Franck - Piano Trio No. 4 In B Minor, Opus 2

 César Franck's first acknowledged compositions were 4 piano trios, written while he was still a student in 1840.  Originally, his opus 1 was three piano trios, but he was advised by Liszt to remove the final movement of the third one because of its length and make it a separate composition. This he did, and claimed the work as Piano Trio No. 4, Opus 2. 

Liszt had given the composer  encouragement as the result of these trios, with Liszt participating in performances of them. Franck showed much promise with these first works, but some other works were met with indifference by the public. He concentrated on his organ playing and became one of the most famous organ improvisers of his time, and worked directly with the French organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, an innovator of the instrument. Franck demonstrated the organs of the maker and showed how they went beyond the traditional organ and were more orchestral.

Franck taught many composers and organists in his classes for many years, and it was later in his life when he composed the works he is more well known for. 

Allegro - Since this was originally the final movement of the Third trio, it is in but one movement. Violin and cello begin the movement with a slithering theme that covers over an octave and is quite chromatic. The two play an octave apart:

This theme recurs all through the movement in various guises. After the strings announce the theme, they immediately repeat it as the piano contributes a B minor chord in the right hand, and a G-sharp diminished chord in the left. These chords combine with the chromatic theme in the strings and creates even more ambiguity and feeling of menace. The volume of the theme increases until a forte is reached and the music modulates. The music goes back to piano, and the pattern of the opening is repeated, only now the music has shifted to E minor.  The piano enters for a repeat of the modulated theme with an E minor chord in the right hand, and a C-sharp diminished chord in the left, so the tension hasn't eased, only shifted to a different key. The 4th bar is again repeated, the theme modulates. The strings are silent as the piano repeats the partial theme three times. A change in tempo and mood begins:

Più lento - This section lasts but 12 bars. The violin is silent as the cello begins by stating a variant of the first bar of the theme, which in essence is the second theme of the exposition:

The cello reaches the D above the bass clef and holds it for half of the 6 measure section as the piano plays slow arpeggios in each hand and simple two-note chords. The music moves from G major to D major in a mood decidedly sweeter than the opening. But it immediately segues into a:

Più presto - This section is but 5 measures long, forte throughout, as the right hand holds an E minor chord as the left hand skitters along in a chromatic triplet pattern. The violin remains silent as the cello holds a B for the entire 5 bars plus 5 more in  the next section that is marked  più lento. The piano now plays E major arpeggios and simple chords and shifts to B major. Yet another modulation brings about the key of D-sharp minor, as the tempo changes to piu presto for two bars as the left hand plays triplets and the right hand holds a D-sharp minor diminished chord.  Another section marked più lento has the violin join with the cello in a held F-sharp as the piano plays arpeggios and chords in F-sharp minor. The music segues into a return of the opening tempo:

Tempo I -  The music gradually shifts tonality to B major as the first theme is heard in the piano, then the strings take it up in a section that repeats the theme as well as the secondary theme. What has gone on before can be considered as an introduction, or the first playing of the exposition that is in loose sonata form. This section can be considered as the actual beginning of the exposition, or a varied repeat of the exposition. The two themes and parts of them are used in either case until it leads to the next section, still in tempo 1, but the key has shifted back to B minor:

Gravement - The term means seriously. This section can be thought of as the development section, and does indeed begin in a quite serious mood stated by the piano and cello. The cello offers up a soaring motif in E minor as the piano plays large E minor chords as the music builds to the next section marked fortissimo.  The strings play long held notes while the piano returns to rapid triplets in both hands. The volume level reaches triple forte until it slows down and another section is reached:

Avec la plus grande expression -  With the greatest of expression. This section is short, and leads to a gradual slowing of the tempo and increase in volume. The music returns to tempo 1  as the strings make commentary over a restless piano accompaniment. The music shifts tonality and continues in drama that ebbs and flows in volume. The restlessness of the piano carries on as references to the first theme are heard in it and the strings. The theme returns with a complex figure in the piano and continues to build until it reaches a full and sudden stop. The next section begins with the strings playing pizzicato with the piano silent. It is a mysterious sounding section as it increases in volume slightly, but always falls back to quiet. This leads to the next section:

Triple piano -  Very softly the piano plays a D-flat low in the bass. This builds into a 2 bar motive akin to the opening theme. The D-flat motive transforms into a C-sharp, and a long and slow section of repeated motives in C-sharp minor are heard in the three instruments. The music shifts tonality to B major, and this section comes to a halt in G-sharp minor after high double stops are played in the strings and tremelos in the piano.  

