
can alone conceive and bring forth an immortal
work.

II

THE ARTISTIC FAMILY

The influence of so excellent a master as Cesar
Franck could not fail to make itself felt among the
future composers who spent some time in his organ
class, such as Samuel Rousseau, who was his assistant
choir-master for many years at Sainte-Clotilde ;
Gabriel Pierne, who was nominated organist of the
basilica on his master's death ; Auguste Chapuis,
whose efforts have helped to popularise good music
among the masses ; H. Dallier and A. Dutacq ;
Georges Marty, the young and daring conductor of
the old Societe des Concerts ; Galeotti, A. Mahaut,
G. Saint-Rene-Taillandier, Ch.Tournemire, and Paul
Vidal, the clever conductor of the Grand Opera.

The spirit of Franck also reacted on some of his
colleagues on the Committee of the Societe Nationale
de Musique : his friend Al. Guilmant, Emmanuel
Chabrier, who was deeply attached to him, Paul
Dukas, and Gabriel Faure himself, without counting
other executive artists, such as Paul Braud, Armand
Parent, and the great violinist Ysaye.

251

252 CESAR FRANCK

But it was more especially that circle of private
pupils to whom he gave lessons in his own home in
the Boulevard Saint-Michel who helped to establish
and maintain the lofty traditions of his teaching and
to prove its excellence in their own works.

The title a pupil of Franck, which we now claim
as an honour, was not always regarded as such — far
from it. 1 knew the time when a young composer
who had ventured to the Boulevard Saint- Michel to
ask some advice from the master, just to see what it
was like^ would have looked down his nose had he
been questioned as to his relations with the organist
of Sainte-Clotilde, and would willingly have replied,
like St. Peter before the High Priest : " I know not
the man."

And now that the master has joined the Im-
mortals, his pupils have suddenly become legion,
and the majority of the composers of his day pretend
that they drank at the source of his wise and fruitful
teaching. There are scarcely any opera- or ballad-
mongers of the last ten years who do not advertise
themselves at his expense ; although the style of their
productions leaves no room for doubt on this point.

It seems to me, therefore, that it would be a
useful thing to compile in this book a list of the
pupils who actually studied composition under
Franck. Having known them all and seen them
at work, I have no difficulty in drawing up this

THE ARTISTIC FAMILY 253

register, which I will arrange, as far as possible, in
chronological order.

The first to work with the master before the war
of 1870 were Arthur Coquard, Albert Cahen, and
Henri Duparc, the latter an emulator of Schubert
and Schumann in the sphere of the Lied. Then
came Alexis dc Castillon, a cavalry officer, who had
always been passionately fond of music. He first
asked Victor Masse to undertake his musical educa-
tion ; but the composer of " Les Noces de Jean-
nette " very soon disgusted his pupil by his ridicu-
lously narrow-minded precepts, and the latter was
about to abandon music in his discouragement when
he met Franck, who instantly discerned the capacities
of this exceptional nature. This meeting was a
revelation to Castillon, who destroyed all his
previous compositions and wrote Op. i over his
quintet, as the first result of his new studies. We
all know what a fine career lay before this gifted
composer, a career which was unhappily cut short
by his premature death before he had reached his
thirty-fifth year.

From 1872 the school of Cesar Franck included :
the author of this volume, Camille Benoit, Augusta
Holmes, and Ernest Chausson, who was suddenly
snatched from his affectionate friends by a terrible
accident, leaving behind him work of the highest
value, which seemed, however, to promise even

254 CESAR FRANCK

greater artistic worth during the last years of his
life ; then there were Paul de Wailly, Henri Kun-
kelmann, and Pierre de Brevel, that subtle and
distinguished craftsman who inherited his master's
feeling for architecture ; Louis de Serres, in whom
Franck particularly admired a delicate gift of ex-
pression ; Guy Ropartz, a born symphonist, who has
remained inseparably attached to Franck's principles,
in spite of his official position as Director of the
Conservatoire at Nancy ; Gaston Vallin ; Charles
Bordes, head of the Chanteurs de Saint-Gervais and
the courageous promoter of the movement to re-
constitute church music ; finally, poor Guillaume
Lekeu, by temperament almost a genius, who died
at four-and-twenty, before he could show his gifts
in any complete form.

These, and these only, knew the master intimately
and were able to assimilate his innermost thoughts
and his invigorating counsels ; they alone know
what Cesar Franck's lessons in composition actually
were : a community of effort on the part of master
and pupils directed to one identical aim — Art.
They alone could bear witness to that almost
supernatural communion of spirit which passed
like an electric current between themselves and
the composer of The Beatitudes ; for, as one of his
biographers has justly observed : '' There never was
a less exacting professor or one who was listened to

THE ARTISTIC FAMILY 255

with greater attention."* And they will never forget
as long as life lasts the spiritual influence of their
lamented master.

What more can I say ?

In the three sections of this book I have tried to
show the man as I knew him, and to make others
love him as I loved him myself ; to win admiration
for the creative artist by analysing some of his
noblest works ; and, finally, to reveal the great
master of composition who transmitted his strength
and his faith to a pleiad of French symphonists.

