La bande à Franck

It's been a very long 18 months since my last post and I am inspired to begin my blog writing again because of a project I am just beginning, which will involve three recitals (at least), each of which will feature music by the many talented pupils of the great Belgian composer and organist, César Franck (1822-1890).

In this blog I will discuss the works involved as well as the composers, at least wherever there is any information on them. Sometimes so little is known about them that a paragraph or two is all there is. Most people know about the most celebrated amongst them, such as Ernest Chausson, Henri Duparc, and possibly Vincent d'Indy. Paul Dukas is occasionally included in this assembly but he didn't really attend Franck's classes in any serious manner.

Since Franck was the main organ professor at the Conservatoire, he was not supposed to teach any form of composition. But he taught the organ students harmony and counterpoint anyway. Some of these organ majors developed into major compositional talents, such as Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, and Gabriel Pierné.

Here, then, are most of his students in chronological order of their birth years.

1. First up is Viscount Alexis de Castillon (1838-1873). Hailing from an aristocratic family in Chartres, Castillon was compelled to attend a military academy because this was what male family members of the aristocracy were expected to do. No 'gentleman' would seriously consider shirking this patriotic duty. But young Castillon was unhappy in this line of work, so he sought out composition lessons from Franck. He destroyed what he had written up to that point, and started over with a new opus no. 1, the Piano Quintet. Castillon contracted Tuberculosis during the Franco-Prussian war and died, tragically, at the age of 34. He wrote no cello music to my knowledge.

2. Albert Cahen d'Anvers (1846-1903). Cahen is most famous for the portrait of him painted by Renoir in 1881.

Cahen was the scion of a wealthy Antwerp banking family. He was generally ignored by most of the other Franck students for several reasons: he was Jewish, he was Belgian, and he was wealthy. Because of his wealth, he was never required to work for a living. He wrote mainly operas, such as Jean le précurseur, 1874. He composed many songs and a few works for orchestra such as Endymion: Pöeme mythologique. I have just discovered in the French National Library a Grande Sonata pour violoncelle et piano still in manuscript form and I am eagerly awaiting its digital photocopy later this summer.

Henri Duparc (1848-1933), is a very famous composer but only for 17 "melodies" (art songs), one symphonic poem, Lenore, some piano music, and a Sonata for cello and piano written when he was just 19. Everything else he had written up to the turn of the century he destroyed. He became blind soon after that, but was unable or unwilling to learn to compose in Braille.

To be continued!