Symphony No. 5 by Louis Vierne, the most expansive of his six organ symphonies, was composed in 1924. One of its distinctive features is the presence of a certain degree of atonality. It was premiered in New York on December 21, 1925, by the Canadian organist Lynnwood Farnam, and in France on May 26, 1934, by Georges Ibos at the organ of the Saint-Honoré d’Eylau Church in Paris.

The OrganScore edition was prepared from the original publication (Louis Vierne, 5e Symphonie pour Grand Orgue, Éditions Durand, 1925), on which corrections were necessary. Most of these corrections were identified by Vierne’s students or friends and compiled by Rollin Smith (Louis Vierne, Organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Pendragon Press, Hillsdale, N.Y., 1999).

Page turns have been greatly reduced compared with traditional editions and are placed at convenient locations. However, because of the exceptional musical density of the Finale, one turn (page 29) is inconvenient and requires either an arrangement or an assistant.

Contents/Inhalt:

p. 1 : I – Grave
p. 4 : II – Allegro molto marcato
p. 10 : III – Tempo di scherzo ma non troppo vivo
p. 16 : IV – Larghetto
p. 22 : V – (Final) Allegro moderato