A tempo - This section begins with a short fantasia-like piano solo on the theme that leads to an emphatic modulation to the key of B major that represents the recapitulation.  The themes are repeated and expanded again until a short coda that increases in tempo and volume ends the work with a part of the theme played in half notes and a solid end to the movement in B major.

This trio may be labeled by some as repetitious and episodic, but the imagination and creativity Franck uses in the choice of theme and how he uses it shows an already highly developed dramatic sense for a student of 18 years. The use of two themes based on a single theme was not new in music. Josef Haydn wrote examples of monothematic movements before in his works, but it is a foretaste of what Franck was to become as a mature composer later on in his use of cyclical form. 

Cesar Franck 

Franck - Violin Sonata In A Major

After a youth spent in musical study, composition and performing, César Franck went the way of a family man as he married and settled down to make a living as a church organist and teacher. 

When he was hired as the organ professor at the Paris Conservatoire, Franck began to compose more, and it was this time in his life when he wrote the works that he is most remembered for. The Violin Sonata In A Major was composed by Franck in 1886 when he was 63 years old and became one of his most popular pieces. The first public performance was in December of 1886, but a private first performance of this happened on the wedding day in September of the virtuoso violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. Franck had given the sonata to him as a wedding present, and after the wedding and a quick rehearsal, Ysaÿe and his pianist sister-in-law gave a performance to the wedding guests. Ysaÿe  kept the sonata in his repertoire for 40 years and helped promote Franck's music. The sonata remains one of the most popular works of Franck, as well as one of the most popular violin sonatas in the repertoire. The sonata is so popular that it exists in many transcriptions for other instruments, but the version for cello and piano is the only one sanctioned by Franck.

Franck didn't live to see much of his music become truly popular with the public. The handful of works that he is remembered for, among them the Symphony In D Minor, Piano Quintet In F Minor, and the Violin Sonata In A, were all written in the last years of his life. He was very influential with his students at the Paris Conservatoire, and they as well as friends such as Ysaÿe kept his music before the public. 

I. Allegretto ben moderato - The movement has but two themes, the first one is a sweet song for the violin as the piano accompanies. Originally Franck wanted this movement to be played very slowly, but it was Ysaÿe that convinced him by his performance of the piece to increase the tempo to allegretto. 

The second theme is for the piano alone. The themes go through various keys as was Franck's style at the time to be quite chromatic. The two themes don't merge together in the relatively short movement, but maintain their individual character with each repetition. The violin's theme especially reappears in other movements. The movement ends quietly in the home key.

II. Allegro - The next movement is in D minor and is essentially a scherzo for the piano with another layer added to it with the violin's part. The piano begins the movement and plays for 13 turbulent bars before the violin enters and reinforces the piano's theme that is there amongst the filigree passages. 

The music gradually becomes slower until a section marked Quasi lento, where parts of themes heard in the first movement are reminisced over. This section continues for a few bars until the music gradually shifts keys to C-sharp minor and the scherzo returns. The music shifts once again in key, this time to C minor as it works its way back to the key of D minor with continual references to themes heard in the first movement. Another key change to D major for a short section that leads to a section marked Poco piu lento. The violin part is labeled con fantasia and as the previous slow section, this is brief and leads to D minor returning as the scherzo slowly begins again. The violin as well as the piano becomes turbulent, and leads to a bright ending to the movement in D major. 

III. Ben moderato: Recitativo-Fantasia - The key signature is ostensibly A minor, but the chromaticism of the music doesn't dwell in any one key very long. The piano begins the third movement playing three bars with the violin entering near the ends of the 4th bar with the designation largamente con fantasia, which roughly means slowly and freely. The violin and piano are partners in music that does much chromatic roaming, with waxing and waning of tempo and feeling. The key shifts to F-sharp minor and the music becomes very tender and tranquil, and then turns more dramatic. Near the end a section has the violin play a very recognizable variant of the first theme of the first movement. The music grows quiet, and the movement ends.

