No.1: Fantasy in C, Op.16, M.28

This is the first of Franck's canonical Pièces (6) pour grand orgue, Opp. 16-21, a set that includes the massive Grande pièce symphonique. The Fantasy is comparatively modest but still substantial; it's dedicated to fellow organist Charles-Alexis Chauvet, who immersed Franck in the music of Bach. Indeed, Bach's influence is stronger in this piece than Franck's own; the piece relies heavily on canonic writing and involves very little of Franck's signature chromaticism. A simple, repetitive pastoral melody provides a gentle opening for the Fantasy. Franck soon pumps up the volume and thickens the texture (including imposing pedal notes) through canonic writing without really elaborating the tune itself. The next section, Allegro cantando, dips into F minor for a flowing, lyrical interlude sharing the simplicity of the Fantasy's first measures. Again, canonic writing enriches and enlivens this section. When the music thins out again, pedal tones create a drone that gives the melody a more rustic character. An imposing bridge passage seems to announce a mighty processional, but instead it makes way for a quiet, innocent meditation that doubles as a long, slow, gentle coda.

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No.2: Grande pièce symphonique in F#-, Op.17, M.29

It cannot be doubted that Franck was one of the most gifted musicians of the nineteenth century. After a brief, frustrating career as a reluctant child prodigy and virtuoso, Franck escaped from his tyrannical father into marriage and the modest life of a church organist, though his ambitions were anything but small. By 1847, when he took his first post as organist, at Notre Dame de Lorette, the greatest challenge facing a serious composer was the attainment of a comprehensive certainty of style. If Saint-Saëns, Gounod, and Bizet looked back to Classical models for their symphonies, Franck—with his preternatural aptitude for counterpoint—espoused the works of Bach and the later Beethoven as his models, though his assimilation of these two (at that time) rather recondite tributaries proved both haphazard and creatively transforming.

When Franck moved into a new post as organist of the just-constructed, soon-to-be fashionable Parisian basilica of Sainte-Clotilde, with its superb Cavaillé-Coll organ, he was spurred to his first attempt to cut through the Gordian knot of style with his Six Pieces for Organ. Though their precise dating is disputed, they seem to have taken shape between 1858 and 1864. As one might expect, they are a rather mixed bag, with the Prière essaying facile religious sentiments, yet with that touch of chromatic yearning which marked Franck as a mystic to his contemporaries; the Prélude, Fugue et Variation looking ahead to the great piano triptychs of the 1880s; a Final touched with the spirit of Offenbach; and the imposing Grande Pièce symphonique which demonstrated that the great Romantic organ could rival an orchestra in works of symphonic scope.

Revealingly, it is dedicated to Charles-Valentin Alkan, a composer and virtuoso given to facetious stylistic toying. More to the point, in 1857 Alkan had published his monumental Douze Études dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39, which included—for solo piano—a symphonie in four movements, and the stupendous concerto in three. Though played without a break, the Grande Pièce symphonique is usually analyzed as being in three movements—the development of the central Andante leads to a scherzo-like Allegro, as in the great Symphony in D Minor (1888). The opening Andante serioso makes large gestures soon halted by a second, anxiously questioning theme, and the two are developed in something very much like sonata first movement form. The central Andante is notable mainly for its cloying, chromatically pleading melody. After reminiscences of the foregoing, in the manner of the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the initial theme is fugally worked to a brilliantly resounding peroration. It was heard for the first time with Franck's premiere of the Six Pièces at Sainte-Clotilde on November 17, 1864.

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No.3: Prélude, fugue, et variations in B-, Op.18, M.30

César Franck's Prélude, fugue et variations has become a popular work among organists and is familiar to music lovers even though they may not know its title or composer. Written in 1862, it is a part of the larger Six Pièces pour le Grand Orgue. After having worked as organist at the parish of Saint-Jean-Saint-François for seven years, Franck obtained the same appointment at Sainte-Clotilde, where he had been choirmaster for some time. It was at the latter church that he received his inspiration for Prélude. At his new post, he met with a monumental artistic challenge when the inventor-builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll finished construction on a three-manual grand organ for the church in 1859. For the dedication of this instrument on December 19 of the same year, Franck played his Final in B Flat Major, Op. 21. His attachment to this particular organ was so great that it inspired him to immediately compose Six Pièces pour le Grand Orgue (1860-1862), which he followed with Trois Pièces pour le Grand Orgue (1878) and Trois Chorals (1890). These works were written at the height of the Romantic organ's popularity, which stretched between 1830 and 1930. This period's most popular organists were Charles-Marie Widor, Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, Louis Lefébure-Wély and of course, Franck, who in time became known as the only true "equal" of Johann Sebastian Bach as a composer for the organ. The Prélude was dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns. The two men had similar posts and influences, and had both studied with François Benoist at the Paris Conservatoire.

A pastoral Prélude opens the work with a seductive oboe cantilena in the upper voice. Tournemire commented on the feel of this movement when he asked, "Can you not imagine a shepherd piping the beauties of nature...?" A brief bridge of nine bars of chordal harmony leads to the freely moving austere "fugue" that is parallel to Bach's A major Fugue. A satisfying link is made between this section and "variations" over a dominant pedal. The final portion returns to the work's opening oboe cantilena; here it soars through "Mendelssohnian" counterpoint that is both flowing and refreshing, bringing the work to a quiet end. When Franck composed Prélude, fugue et variations, along with the other five works in Six Pièces pour le Grand Orgue, he not only gracefully honored the new instrument at Sainte-Clotilde, but he also added greater majesty to the repertoire of the organ.

