Description
Book SynopsisTraces the organ profession's rebirth through the careers of Saint-Saens, Franck, Gigout, Guilmant, and Widor and other influential figures and composers. The author explores the development of the secular recital, the organist as church musician, and the education of organists in a documented study.
Trade Review"Highly recommended ... the story of a remarkable renaissance." -Choice "Orpha Ochse has ... concentrated more on the personalities, the institutions, or the relations between the Church and its employees than on the music itself. The choice is perfectly justifiable, and one simply must recommend this highly coherent and well-illustrated book... --L'Orgue "Even the well-informed reader will find a number of surprises. Who knows, for example, that Fryderyk Chopin played the organ for a funeral service and that Lefebrure-Wely, in turn, played the great pianist and composer's Preludes for his funeral at the Madeleine? The abundance of details, we should add, does nothing to obscure the architectural clarity of this book." --Ton van Eck in La Flute harmonique "Now Ms. Ochse has succeeded in producing still another landmark work... Although the work is extraordinarily well documented, the prose retains a narrative quality througout, at times even taking on the character of good storytelling." --Agnes Armstrong in The American Organist "This book is a success story from beginning to end, both from the point of view of the subject matter ... and in the manner of its presentation." --James B. Hartman in The Diapason " ... in Organists and Organ Playing in Nineteenth-Century France and Belgium, the American musicoligist Orpha Ochse provides not just an authoritative and thorough survey of the period, ... but also shows how the changing fortunes of organists and their newly built instruments relfected the social and political upheavals of the time... an absorbing achievement."--Times Literary Supplement, 26 April, 02
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
I. Prelude: Music for a Revolution
Part One: Performers and Programs
II. In the Wake of the Storm: 1800-1809
III. Years of Rebuilding: 1810-29
IV. The Romantic Dawn: The 1830s
V. Contrasts, Conflicts, and Conquests: The 1840s
VI. Mid-Century Masters and Their Programs
VII. New Horizons: The 1860s
VIII. Tragedy to Triumph: The 1870s
IX. Renaissance Achieved: The 1880s
X. Years of Fulfillment: The 1890s
Part Two: The Organist as Church Muscian
XI. Historical Background
XII. Organ and Liturgy
XIII. Notes on the Repertoire
Part Three: Great Schools and Famous Teachers
XIV. The Paris Conservatory Organ Class: Sejan to Franck
XV. The Brussels Conservatory Organ Class: Fetis to Mailly
XVI. Lemmens, a Closer Look
XVII. Widor as Teacher
XVIII.Guilmant as Teacher
XIX. The Niedermeyer School
XX. Organ Study at the Niedermeyer and Gigout Schools
XXI. The Schola Cantorum
XXII. Postlude
Appendix A. Organ Performers by Cesar Franck
Appendix B. Students in Franck's Organ Class
Appendix C. Oragan Performers by Camille Saint-Saens
Bibliography
Notes
Index