IV. Allegretto poco mosso - The violin's theme is tagged along by the piano a few steps behind. The mood of the movement is more or less pleasant in nature, but there are more passionate sections. 

More references to what has gone before appear, as Franck makes his way to the sunny ending.

Franck- Piano Trio No.1 In F-sharp Minor Opus 1 No. 1

César Franck's first composition acknowledged by him was a set of Piano Trios which were composed in his last years as a conservatory student. He was eighteen when he began the 1st Piano Trio in F-sharp minor in 1840. Franz Liszt saw the set of piano trios and offered constructive criticism and encouragement. Liszt performed them after he settled in Wiemar as Kappelmeister to the court there.  In 1845  Franck composed an oratorio that had a private performance for Liszt and other musicians. The work was a mild success, but when it had its first public performance a year later it received harsh criticism. Franck shelved the work and took up the life of a teacher, accompanist and composed a few smaller works on commission.

The 1st Piano Trio is Franck's early attempt at writing in cyclical form in which an entire composition is based on a few themes that keep returning in each movement. He was to perfect the form in his later compositions beginning in 1872. The 1st Piano Trio is in 3 movements:

I. Andante con moto - The movement begins with the solo piano playing the lead in to the first theme in F-sharp minor that is taken up by the cello. This theme is played three times during the movement. Franck relieves some of the monotony of the theme with expanding the theme, and one of the repeats has the theme treated fugally. The second contrasting theme is in F-sharp major and is played and developed twice in the movement. These two themes are not especially notable, but tension is built up by the contrast between the two.  The first theme comes back to finish the movement abruptly.

II.  Allegro molto - A scherzo in B minor that has two trio sections, with the second trio being a reworking of the second theme of the first movement. The first theme of the opening movement returns after the second trio and leads directly to the last movement.

III.  Finale: Allegro maestoso - The final movement is in F-sharp major sonata form with the first theme being a variant of the first theme of the opening movement. The second theme is written in D-flat major, the enharmonic equivalent of C-sharp major, the dominant of the home key of the movement. The plodding first theme returns and leads to a section in D major, which in turn leads to the recapitulation.  The movement ends in F-sharp major.

Franck's 1st Piano Trio has been criticized for being monotonous. While it is true that this early attempt at cyclical form pales in comparison to his later works, the 1st Piano Trio does give a glimpse of things to come. Liszt has been given his due for his contribution to cyclical form, but he was far from the first composer to use it.  Franck was slow to develop as a composer, and no doubt he learned a great deal from Liszt's use of the form.

Franck - Prelude, Chorale And Fugue For Piano

After many years of composing for solo organ and choral pieces César Franck renewed his interest in the piano. He had began his career as a virtuoso pianist while still a child, while his first compositions written as a child were for solo piano. Two of the pieces that saw his renaissance as a composer for the piano, the Piano Quintet in F Minor, and Les Djinns for piano and orchestra, were followed by pieces for piano solo, one of which was the  Prelude, Chorale and Fugue.

The organ music of J.S. Bach was a great influence on Franck, as was the music of Beethoven, Liszt and Wagner. In this piece Franck paid homage to this legacy by molding it in a traditional form while radically changing the style of music he put into it. Camille Saint-Saëns, the great French contemporary of Franck disliked the chromaticism and style of the music and declared, "It is neither a Chorale nor a Fugue." Of course he was correct; it was Franck's personalization of the forms. To a musician that had grown somewhat conservative like Saint-Saëns, this music did no service to the art of music. Regardless of the criticism of his music, (which could be very harsh) Franck continued composing and wrote some of the most beautiful music of the late 19th century. Music that looked backwards in some ways, and forwards in others.

Prelude - The music begins straight away in the key of B minor with a melody played in the middle of an arpeggiated accompaniment:

After seven bars, Franck draws attention to a time signature change 2/4 for one bar that is marked a capriccio. This one bar contains the kernel of one of the first main theme that is referred to throughout the work. The time signature changes back to common time as the kernel is expanded for a few measures before the prelude figuration heard in the beginning returns. The first theme reappears and is explored further. The prelude returns and leads directly to a two-bar transition to the Chorale.