His beneficent influence reaches beyond the grave,
for, cherishing the remembrance of his counsels,
some of his pupils and friends have founded a
school in which they pride themselves upon teaching
younger spirits to walk with uplifted heads, keeping
a straight course in the one wholesome way of Art,
just as their old master taught them in their turn.f
Speaking of this radiant influence which still shines
upon and strengthens many who only started life
after the composer of The Beatitudes had passed
away, a musician who was not among his pupils,
but who is equally sincere as a critic as he is as a
composer, says : *' I have already called attention

* G. Derepas, " Cesar Franck."

t The ^chola Cantorum^ founded in 1896 by Al. Guilmant,
Charles Bordes, and Vincent d'Indy.

2s6 CESAR FRANCK

to the importance of Franck's influence upon the
new departure which, since his time, has taken place
in contemporary French music. Together with
those of Saint-Saens and Edouard Lalo, his name
denotes an epoch. So far, every purely musical
development which has come after him has its
origin in him, and, thanks to the traditions estab-
lished by his art, at a moment when Wagnerian
influences were on the increase, most of our younger
composers have been able to shake off the servile
and humiliating yoke imposed by this tendency.
They cannot be too grateful to their elders for this,
and can find no better means of showing their
gratitude than by continuing to spread the great
traditions which the School of Franck preserved
when it taught that these traditions were above
humanity, and far above individual success. " *

I can find no more fitting conclusion for my work
than this tribute of respect paid officially and in
public to the genius who was also a firm believer :

" Now he is in his own place, among the choir of
immortal geniuses who will be our hostages through
the future ages, and who constitute, perhaps, the
reason of our existence and the justification of
humanity in this world." t

• Paul Dukas, La Chronique des Arts, 1904, No. 33.

t Extract from the speech made by M. Henry Marcel, Director
of the Beaux-Arts, at the unveiling of the monument to Cesar
Franck, October 22, 1904.

LIST OF THE WORKS OF
CESAR FRANCK

This list, which is as complete as possible, has been compiled
after long and careful research in various libraries and pub-
lishing houses. With the exception of some old manuscripts
in the possession of M. Georges C. Franck, I think few-
omissions will be discovered. I have adopted chronological
order in making this catalogue, and it should be understood
that I have only included works in their original form,

[In the body of the book I have used English titles, but
have adhered to the French in the List of Works as being
more convenient for purposes of reference. — Translator.]

258

CESAR FRANCK

.3

Edition
exhausted

Edition
exhausted

Edition
exhausted

III

Schuberth,
Leipzig

Schuberth

Lemoine
Lemoine

II

Schuberth
and Co.

Schuberth
Schlesinger

Schlesinger

Lemoine
Lemoine

Schuberth

S

To H.M.Leo-
pold L, King
of the Bel-
gians

To his friend

Franz Liszt
To Mme. la

Baronne de

Chabannes
To Miles. Anna

and Emmeline

Stratton
To Mme. Cor-

dicr
To M. le

Comte de
Montendre
To Mile. C^cile

Lachambre

.3

1

o

1

First Epoch
Trtis tr'm concertuns for piano, violin,
and violoncello
1st trio in Y%

2nd trio in B|> (trio de salon).
3rd trio in B
^uatriime trio cmcert»nt for piano,

violin, and violoncello
Eglogue (Hirtengedicht)

D*o for four hands on " God save
the King " for piano

Grand caprice for piano .

Andante quietoso, for piano and violin

Souvenir d" A'tx-la-Chapelk, for piano

Pi

1" k\ \ k 'i 'i ^

1^

" M t<^ -!*• UO vO t^

LIST OF WORKS

259

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CESAR FRANCK

1

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Edition
exhausted

Un-
published

On cover,
"ToM.
Alphonse
Boutetdc
Monvel"

III

Heugel

Costallat

Costallat
Costallat

Costallat

Costallat

11

II

?

Pacini-
Bonaldi

Hartmann

(1872)
Richault

Richault
Richault

Richault

Richault

1
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ToS. A. Mme.
laPrincessede
Ligne, nee
Lubomirska

To Mme. Pau-
line Vinrdot

To Dr. Fereol

To Mme.
Louise Boutet
de Monvel

To Mme.
Claire Bris-
saud

To Mme.
Claire Brissaud

t
•o

Trois petits riens, for piano

1. Duellino

2. Valse

3. Le Songe

Duo a quatre mains, for piano, on

Gretry's " Lucile "
Le Sermon sur la montagne, symphony

(The Beatitudes)
Ruth, Biblical eclogue in three parts

for soli, chorus, and orchestra
rSouvenance (Chateaubriand), melody

Ninon (A. de Musset), melody
Vemir de Bengador (Mery), melody

Le Sylphe (Al. Dumas), melody with
'cello obbligato

^ Robin Gray (Florian), melody

Pi

II

^ ^

LIST OF WORKS

261

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CESAR FRANCK

JS

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Noel

Borne-
mann
(.872)

Durand
(1879)

"is

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Hartmann
Regnier-
Canaux
Repos

Maeyens-
Couvreur

To his friend
M.A.Chauvet

To M.Ch. Val-
entin Alkan

To his friend
M. C. Saint-
Saens

To his friend
M. Aristide
Cavaill6 Coll

To his master
M. Benoist

To his friend M.
Lef^bure-W61y

1

Troit antiennes, for grand organ

Le Garde d'honneur, hymn (nine

verses)
Messe a trsis voix, for soprano, tenor,
and bass, with organ, harp.'cello
and double-bass accompani-
ment
} Six pikes pour grand orgue

1. Fantaisie in C .

2. Grande Piece Symphonique .

3. Prelude, fugue, et variation .

4. Pastorale ....

5. Pri^re

6. Final

M

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f> VOi t^ 00 o\ 0 ■-

LIST OF WORKS

263

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CESAR TRANCK

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Franck

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1

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Third Epoch

Les Eolides, symphonic poem for
orchestra (after the poem by
Leconte de Lisle). The origi-
nal arrangement for pianoforte
duet by the composer

Trois pihes pour grand orgue .

