Fall River MA St Anne Organ John Rose French Romantics Vol 5 Vinyl LP

Yes we combine shipping for multiple purchases. Add multiple items to your cart and the combined shipping total will automatically be calculated. 1983 Fall River MA Massachusetts St. Anne's Church Organ John Rose French Romantics Vol 5 Vinyl LP Record VG+ Record Grade per Goldmine Standard:  VG+
THE FRENCH ROMANTICS VOL.5 JOHN ROSE,organ
Organ of St. Anne s Church, Fall River, Massachusetts
Produced and Engineered by Michael Nemo
Side One: (20:12)
FRANCK: Fantasie in A major (12:54)
VIERNE: Arabesque (7:07)
Side Two: (25:07)
GUILMANT: Sonata No. 1 in D minor
Introduction and Allegro (10:38)
Pastorale (6:00)
Final (8:18)
The three composers represented on this
recording, together with Charles-Marie
Widor,whose best known work comprised the
preceding volume in this series, were the
dominant organist figures in Paris for well
over a half century span from about 1860 into
the 1930s. These two discs, therefore, sample
the work of the nucleus of the French com-
posers for organ of the second half of music’s
Romantic era.
The post of greatest influence in giving
shape to the French organ tradition was that
of professor of organ at the Conservatoire
Nationale in Paris, and three of these com-
posers (Franck, Widor, Guilmant) held the
position in succession for just shy of four
decades while the fourth (Vierne) served as
assistant and substitute teacher to two of them.
Cesar Franck became the organ professor
in 1872, and was succeeded by Widor in 1890.
Six years later Widor was named professor of
composition, and upon his recommendation
was succeeded in the organ post by Alexandre
Guilmant who held it until his death in 1911.
Guilmant’s assistant and substitute while on
tour was Louis Vierne, who had been a student
at the Conservatoire of both Franck and Widor
and had also assisted Widor in teaching.
It was widely thought, including by Vierne .
himself, that Vierne would succeed Guilmant
in the post. When political maneuvering
prevented the appointment, both Vierne and
his teacher Widor were concerned to continue
the tradition which Franck, Widor and
Guilmant had represented. Guilmant had
earlier founded, together with Vincent d’Indy
and Charles Bordes, the Schold Cantorum in
Paris and had taught the organ class there as
well as at the Conservatoire Nationale until his
death. Despite a rivalry with d’Indy, Widor
urged Vierne to accept the appointment to
succeed Guilmant there as organ professor,
and thus the tradition lived on until 1937—the
year of death for both Widor and Vierne and
the close of the era of the French Romantics
of the organ.
These four also dominated the Parisian
organ scene by presiding at the four stellar
examples of the art of the great organ builder
Aristide Cavaille-Coll, whose instruments
developed the orchestral fullness which made
possible and gave shape to the Romantic
organ literature—Franck at Sainte-Clotilde
(1859 to his death in 1890), Widor at Saint-
Sulpice (1869-1933), Guilmant at La Trinite
(1871- to 1901) and Vierne at Notre Dame
Cathedral (1900 to his death in 1937).
In the liner notes of preceding volumes in
this French Romantics series, the careers of
Widor (IV), Vierne (II) and Franck (I and III)
have been outlined.
Alexandre Guilmant was born in 1837 in
Boulogne-sur-Mer where his father was the
parish organist. He was not encouraged to
pursue music, but eventually his family
became convinced of the sincerity and depth
of his commitment, and his father initiated the
boy’s musical education. By the age of 12 he
was substituting for his father, and at 16 had
become the organist of another local church.
At the age of 18 his first composition, a
solemn mass, was being used at St. Nicholas
Church by his father. By the age of 20 he was
choirmaster at St. Nicholas, a faculty member
at the conservatory in Boulogne and conductor
for a local music society.