Chorale - The key changes to C minor as the subject for the following fugue is partially revealed before the chorale proper sounds out by large rolled chords with the melody in the high treble:

The music follows this pattern of subject - chorale until the music modulates to the key of E-flat minor in the chorale.

Fugue - After a few bars of transition, the music modulates back to the home key of B minor. The music rumbles in anticipation and leads to the beginning of the fugue:

The fugue progresses with the fugue subject weaving its way through key changes as Franck explores the theme. All of the exploration leads to a cadenza of rapid 16th notes that lead to the reappearance of the prelude and its theme, which is itself explored and expanded. The chorale theme also reappears in a different guise. The fugue and chorale themes intertwine, and the music changes key to B major. Pieces of themes are heard in a grand coda that ends the piece.

Franck - Piano Quintet In F Minor

Nicolas-Joseph Franck tried his best to use the talent of his son César as a way towards amassing great wealth for the family. After César  played concerts and studied at the Conservatory at Liège,  Nicolas decided to take his son to Paris to gain wider exposure and to continue his studies at the Paris Conservatoire. His son was denied enrollment because he was a foreigner  (the family was Belgian). Evidently Nicolas was a typical 'stage mother' type that would do anything to promote his sons, so he applied for French citizenship.  Nicolas made good use of the time it took to get the citizenship by having his sons study privately and play in numerous concerts. The boy entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1837 when he was 15.

The young man was under a lot of strain, as besides his studies he was teaching, composing, and thanks to his relentless and overbearing father, playing a heavy schedule of concerts. He abruptly resigned from the Conservatoire in 1842, perhaps at the insistence of his father to free him up for even more concerts. Finally Nicolas' fierce promotion of his son began to wear thin on the music critics in Paris. César was acknowledged as a fine pianist, but soon his concerts were no longer well attended.  After Nicolas had burned so many bridges with his behavior there was no longer any reason to stay in Paris, so the father and son went back to Belgium.

Belgium proved to be worse than Paris as there was not much money to be made concertizing and there was no patronage forthcoming from the Belgian King. So after two years Nicolas and son went back to Paris where César resumed teaching and giving concerts. He was also composing and had written a trio that Franz Liszt showed his approval of. But his oratorio Ruth proved not to be popular with the public and was severely panned by critics. He tried his hand at opera and other works, but finally resigned himself to a life as a teacher.

His father still tried to exert his will on the son, and when César became interested in a woman he had met in his Conservatoire days, the father did not approve. Relations between the two became so strained that César walked out of the house and did not return. After years of living with his controlling and abusive father, the son had enough. He eventually married the woman, and sought a post as an organist. He was a pianist by training and didn't show much aptitude for the organ while in school, but a position as organist was steady income.

He became one of the best organists in France, and his third appointment in 1858 was his last as he stayed at the church of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris the rest of his life. By 1872 his reputation as organist and improviser was so great that he accepted the position of professor of organ at the Paris Conservatoire.  He began to compose once again and the Piano Quintet of 1879 was one of his first masterpieces of his later years and the piece helped to reignite his writing for the piano which he had not done since his early years. The mature style of Franck was described by the musicologist Leland Hall :

"...all his work bears the stamp of his personality. Like Brahms, he has pronounced idiosyncrasies, among which his fondness for shifting harmonies is the most constantly obvious. The ceaseless alteration of chords, the almost unbroken gliding by half-steps, the lithe sinuousness of all the inner voices seem to wrap his music in a veil, to render it intangible and mystical. Diatonic passages are rare, all is chromatic. Parallel to this is his use of short phrases, which alone are capable of being treated in this shifting manner. His melodies are almost invariably dissected, they seldom are built up in broad design. They are resolved into their finest motifs and as such are woven and twisted into the close iridescent harmonic fabric with bewildering skill. All is in subtle movement."