1. Fantasia in A

2. Cantabile

3. Pi^ce heroi'que

Quintet in F minor, for piano, two
violins, viola, and 'cello

Le vase brisi (Sully-Prudhomme),
melody

Les Beatitudes, oratorio for solo voices,
chorus, and orchestra, in eight
parts and a prologue. (Poem
by Mme. Colomb.) The piano-
forte score by the composer

^^i^«<j,Biblical scene for soli, chorus,

lil

<2 ^ <^<»^ ^^ ~

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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS AND
DOCUMENTS CONSULTED

N.B. — Among the numerous articles from news-
papers and periodicals dealing with C^sar Franck,
we only give here a list of those which present
some aesthetic or historic interest, purposely
omitting mere reports of works or concerts.

F. Baldensperger. Char Franck. U Artiste et son esuvre.
Edition du Courrier musical (published separately or
in the number for May 15, 1901).

Camille BenoIt. Cesar Franck, La Revue Bleue,
December 1890.

Cesar Franck, Revue et Gazette musical, passim,

Charles Bordes. Le sentiment religieux dans la musique
(Teglise de Franck, Courrier musical, November i,
1904.

RicciOTTO Canudo. C. Franck e la giovane Scuola musicale
francese, Nuova Antologia (published separately).
Rome, 1905.

Ernest Chausson. Cisar Franck. Le Passant, 1891.

Arthur Coquard. Char Franck^ 1 822-1 890. Pub-
lished 1890 ; 1st edition exhausted. New edition pub-
lished in Le Monde musical, 1904.

Courrier musical. Number of November i, 1904
(entirely devoted to FranckV
271

272 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Victor Debay. Char Franck. Courrier musical, No-
vember 15 and December i, 1900.
Gust AVE Derepas. Cesar Franck^ Etude sur sa vie, son

enseignement, son ceuvre. Fischbacher, 1897.
Etienne D estranges. L* ceuvre lyrique de Cesar Franck,

Fischbacher, 1896.
Paul Dukas. Les Beatitudes, Revue hebdomadaire

vol. xi. p. 302. 1893.
A propos of Cesar Franck. La Chronique des Arts,

No. 33, p. 273. 1904.
A. Elson. Modern Composers of Europe (p. 132).

Page & Co., Boston, 1905.
Emile Goudeau. Cisar Franck. Journal la France,

November 14, 1890.
Louis Fr. Guilbert. Cesar Franck. L'Enseignement

Chretien (published separately). Poussielgue, 1905.
HuGUEs Imbert. Portraits et etudes. Fischbacher.
Vincent d'Indy. Cesar Franck, le premier des symphonistes

franfais. The Weekly Critical Review, March 5,

1903-

Uo^uvre de piano de Cesar Franck. The Musician.

O. Ditson h Co., Boston.

Paul Locard. Les maitres modernes de Porgue. Edition du
Courrier musical.

D. G. Mason. From Grieg to Bralwis (pp. 124-147). Out-
look & Co. New York, 1904.

G. Mauclair. Impressions sur Franck. Courrier musical,
November I, 1904.

Philippe Moreau. Udme de Franck. Monde musica
October 30, 1904.

Rene de Recy. Cesar Franck. La Revue Bleue, passim.

Hugo Riemann. Dictionnaire de Musique, traduction de
G. Humbert, Perrin et Cie.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 273

J. Guy Ropartz. Notations artistiques. Symphonies
moderncs (pp. 163-190). Lemerre.

Char Franck. Revue internationale de Musique,

June 13, 1898.

Analyse du Quatuor en re. Revue internationale de

Musique, August I, 1898.

G. Servieres. La musique fran^aise moderne. G. Havard,
1897.

Cesar Franck, L'Art, March i, 189 1.

W. Stumpf. Les Beatitudes van C. A. Franck, Van

Munster en Zoon. Amsterdam, 1895.
A. Seitz. Le genie de Char Franck. Monde musical,

October 30, 1904.
Souvenir du 22 Octobre, 1904. Account of the unveiling

of the monument to Cesar Franck, the work of the

sculptor Alfred Lenoir, in the garden-square of Sainte-

Clotilde ; containing also the text of the speeches and

the names of all the subscribers.
A. Van den Borren. Uceuvre dramatique de C. Franck,

Bruxelles, 1906.

