| Charles-marie Widor |
Website Links For Widor |
Information AboutCharles-marie Widor |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CHARLES-MARIE WIDOR | |
| 1844 births | |
| 1937 deaths | |
| composers for pipe organ | |
| people from lyon | |
| french composers | |
| organ improvisers | |
| french classical organists | |
| 20th century classical composers | |
| romantic composers | |
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BIOGRAPHY Widor was born in Lyon , and initially studied music there with his father, who was an organist himself. In 1870, he was appointed as organist of Saint-Sulpice in Paris . In 1890, he succeeded Cesar Franck as organ professor at the Paris Conservatoire , where he also became composition professor in 1896. Widor remained as organist at St. Sulpice for 64 years until the end of 1933. He was succeeded in 1934 by his former student Marcel Dupré . Widor's best-known single piece for the organ is the final movement, Toccata , from his Symphony for Organ No. 5, which is often played as a recessional at Wedding ceremonies. When an organist hears a reference to "the Widor", he instantly knows the speaker is referring to the Toccata from Symphony #5. Widor was pleased with the world-wide reknown this single piece afforded him, but he was unhappy with how fast many other organists played it. Widor himself always played the ''Toccata'' rather deliberately. He recorded the piece, along with his ''Symphony Gothique'' at St. Sulpice in his eighty-eighth year. Widor had several students in Paris who were to become famous composers in their own right, most notably Darius Milhaud and Marcel Dupré . He wrote music himself for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles (some of his songs for voice and piano are especially notable,) but only his works for organ are played with any regularity today. Widor showed no interest in breaking new ground by stretching tonality to his limits, as many of his colleagues did. However, his music is not unoriginal or dull. Much of it is tremendously effective in the most idomatic way for the organ, but it offers few startling suprises. Widor's organ works include: 10 Symphonies, Suite Latine, Trois Nouvelles Pièces, and six arrangements of works by Bach under the title ''Bach's Memento'' (1925). The symphonies are his most significant contribution to the organ repertoire. It seems unusual to assign the term "symphony" to a work written for one instrument. However, Widor was at the forefront of a revival in French organ music, which had sunk to a low point during the 18th century. Aiding in this revival was the organ-builder Aristide Cavaille-Coll , who pioneered a new organ that was "symphonic" in style. The organ of the Baroque and Classical periods was designed to project a clear and crisp sound capable of handling contrapuntal writing. Cavaille-Coll's organs had a much warmer sound, ideal for the more homophonic style of writing that now predominated. This new style of organ allowed composers to write music that was truly symphonic in scope. (This trend was not limited to France, and was reflected in Germany by the works of Liszt , Reubke , and Reger .) Widor's symphonies can be divided into three groups. The first four symphonies comprise Op. 13, and are more properly termed "suites" (Widor himself called them "collections".) They represent Widor's early style. Widor made later revisions to the earlier symphonies. Some of these revisions were quite extensive. The early symphonies show great variety in writing, but neither the individual movements nor the symphonies themselves compare to his later works. The second group of symphonies, Symphonies 5-8, are part of Op. 42. The Fifth Symphony has five movements and closes with the famous Toccata. The opening movement of the Sixth Symphony is also very famous. The Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, while not very well known, contain some truly remarkable and exciting moments, and are by far the longest of Widor's Symphonies. The ninth and tenth symphonies, respectively termed "Gothique" and "Romane", are much more introspective. They both derive thematic material from plainchant. Although these symphonies are considered to represent the pinnacle of Widor's development as a composer, they are not as famous as the fifth and sixth symphonies. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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