The Piano Quintet is for piano, 2 violins, viola and cello. It is in three movements:
I. Molto quasi lento - Allegro - The movement begins with an extended introduction for string quartet alone that is soon answered by the solo piano. The strings again combine for a statement, the solo piano enters again. Strings and piano combine as the music increases in intensity until the first subject is heard. The theme goes through chromatic shifts until it gives way to the secondary theme, which is the theme that appears in all three movements.  Themes appear in different guises throughout the development section, the recapitulation is followed by a section where the main themes are juxtaposed with the secondary theme in the spotlight. The passion intensifies as the music continues its shifting chromaticism until the music grows quiet and the movement ends.

II. Lento - The second subject of the first movement appears in the middle of this movement, and it is flanked by themes that seem vaguely familiar. To my ears Franck creates in this movement a sentimental reminiscence of what has already passed.

III. Allegro non troppo - The music begins in an agitated state and grows in intensity until a theme derived from previous material arrives. All is movement and agitation which leads to the powerful coda and the abrupt end.

The quintet was premiered in 1880 with Camille Saint-Saëns at the keyboard (at the request of the composer). Saint-Saëns evidently grew more and more displeased with the piece the further he went (he was sight-reading the piece, a tribute to Saint-Saëns' musicianship). When the piece was finished Saint-Saëns stormed off the stage and refused to accept the manuscript and the dedication from Franck. Rumors flew about Franck being romantically involved with a female student at the time which contributed to the passion of the work. No one really knows why Saint-Saëns reacted the way he did. Perhaps it was the music itself, or the references to Franck's affair that made the work so emotional, or perhaps Saint-Saëns himself was harboring feelings for the same student. In any case, the work was well received by Franck's devoted students, and after a few years the work earned a place as one of the handful of masterpieces of the piano quintet genre.

Franck - Les Djinns

Les Djinns (The Genie) is one of five symphonic poems written by César Franck. As with many of the symphonic poems of Franz Liszt (who is credited with the invention of the symphonic poem), it is based on a literary work, the poem of the same name by the French writer Victor Hugo. The poem was part of a collection of Hugo's poems titled Les Orientales, written in 1829.  The poem deals with the unleashing of a Djinn and the resulting storms and evil that accompany the unleashing.

Victor Hugo

This kind of supernatural being is mentioned in the Qurʾan and Islamic theology. They inhabit an unseen world in dimensions beyond the visible universe. The djinn, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of God. The Qurʾan mentions that the Djinn are made of a smokeless, scorching fire and can be good, evil, or neutral. The Djinn of Hugo's poem is evidently of the nasty kind.

Hugo's poem is written in a form that visually depicts a swirling storm or tornado. Verse one is in two syllables, verse two in three syllables, increasing by one syllable until the middle of the poem. Then a syllable is removed from each successive verse until the end, where two syllables are in the verse as in the beginning.  The original poem was written in French. Here is part of it in English translation, unfortunately the syllables do not match the original French:

Port, walls 

And keeps 

Death’s Halls 

And deeps, 

Grey seas 

Where breeze 

Now flees: 

All sleeps.

From the verge 

Of the flow Sighs emerge— 

Night-airs blow— 

And they toll 

Like a soul 

On patrol 

With a glow. 

The loudest sounds 

Are like a sleigh— 

An elf who bounds 

And skins away. 

He leaps and flows, 

In rhythmic throes 

Springs on his toes 

Across the spray. 

Echoes and entwines 

Like the bells we hear 

At accursed shrines.

 Like a noisy crowd 

Thundering and proud, 

Sometimes it grows loud, 

Sometimes it declines. 

O God! the ghostly sound Of Djinns!—

and how they blare! 

Quick! let’s escape around 

The sunken spiral stair! 

Oh, I have lost my light! 

The shadow of the flight 

Covers the wall—goes right 

Up to the open air. 

(the rest of the translation can be found here)

The original French and the form created by the addition and subtraction of syllables can be seen at the left.  

Victor Hugo was one of the most well-known and influential of the French Romantic writers.  In addition to poetry he also wrote plays and novels (some of the most well-known novels in all of world literature such as Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame) 

His works influenced not only writers in his own country but in other countries as well, such as the American writer Edgar Allen Poe. His work also influenced many  composers and he was an acquaintance of Berlioz and Liszt.  Victor Hugo was also a graphic artist as he left more than 3,500 drawings and paintings.

Franck wrote Les Djinns in 1884, and the composition is unique in that it is written for orchestra with piano obbligato - in fact it is a symphonic poem for piano and orchestra, a rarity.