INDEX

Mneid, Virgil's, 203

Agnm Del, 140

Air de Ballet, 53

Alkan, C. A., Preludes et Chants

Amiens Cathedral, 24.8

Amsterdam, 210

Ange et P Enfant, L\ 78, 112

Antony and Cleopatra, 10

Antwerp, 265

Appony, Count, 182

Association Artistique, 210

Attendez-nwi sous Porme, 10

Auguez, M., 52, 53

Avignon, 15

Bach, John Sebastian, 16, 18-
20, 69, 85, 100, 130,

132,133

comparison between Franck
and, 44, 137

his influence on Franck,
93,94,95,100,134,164,
_ 242, 244, 248

his treatment of Christ,
212

invents a Chorale Varia-
tion, 199

Passions of, 198, 227

organ work of, 133, 135
note, 146

revival of, 6, 7, 13, 15

works for pianoforte, 162

Bach Society, the French, 20

Balbreck, M., 55 note

Ballade, Op. 9, 35, 93
analysis of, 11 8-1 20

Balleroy, Mme., 53

Balzac, Honore, 5

Bartolo di Fredi, jG, 176

Bayreuth, 5

Bazin, Fran^ois^ 244

Beatitudes, The, 19, 133, 138,
146, 160, 171, 249, 255
First Beatitude, 216
Second Beatitude, 216
Third Beatitude, 53, 95,

217
Fourth Beatitude, 95, 218
Fifth Beatitude, 219
Sixth Beatitude, 221
Seventh Beatitude, 223
Eighth Beatitude, 53, 225-

228
analysis of, 76-78, 211,

214-228
Christ in, 212-214
composition of, 45, 46, 143,

169, 209, 210
culmination of his art, 203,

228
cut into sections, 50
epic nature of, 205, 228
genesis of, 206
given by Colonne, 50, 210

275

276

INDEX

Beatitudes, The — continued
groundwork of, 42
heard in England, 8
individuality of, 94
influence of Beethoven in,

88
private performance of,

text of, 207-209

use of the fugue in, 216,

224
Beethoven, Ludwig von, 7, 16,

18, 19, 54, 69, 83, 162
Variation-form J 1 98, 1 99
his influence on Franck,

93, 95, 100, 105, 108,

109, 133, 134, 137, 140,

164, 169, 224, 242, 244
his Mlssa Solemnis, 29, 205
his Ninth Symphony, 206
his renovation of the sonata

form, 84-8 S
his Sonatas, 185, 248
influence of Mozart on, 93
Quartets of, 43 note, 87,

95, 108, 133, 182, 184,

189, 193, 195, 225
sketch-books of, 98, 100,

loi, 196
Benedictines, musical researches

of, 130
Benoist, professor of organ in

Paris, 33, 34, 47
Benoit, Camille, 152, 253
Berlioz, Hector, Damnation of

Faust, 205
his influence on Vincent

d'Indy, II, 19, 2r
his share in the musical

renaissance, 7
his treatment of Christ,

213
on Beethoven, 86

Berlioz, Hector — continued
popular neglect of, 4
Trait e d"* Orchestration, 135

Beyle, G, 53

Bizet, Georges, 4
Carmen, 248

Blau, Edouard, 47, 142

Boecklin, Arnold, 80

Bonn, 29, 44

Bordeaux, 15

Bordes, Charles, 13, 254, 255
note
on Franck's church music,
130-132

Bordes-Pcne, Mme., 168

Borodin, 19

Boston, U.S.A., 114 note

Botticelli, Sandro, 122

Brahms, Johannes, influence of,
II, 19
debt to Beethoven, 87
his reception of the Re-
demption, 112
quartets of, 184

Brand, Paul, 56, 251

Bret, Gustave, 15

Brevel, Pierre de, no note,
254

Bridoison, 73

Bruneau, M., on Franck and
the musical renaissance, 6,

Brussels, 10, no

Cahen, Albert, 253
Cantabile in B major, 161
Cantata, form of the, 202
Canudo, Ricciotto, on Franck's

religious music, 142
Cardiff, 8

Castillon, Alexis de, 46, 194,253
Caters, Mme. de, 153
Cavaille-Coll, Aristide^ 4I, 135,

161

INDEX

277

Ces^r F ranch, by A. Coquard,

93 note
Cesar FraTick, etude sur sa vie,

son enseignement, son oeuvrc,

81, 82, 238, 255 note
Chabannes, Baroness, 117
Chabrier, Emmanuel, 251
on the Redemption, 157
oration on Franck, 59, 228
Chamber music, 184, 189
C/iant de la Cloche, Le, 10
Chanteurs de Saint-Gervais, 13,

^254^
Chapuis, Auguste, 251
Chasseur M audit, Le, 20, 52, 161
Chausson, Ernest, 180 note,

195 note, 253
Cherubini, Salvador, 95

examines Franck, 32-34
Chopin, F. F., 89, 113
Chorale, definition of a, 198 —

see Organ Chorale
Chrojiique des Arts,- La, 256

note
College de Vaugiraud, 94
Colomb, Mme., 208
Colonne Concerts, 173
Colonne, Edouard, 47, 151
his orchestra, 9
produces The beatitudes, 50,
210
Composition, three stages of,

97-99
Concerts Lamoureux, lo

Fopulaires, 10

Spirituels, 47, 151
Coquard, Arthur, 46, 180 note,

253.
reminiscences of Franck,

.67, 93
Cornelius, Peter, 78
Correggio, 20
Cossmann, Herr, III note

Courrier Musical, Le, 130 note
Cyclic style, Franck's creation
of, 91, 171

Dalayrac, 92

Dallier, H., 59 note, 251

Damnation de Faust, La, 87,

205
David, Felicien, Le Desert, 37
Death of Wall en stein, 10
Degas, M., 65
Delaborde, M., 112
Delibes, Leo, 59 note, &]
Denis, M., 208