As with Widor, the major influence on
Guilmant’s development as an organist was
the Belgian master Jacques Lemmens with
whom he first studied in Paris and then in
Brussels. His performance debut in Paris
came at the age of 25 when he played as part
of the dedication ceremonies for the new
organ at St. Sulpice. Later he performed one
of his own compositions when the new instru-
ment at Notre Dame Cathedral was dedicated,
which helped lead to his own appointment as
organist of La Trinite.
He became known as the foremost French
concert organist of his day, and toured through-
out Europe and on several occasions in the
United States. Much of this fame owed to his
extraordinary prowess as an improvisaleur, and
it was this which led to a command perform-
ance at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle,
before Queen Victoria. The Queen, who had
studied with Mendelssohn, supplied Guilmant’s
theme for the improvisation, and at its con-
clusion is said to have eagerly congratulated
her guest.
Guilmant’s first American tour began with
performances at the Chicago World’s Fair in
1893. He toured here again in 1898, and on his
third trip in 1904 he played 40 recitals at the
St. Louis Exposition followed by 24 recitals in
other cities. At home his basic public forum
was the Cavaille-Coll instrument at the
Trocadero, for which he had played one of the
dedicatory recitals and on which for years he
performed a series with a large popular
following.
Guilmant’s compositions include eight
organ sonatas and hundreds of other organ
pieces including masses and arrangements and
transcriptions for the organ. As a teacher he
passed along the legacy of Lemmens to future
luminaries of the French organ scene such as
Olivier Messiaen, a successor at La Trinite,
and Marcel Dupre, a successor as organ
professor at the national conservatory.
In Guilmant’s First Sonata one quickly
senses a musical idiom which is uniquely
organistic. While the ear can imagine much of
the composition translated into the similar
language of a symphony orchestra (the com-
poser himself arranged it for this purpose), it
also senses here the work of a craftsman who
understood exactly what was peculiar to his
instrument and knew how to construct cities
of sound unmistakable for any rival metropolis.
Orchestral sounds are paralleled, but it remains
resolutely a work for the organ.
Of these four paramount French Romantic
composers for the organ, Guilmant was the
most narrowly fixated on his own instrument.
Franck, Widor and even Vierne turned out
considerable numbers of pieces composed
originally for other instruments and ensembles,
while Guilmant, aside from arranging this
Sonata (and the Eighth) for orchestra and
organ, contented himself for the most part
with writing for the “King of Instruments’’
Yet his work is anything but narrow in concep-
tion and scope. It starts with his rootedness in
Bach, through Lemmens, and goes on to explore
with great imagination new areas to be con-
quered for the King. The First Sonata has
been nicknamed Symphonic and its three con-
trasting movements explore the Cavaille-Coll
tonal characteristics which so fascinated
Guilmant and impelled his writing.
Franck’s Fantasie in A was written as one
of three pieces for the same inaugural series of
recitals at the Trocadero at which Guilmant
had performed. It is improvisatory in style,
and again explores a broad range of color and
dynamics in a manner characteristic of the
period. Vierne’s ‘Arabesque”is from his
collection of Twenty-four Pieces in Free Style
which were composed to be performed either
on a large organ with pedalboard, or a harmo-
nium (hands alone). This piece is representative
of Vierne’s impressionistic approach typical of
a large portion of his later organ works.
annotation by Phillip Truckenbrod
The Artist
John Rose maintains an active North American
performance schedule and has toured abroad a
number of times, most frequently in Europe. As
this series would suggest, he enjoys treating his
audiences to music by the French symphonist
school of composers when the instrument at
hand permits.
He lives in Hartford, Connecticut, where he
serves both as College Organist at Trinity College
and Senior Organist at the Cathedral of St.
Joseph. Prior to assuming the Trinity College
post in 1977 he served for nearly a decade as
organist and music director at the Cathedral of
the Sacred Heart in Newark, N.J., where he also
taught organ at Rutgers University.
Among the noted composers who have
dedicated works to John Rose is Malcolm
Williamson, Master of the Queen’s Music to
H.M. Elizabeth II of Great Britain.
LP408

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