As with the best of Liszt's symphonic poems, Franck doesn't try to create a musical depiction of the poem itself, but an atmosphere and feeling of the poem. It is left to the imagination of the listener to interpret the music within the context of the poem, or not. The knowledge that Les Djinn was inspired by Hugo's poem is interesting and can add to the enjoyment of the piece, but it isn't necessary.  The title of the piece, Les Djinn, The Genie, is enough to stimulate the imagination. Which is what I think a symphonic poem is supposed to do.

Franck - Symphonic Variations For Piano and Orchestra

Like most of the compositions Cesar Franck wrote in the last decade of his life, the Symphonic Variations were coldly received.  It wasn't until after his death in 1890 that his compositions became more well known and popular, mainly due to the efforts of his devoted students.

But the audience at the premiere of the Symphonic Variations were probably confused by what they actually heard. Far from a classic set of variations on a theme, Franck wrote a different and subtle type of work. The actual variations are small in number and there is much that goes on before and after.

The work is in three distinct sections played without break. The first section is in the key of F-sharp minor and begins with severe and dramatic octaves in the strings, to which the piano answers in a gentle manner. This beginning is similar to the beginning of Beethoven's slow movement of his Piano Concerto No. 4, and whether Franck intended it as a homage to Beethoven or it is a mere coincidence, the piano soon becomes an equal with the orchestra and after some dialog between them the piano introduces the theme that is the object of the variations.

There are six (some say more) variations that are seamlessly woven together with piano and orchestra. Everything moves so smoothly, that the variations are almost over before the listener knows it, and the piano enters into a trance of gentle music with the orchestra quietly commenting. The piano and orchestra end up in a sleep-walking dialog, until the piano throws off some sparkling trills that lead the music to the key of F-sharp major. With the change in key comes a change in mood as the piano scampers in a graceful dance with the orchestra. As the orchestra and piano remind each other of the beginning with snippets of the opening theme in major mode, the music ends.

The Symphonic Variations is a piece that is one of the most perfect ever written for piano and orchestra. It is short, but there is so much happening that it should take longer than the average time of 15 minutes to play it.  It is not possible to think about it being for any other combination of instruments (although there is a version for two pianos, it was probably made for rehearsal use or to allow performance when no orchestra is available).  The piano writing is for a virtuoso, but never at the expense of the musical content. Franck has written a piece where virtuosity is for the good of the whole, not an end in itself.

 

Franck - Organ Chorale No. 2 in B Minor

The history of the pipe organ is a rich and ancient one, going back as far as the Roman Empire with its organ operated by water pressure called the Hydraulis. The organ slowly evolved from a monstrous instrument that had keys so big they had to be struck with the fist to the instruments of the early Baroque with their ranks of pipes and voices, multiple keyboards and foot pedals.

For many centuries the pipe organ was the most complicated mechanical device known, as it took the artistry and craftsmanship of many different disciplines to construct one.  Master cabinet makers to make the chests, keyboards and all the wooden parts, wood carvers to beautify the outside of the instrument, craftsman working in metals to make all of the pins and guide wires necessary, experienced makers to make hundreds and sometimes thousands of  organ pipes, craftsmen with a fine ear to tune the pipes, organ players to assist with regulation of the action. All of this craftsmanship and knowledge was learned by experience by each organ builder in each part of Europe that they worked. There developed styles of construction and sounds according to the locality of the builder. Each part of Europe created their own unique version of the instrument, and accordingly there developed schools of organ playing to match the instruments of the locale.

The school of French organ playing began in the 16th century and unlike some others, continued into the Romantic era. With composer/organists like Camille Saint-Saens, Cesar Franck and Charles-Marie Widor, French organ builders went on to include improvements to the instrument that allowed the French organ composers to write in a symphonic style for the instrument.

The most influential and beloved of these composer/organists was Cesar Franck. After his early years of composing and performing he settled into a life of teaching. It wasn't until his later years that he started to compose again, and in the matter of but a few years managed to compose a handful of masterpieces. He was a master improviser on the instrument, but only composed about a dozen pieces for it. nonetheless, he is regarded as the most important organ composer since J.S. Bach. High praise indeed, as it attests to the quality of his compositions.