Derepas, Gustave, Cesar Franck^
238, 285

on Franck's religion, 81

on Psyche, 1 74-176
Desert, Le, 37

Desmousseaux, Madame, 38
Dialog us per la Pascua, 212 note
Diemer, Louis, 9, 52, 169 note
Dies Irce, 172

Divine Comedy, Tie, 203, 206
Djinns, Les, 8, 163
Domine non secundum, 1 30
Dorel, Abbe', 41
Dubois, Theodore, 138, 19?

note
Dugas, M., 53
Dukas, Paul, 251

on Franck's Classicism, 83

on Franck's individuality,

on Franck's influence, 256
Dumas, Alexandre, 9
Duo a quaire mains. Op. 17,

126
T>uo on " God Save the King,"

126
Duparc, Henri, 46, 94, 152,

154, 179, 246, 253
Dutacq, A., 251

278

INDEX

Eclogue, Op. 3 (Hirtengedicht),

Elgar, Edward, 7, 20
Eolides, Lei, 48, 161

Wagnerian influence in,

96

Epic form, the, 202

Epinal, 15

Etranger, U, 10

Euphiosine and Coradin, 93

Euryanihe, 94

£e'^, Massenet's, 79

Fantasia for Pianoforte, Op. 13,

Fantasia in C, 133
Fantasias upon Gu/istan, 125, 1 26
Faure, Gabriel, 25 1
Faust, Gounod's, 54
Ferreot, Dr., 59 note
Fervaal, 10
Figaro, The, 46
Finale in B flat major, 137
Fioretti of St. Francis, 174
Flying Dutchman, The, 104
Fontaine, M., 246
Foret Enchantee, La, 10
Fornarina, La, 'J^
Era Angelico, 222
France, music in, under the
Second Empire, 4
revival of music in, since
1870, 5, 6
Franck, Cesar

The Man and the Teacher —
birth of, 29
artistic inheritance, 30
destined for the musical

profession, 31
meets Pauline Garcia in

Belgium, 31
enters the Paris Conserva-
toire, 31

Franck, Cesar — continued

transposes Hummel's Con-
certo, 32
wins prizes for fugue, 32,33
competes for the organ

prize, 33
leaves the Conservatoire,

34. no
meets Liszt, 1 10
as a virtuoso, 35, I20
returns to Paris, 1844, 36
his eclogue Ruth per-
formed, 37
marriage of, 38
poverty of, 39
overworks in writing Le

Valet de Ferme, 40
appointed organist of S.-

Jean-S. Fran9ois au

Marais, 41
appointed organist of

Sainte-Clotilde, 41, 42
as an improvisatore, 43, 44
engaged in composition of

The Beatitudes, 45, 48,

169, 209
writes the Ode to Paris,

46

appointed Professor of
Organ at the Conser-
vatoire, 47, 244

writes the Redemption, 47,
209

arranges a private per-
formance of The Beati-
tudes, 49

divides the work into sec-
tions, 50

receives Governmental dis-
tinctions, 51, 52, 246
note

the festival in hi? honour,
52,53

INDEX

279

Franc k, Cesar — continued

his Symphony performed,

. 54> 55

his String Quartet per-
formed, 55, 56

elected president of the
Societe Nationale de
Musique, 55

his triumph at Tournai,

.56 .

his accident, 56

unable to preside at the

second performance of

the String Quartet ^ 57
death of, 58
funeral of, 58
monument to, 60, 256

note
tardy recognition of, 60,

61
personal appearance of,

62, 63
portrait of, 63 note
his capacity for work, 63-

66, 97

his interest in literature,

6+
modesty of, 65
kindly nature of, 66-68,

238, 247
his simple faith, 68, 69,

250
his wrath at bad music,

67, 241

as a teacher, 234-249, 254,

255
his title of" Father," 235
his pupils, 251-255
The Artist and the Man —
musical renaissance due to,

4, 6, 7, 16
influence in France, 6, 7,

16, 235, 256

Franck, Cesar — continued

influence in England, 7,

8, 16
influence in Belgium, 16
revives classical forms, 7
his views oiformj 71, 241
his affinity with fourteenth

and fifteenth century

painters, '](i^ 176, 212,

222
his artistic conscience, ']']
spiritual conceptions of,

78, 173-176, 212, 250
architectural balance ofhis

work, 80, 90, 171, 241
his mysticism compared

with the Wagnerian, 81
contemplative tendency of,

82
classicism of, 83-85
individuality of, 88, 89, 94
analysis of his style, 90
early predilections of, 92
influence of Bach on, 93-

95, 134

influence of Beethoven on,
87, 88, 93, 95, 105, 108,

109, 133, 134, m, i4o»

164, 169, 224
influence of Gluck on, 94
influence of Liszt on, 105
influence of Mehul on,

93, 105, 120
influence of Meyerbeer on

96, 121, 215
influence of Schubert on,

94, no

influence of Wagner on,

96,134
influence of Weber on, 94,

no
his methods of work, 100-

102

28o

INDEX

Franck, Cesar — continued

three distinct st^/les of, I02
his first period of com-
position, 104—124
his Trios, 1 04-1 12
his Vange et V Enfant, 112,