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No.4: Pastorale in E, Op.19, M.31

In the Baroque period, the term "pastoral" tied in to nativity music, as with the "Pastoral Symphony" from Handel's Messiah and a number of Italian concertos. One might expect that association to carry over to a later pastorale for organ, an instrument with religious connotations, but in his Op. 19 Pastorale Franck seems to have envisioned a secular nature scene more typical of the Romantic era, along the lines of Beethoven's "Pastoral" symphony. This composition was published as part of Franck's Six Pieces for Large Organ, but these works do not constitute a formal cycle; each item carries its own opus number and stands alone musically from the others. The Pastorale is dedicated to the great organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and is a modest display of the symphonic sonorities of the organ Cavaillé-Coll installed at Franck's church, Ste. Clotilde. It takes the sturdy song form ABA, with the outer sections based on two themes. One is rippling yet peaceful, played at a moderate tempo, and the second is based on a series of warm, not at all imposing chords. The central section, introduced by a trumpet-like fanfare, slips into the minor mode and is dominated by quick, staccato chords that produce a sense of speed and mild tension, soothed by a more legato melody. The A section returns after a little fugato passage, now combining its two themes, which are tainted with a bit of the B section's sixteenth note agitation.

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No.5: Prière in C#-, Op.20, M.32

César Franck was a deeply spiritual man; his compositions such as Prière (Prayer) in C sharp minor reflect his true nature. Composed in 1860, during his 25-year characteristically religious period, this work was written for organ as a personal meditation on grief, hope, and faith. It stirs up the historical purpose of this devotional instrument. The work represents the divine thoughts of an organist questioning the unfathomable mystery of the hereafter, overwhelmed by anguish. This masterpiece of lyricism makes it easy to imagine sound pouring from pipes which are positioned between heaven and earth, played by a solitary organist, acting as a mediator between God and man. This was the role that Franck allowed himself to occupy when he composed Prière and other religious works.

Just one of the Six Pièces pour le Grand Orgue (1860-1862), Prière was dedicated to the remarkable François Benoist, who taught for years as a professor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire. In the composition, Franck uses his much-adored registration of Foundation stops on the Pédale, Grand Orgue, Positif, and Récit together with the Hautbois. With its subtle use of the swell-box, the work reached the pinnacle of expressive organ writing. The first theme is an indeterminately long melodic phrase that feels as though it is springing from itself. It is in strict five-part harmony, cast in the manner of a chorale tune. This subject creates the foundation of the entire work and reappears either in cells, which form different episodes in the development, or is blended into one of the second theme's singing phrases. The composition grows to ecstatic heights of expression when a Gregorian chant-like solo recitative for the Trompette of the Récit merges with a restatement of the opening to close the work on a somber note. Using the fugal and canonical devices that Franck loved so much, the composition is rich and lyrical, straightforward, but profound. The astonishing musical and spiritual revolution which this piece achieves distinguishes it from other works of this period.

Alive during a time when the secular music of Mozart, Gluck, Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann was celebrated, Franck had an interest in composition that was an antithesis of the majority of his fellow Frenchmen; he sought to return the organ to paths of spirituality and liturgical use. For the mastery of his instrument and the depth of his works, Franck has been considered the only true "equal" of Johann Sebastian Bach as a composer for the organ. His other religious compositions include Les béatitudes (1869-1879), Ave Maria (1863), Rédemption (1871-1872), and Les Sermon sur la Montagne (circa 1846). In short, Franck was a simple, warm-hearted man who was devoted to his work, to teaching, to composition, and to his instrument. He came closer to achieving his goal of restoring the taste for "pure music" in France, when he composed the spiritually touching Prière in 1860.

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No.6: Finale in Bb, Op.21, M.33

Franck was appointed organist and choirmaster of the suburban Paris basilica of Sainte-Clotilde in 1858, as construction was being completed. Neither was the superb Cavaillé-Coll organ ready—in fact, Franck did not inaugurate the instrument until a public concert of December 19, 1859. Yet there is no doubt that it reawakened his interest in composition, which had flagged after a youthful spate of undistinguished virtuoso fantasies, songs, sacred pieces, an unproduced opera and opéra comique, four remarkable Trios (1843) that impressed Liszt, and a startling symphonic poem, Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne (1845-1847), which anticipates the vast opening of Das Rheingold, but remained unpublished and unheard. Their precise dating is disputed, but the Six Pièces for organ seem to have taken shape between 1858 and 1864, though they were only published in 1868. Not without charm, the Fantaisie, Pastorale, and Prière breathe the air of religious sentiment. The Prélude, fugue et variation looks ahead to the great piano triptychs—the Prélude, choral et fugue (1884) and the Prélude, aria et final (1886-1887)—while the groundbreaking Grande pièce symphonique embodies the lessons of the master in its grandeur and the sure shaping of its material. Beethoven's example also informs the Final, which may be described as an exuberant, substantial sortie, though its robust, fanfare-like opening theme, given to the pedals, soon complemented by a serene melody over a running accompaniment, spaciously developed, suggests a sonata first movement. Its bravura winding up, on the other hand, is not innocent of an opéra comique vulgarity effervescently similar to some manic moments in the great (and misleadingly titled) Impromptu, Op. 69, of his friend Charles-Valentin Alkan, dedicatee of the Grande Pièce symphonique. The Final was dedicated to the once famous organist Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély, and was heard for the first time with Franck's premiere of the Six Pièces at Sainte-Clotilde on November 17, 1864.

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