Among those few pieces he wrote for organ (and the last three pieces he wrote before his death) are the Three Chorales For Organ. Franck was a composer that loved the traditional forms of music, but he made these forms his own by the way he used them. The second organ chorale is in B minor, and is in the form of a passacaglia and fugue, a passacaglia being a type of variation form in which the composition is based on a bass-ostinato which appears throughout the composition. Franck used a 16-bar bass theme:

In true passacaglia form, it isn't always confined to the bass part.  This work bears an outward resemblance at least in form to Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, but as with other works by Franck, his music is distinctive and speaks with a voice all his own.

Franck - Organ Chorale No. 3 in A Minor

In the summer of 1890, Cesar Franck was riding in a cab when it was struck by a horse-drawn trolley. He suffered a fainting spell and a slight head injury, but he thought it wasn't serious enough to warrant treatment and went on his way. Soon it became difficult for him to walk and he had to give up his teaching at the Conservatoire and went on vacation to try and recuperate.  He went back to the Conservatoire in the fall of 1890 but contracted an upper respiratory ailment that soon changed to pneumonia. He died November 8, 1890.

It was during this vacation that he completed the three Chorales For Organ.  They are considered very important pieces in the organ repertoire, and bear the imprint of Francks later compositional style.

The Chorale No. 3 in A Minor begins as a toccata and has a contrasting second theme before it goes into a new theme played adagio. The finale of the piece hears the toccata return and the weaving in and out of the other themes heard in the piece.

 Very seldom has there been a composer of the importance of Franck that has left such a relatively small output of compositions.  Franck began his career as a virtuoso pianist and composer, but he ceased to compose anything of any import until the last twelve years of his life.  With a handful of compositions, including the Three Chorales For Organ, Franck's place in music history is assured.

Franck - Le Chasseur Maudit (The Accursed Hunter)

Cesar Franck (1822 - 1890) wrote this brilliantly orchestrated tone poem in 1882.  The title is taken from a poem written by the German poet Gottfried August Bürger that was titled Der Wilde Jäger. The tone poem, while written in one continuous movement, is in four distinct sections:

• Sunday Morning Call To Worship
• The Hunt
• The Curse
• The Demon's Chase

The story synopsis:

The church bells call the faithful to worship on a bright and sunny Sunday morning, but an arrogant German count decided he will go hunting instead. He ignored the church bells and the chants, mounted his horse as he blew his hunting horn to begin the hunt, and whipped the peasants that got in his way.  After he got into the woods and hunted for a while, he realized he was lost.  A mysterious voice speaks to him and tells him that he is cursed to be chased forever by demons in the forest for his blasphemy.  Through night and day the wild ride goes on, and doesn't stop when the hunter and his horse fall into the abyss. They are lifted airborne with the demons still hot in their pursuit. 

Franck's Le Chasseur Maudit (The Accursed Hunter):

Cesar Franck - Symphony In D Minor

César Franck (1822-1890) was a Belgian composer who was also an organist, pianist and a teacher in Paris for many years.  He took French citizenship in 1872 upon his professorial appointment at the Paris Conservatoire.

Franck was a child prodigy and gave his first public recitals in 1834 when he was twelve. He also began composing early, but due to harsh criticism of his works he ceased composing and concentrated on the organ and his teaching duties. He became a virtuoso on the organ and a master at improvisation, and was hired by an organ manufacturer to demonstrate their instruments.

With his tenure as Professor Of Organ at the Conservatoire, Frank renewed his efforts at composition and during the last eighteen years of his life he composed the works which he is known for.  The Symphony In D Minor was composed in 1886-1888 and combines  cyclic form of composition (a technique much used by Liszt and Wagner and some French composers) with a decidedly German style of orchestration. The first theme heard when the piece begins is the kernel upon which the entire symphony is built.

The politics of the time lead to very harsh criticism of the Symphony when it was premiered. A Symphony by a Frenchman written in a German style of orchestration was not conducive to good reviews so soon after the Franco-Prussian war, especially from any professor or composer that was associated with the conservative Paris Conservatoire.  But the quality of the music was more than enough to outlast the negative political attacks.