113

his first pianoforte pieces,

1 1 3-1 20

his Ruth analysed, 120-124

his second period of com-
position, 125-158

his system of cataloguing,
125-127

religious character of his
work, 127-133

his organ works, 132-142

his Redemption considered,
142-158

third period of composi-
tion, 159-181

his self-confidence, 160

his Cantabik in B ; the
Quintet in F minor, 161

his return to composition
for the pianoforte, 161-
169

his Sonata in A for Violin
and Piano, 169

establishes the cyclical
form, 171

devotes himself to sym-
phonic form, 171-173

his Psyche and its spiritu-
ality, 173-176

his delight in the Magnifi-
cat, 176-178

his attempts at dramatic
music, 178-180

his Quartet in D major,
. 184-197

his Sonata in A, 8, 19,
20

Franck, Cesar — continued

his organ Chorales, 198-201
culmination of his art in
The Beatitudes, 206, 228
composition of, 2c8-
210
analysis of, 211-228
list of works of, 257-270
bibliography of, 271-273
" Franck Festival," The, 52
Franck, Jerome, 30 note
Joseph, 36

M. Georges Cesar, 30, 34
note, 37 note, 4I note, 55
note, 63 note, 119, 207
note, 257
Franco-Prussian War, 9, 45, 46
Frescobaldi, 133
Fugue, decline of the, 85

Gaddi, Taddeo, 76
Galeotti, 251
Garcia, Pauline, 31
Garcinj Jules, 54
Gardey, Mgr., 42 note, 58, 177
Gautier, Theophile, 5
Gavioli, Mile., 52, 53
Germany fails to appreciate
Franck, 80

fails to follow Beethoven's
lead, 87
Ghisele, 65, 178-180
Gibier, M., 55 note
Gigout, E., 198 note
Giotto, 248

Giovanni da Fiesole, 78
Glasgow, 8

Gluck, Christopher Willibald,
7, 13, 18, 248

Armide, 247

influence on Franck, 94
God save the King, Duet on, 126
Goethe's Faust, 205

INDEX

281

Goncourt, Edmond et Jules

de, 5
Gounod, Charles, ()']

Faust, 54

on the Symphony, 55

quartets of, 86
Gozzoli, 248
Grande Piece Symphonique, 134,

135
Grandval, Mme. de, 153
Gregorian music, 13, 130, 198
Gretry, 92

Grieg, Edvard, on quartets, 183
Grieux, Des, 123
Griset, J., 112
Guilmant, AL, 13, 198 note, 251,

255 note
Guiraud, Ernest, 51
Gulistan, 92 note

Halevy, Fromenthal, La Ju'we,
111
overtures of, 86
Handel, concertos of, 135 note
his treatment of Christ,
212
Haydn, F. ]., 54, 85, 162
Henri III., 30 note
Hereford, 8
Herrenthal, 30 note
Heymann, M. L., 55 note
Hirten-Gedicht, See Eclogue,

Op. 3
Holmes, Augusta, 253
Homer, 203, 205
Hugo, Victor, Les Djlnns, 5, 163
Hulda, 53, 169, 178, 246

ballet of, 179
Hummel, J. N., A minor con-
certo, 32

Imbert, M. Hugues, on M.
d'lndy, 10

Independent, The, 183 note
Indy, Vincent d', his qualifica-
tions as biographer, 3,

7-15

at the Queen's Hall Sym-
phony Concert, 1909,
8

birth of, 9

studies under Diemer and
Lavignac, 9

shares in the defence of
Paris, 9, 46

becomes a pupil of Franclc,
14, 16, 46, 242-244, 253

choirmaster to Colonne,

9

produces The Piccolomini,

10

his Trilogy on Wallenstein
and other works, 10

style of, II, 12

founds the Schola Can-
torum, 12, 255 note

ideals of, 13-15

as principal of the Schola,

13-15

plays in the first perform-
ance of The Beatitudes,

49
takes Redemption to Liszt
and Brahms in Weimar,
112
recopies score of Redemp-
tion, 152
suggests transposition of

Redemption, 154
Psyche dedicated to, 173
completes Ghisele, 180
Franck's letter to, 246
his Chevauchie du Cid, 246
Ingres, J. A. D., 90
Iphigenie en Tauride, 94
Italy, musical degeneracy of, 86

282

INDEX

JoNCiEREs, Victorln, 50
Joseph^ Mehul's, 38, 92, 122
Judaic school of opera, 86

Kant, Emmanuel, Critic of Pure

Reason, 64
Kapellmeister compositions, 129
Kempis, Thomas a, 79
Klopstock's Messiah, 204
Kunkelmann, Henri, 254

La Juive, 121

Lalo, Edouard, 50, 153, 256

Symphony in G minor, 172
Lamartine, Alphonse de, 5
Lamoureux, 48
Laub, Herr, III note
Lavignac, 9
Leborne, M., 31
Lefebure-Wely, M., 137
Leipzig Conservatoire, 183
Lekeu, Guillaume, 254
Leopold L, 36, 105
Leslino, Mme., 53
Liege, 29, 31, 106, 210
Liegeois, M. C, 55 note
Lippi, Filippo, yG, 78, 222
Lisle, Leconte de, 48
Liszt, Franz, 19, 21, 35, 88

his interest in Franck's
Trios, I10-112

influence on Franck, II,
105, 207

visits Franck at Ste,
Clotilde, 44, 137

writes on three staves, 118

writes for pianoforte, 162
Lodoiska, 32
Lohengrin, 79
Louis XIV., 128
Loys, M., 161
Lucan's Pharsalus, 204
Lyons, 15

Madame Tur lupin, 51
Magnificat, 176, 177
Mahaut, A., 251
Malherbe, M. Charles, 114

note
Manon, 123

Marcel, Henri, on Franck, 256
March, 53
Maric-Magdeleine , M assenet's,

Marseilles, 15
Marsick, M., 161
Marty, Georges, 251
Mason, Dr., iii note
Mass in D minor, 141
Masse, Victor, 51, 244, 253
Massenet, M., 79 note, 122
Mauclair, Camille, La Religion
de la Musi que, 19
his Views on Franck, 17-

21

Mehul, influence on Franck,
105, 120
^ Joseph, 38, 92, 122
MeistersingtT^ 100
Melodies, Franck's, 126
Memories oj a Musical Life, ill

note
Mendelssohn, Felix Bartholdy,

83,87
Messe d treis voix. Op. 12, 126

analysed, 137-I42
Messe solennelle, 130, 141
Messiad, The, 204
Meyerbeer, Giacomo, influence
on Franck, 4, 96, 121,
215, 224
marches of, 86
popularity of, 8
Minister of Fine Arts, 49, 5I
Missa Solemnis, 87, 140, 205
Monde Musical, 93 note
Monsigny, Le T>eserteur, 92

INDEX

283

Monte Carlo ^ 179, 180
Monteverde, Orjeo and Incoro-

nazione di Poppea, 15 note
Montlu9on, 20
Montpellier, 15
Mozart, W. A., 93, 162

quartets of, 182
Music, origin of, 127
Musician, The, 10

Nancy, 15, 254
New York, ill note
Nibelungen, The,^i, 134, 205
J^oces de Jea?jnette, Les, 61, 253
Notations Artistiques, 173 note
Nuova Antologia, 142 note

Onslow, quintets of, 86
Oratorio, history of the, 202-206
Orcagna, Andrea, 122
Organ Chorales, Franc k's, 54, 58,
88, 160

in A, 201

in B, 201

in E, 19R-201
Organiste, V, 59 Pieces pour

Harmonium 176
Orientales, Les, 163 note

Padua, Arena of, 174
Palestrina, Pierluigi, 13, 14, 69,

131,132

Taradise Lost, 204
Parent, Armand, 251
Paris, Boulevard S. Michel, 6
Cirque des Champs

Elysees, 38
Cirque d'Hiver, 52
Conservatoire, 9
concerts of, 210
Franck professor of

organ at, 47, 244
Franck studies at, 31-34

Paris — continued

neglect of Franck, 47,

49, 59, 61, 247
tuition at, 233, 236, 247
Franck's ode on, 46
N. D. de Lorette, 38, 41
Revolution of 1848, 38
Sainte Clotilde, 41-44, 58,

132, 251
Sainte Jacques, 58
S.-Jean-S. Francois au

Marais, 41
Sainte Valere, 41
siege of, 9, 46
Theatre Lyrique, 68
Trocadero, 161

Parsifal, 96, 104

Pasdeloup, Jules, 10, 52, 53

produces ThePiccolomini, 10

Pastorale, 136

Pau, 246

Perugino, Paolo Vanucci, "^d

Pharsalus, 204

Pianoforte, works for, 162

Piccolomini, The, 10

Pierne, Gabriel, 251

Poitevin, Mme., 164

Prelude, Art a, and Finale, 168, 169
Choral et Fugue, 96 note

analysis of, 163-168
Fugue et Variation, 136

Triere in C sharp, 136

Prix de Rome, 34

Procession, The, 78, 176

Psyche, dedication of, 19, 173
popular neglect of, 8
spiritual character of, 78,
173-176

Puvis de Chavannes, 20, 61, 65

Ouce est ista, 1 30
Quartet in D major, 19, 54, 88,
144, 160, 171, 180

284

INDEX

Quartet — continued

composition of, 65, 184-

189, 193
diagram of, 192
Finale^ 194-197
harmonious beauty of,

analysed, 189-197
Lar ghetto, 119, 193
success of, 55, 56
Quartet^ composition of, 182-

184
Quasi Marcia, 1 27
Quincy, 64

Quintet'in^ minor, 19, 88, 161,
189

Radoux, Theodore, 210

Rameau, 13, 18

Raphael, Sanzio, 76

Ratisbonne, 80

Rebecca, 78, 161

Reber, Henri, 244

Reboul, Jean, V Angeet r Enfant,
112

Recy, Rene de, on The "Beati-
tudes, 228

Redemption, 19, 76, 78, 103, 127
analysis of, 142, 145-151
compared with The Beati-
tudes, 216, 219, 221
composition ofj 47, 209
first performance of, 47,

151-154
history of, 143, 151-158
Liszt's delight in, II2
plan of the poem, 144
two versions of, 143, 149,

151, I.54-158
Reicha, Antoine, 114, 115
Reinecke, 183
Rembrandt, 30, 248
Remy, M., 161
Renaissance, the, 174, 199

Renaissance, cause of sterility

of, 75, 128
Renan, Ernest, 69

Uf- cj Christ, 213
Revue Bleuc, La, 228 note
Revue Internationale de Musigue,

159 note
Richault, M., 125, 126
Rohert le D table, 224
Rot d'Ts, Le, 172
Rolland, M. Komain, Musiciens
d'aujourdhui, 8, 18
on Cesar Franck, 6
on indifference to music
under the Second Em-
pire, 4
on the Schola Cantorum, 13
on Vincent d'Indy, II
Rongier, Mme. Jeanne, 63 note
Ropartz, J. Guy, on Franck,
159, 254
Symphonies Modernes, 173
Rossini, popularity of, 4

Stab at mater, 153
Rouet d'Omphale, Le, 79
Rousseau, Samuel, 180 note,

251
Royer, Alphonse, 39, 40
Rubens, P. P., 76
Russia, National School of Art

and Literature in, 5
Ruth, 78, 93, 102

analysis of, 1 20-1 24
criticisms of, 37, 38
production of, 37, 52

Saint-Chamond, 15
Saint-Jean-de-Luz, 15
Saint- Rene-Taillandier, G., 251
Saint-Saens, M., 59 note, 67,
161, 256
arranges the Prelude, Fugue
ct Variation, 136

INDEX

285

Saint-Saens, M. — continued

C minor Symphony, 172,
173 note

Cceli enn arrant, 153

Franck's tribute to, 68

Le Roust d'Omphale, 79
Samson et D all la, 68
San Gimignano, 176
Sano di Pietro, 76
Sauge-Fleuriey 10
Schiller, Friedrich, Lay of the

Bell, 10
Schlesinger, M., no, 117
Schola Cant'jrum, foundation of,
12-15, ^55 "o^^

progress of, 18-20
Schubert, Franz, 87, 253

influence on Franck, no

L'leder, 94

quartets of, 184
Schuberth & Qo., 106
Schumann, Robert, 19, 87, 94,
100, 242, 253

Faust, 204, 205

writes for pianoforte, 162
Schiitz, Heinrich, 13

Dialogus per la Pascua, 212
note, 221
Second empire, indifference to

music during, 4
Serres, Louis de, 254
Sheffield Musical Festival, 8
Societe Nationale de Musique,

activity of, 162
concerts of, 112, 161, 164,
168, 169 note, 173, 176
Franck president of, 55
perform the String Quartet,

.56, SI
tribute to Franck, 59
Societe des Concerts, 251
Solo for Piano, Op. 10, 125

Sonata, renovation of the, 85,
168

Sonata in A for Violin and Piano,
19, 20, 54, 55, 88, 189
analysis of, 169-171

Souvenir of Aix-la-Chapelle, 126

Spohr, 87

Stab at Mater, 153

St. Francis of Assisi, 174

St r a tonic e, 93

Strauss, Richard, 80

String Quartet — see Quartet in
D major

Symphonic form, 172

Symphonie Cevenole, 10
Fantastique, 87

Symphonies Modernes, 173 note

Sy7nphony for Orchestra, 207

Symphony in D minor, 136, 189
analysed, 171-173
first performance of, 54
influence of Beethoven in,
95

Tainh'duser, 104
Thalberg, 35
Thomas, Ambrose, 59
Tournai, 56
Tournemire, Ch., 251
"Tranches de Vie," 248, 249
Trios concertans, trois, Op. i, 102,
161
first trio in F sharp, 88, 93,

105-109
second trio, 109
third trio, no, in
dedication of, 36, 105
influence of Beethoven in,

105
key of, 119
Trio concert ant qua trie me, Op. 2,

93, no
Trio de Salon, no

286

INDEX

Tristan^ 104

Trois petit riens, Op. 16, 126

Trois pieces pour grand orgue,

161
Twelfth Quartet (Beethoven),

Utrecht, 210

V^.s, Gustave 39
Valet de Ferme^ Le^ composi-
tion of, 40
Vallin, Gaston, 254
Van Dyck, 76

Variation-form, decline of, 85
Variations Symphoniques, 8, 52,

53»57> 169
Veuillot, Louis, 61
Viardot, Madame Pauline, 31

Paul, 112
Vidal, Paul, 251
Vierge a la Creche, La, 78,

176

Violin Sonata — see Sonata in A
Viotta, Signor, 210
Vita Nuova, 206
Voyage en Chine, Le, 61

Wagner, Richard, 7, 11, 18, 21,
89, 242
influence of, in France, 5,

6,15

his use of leitmotiv, 225
influence on Franck, 37,

,96, 134

Nibelungen, 204, 205
Wailly, Paul de, 254
Walkurie, Die, 134
PVallenstein's Camp, 10
Weber, Charles, Euryanthe, 94

influence on Franck, no,
117
Weimar, iii note, 112
Wiertz, Antoine, 78
Woefelghem, Van, 161
Wood, Mr. Henry J., 12

YsAYE, Eugene, plays the Violin
Sonata, 8, 16, 55, 251
Sonata in A, dedicated to,

54, 170
Ysaye Quartet, the, 56
Ysaye, Theophile, 54

ZiMMERMANN, Peter, 31

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Illustrated. Crown Svo. 6s. net.

JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LTD., VIGO ST., W. 1

DATE DUE

GAYLORD

PKINTEO JN U.S A.

ML410.F82I63

3 5002 00241 6761

Indy, Vincent d'

Cesar Franck; a translation from the Fr

MUSIC

ML

410

F82I6'5

AUTHOR

Indy.

Cesar Franck.

WUSIC LIBRARY

ML

410

F82I63