Louis Vierne: Organ Works
Louis Vierne (1870–1937), a pupil of César Franck and Charles-Marie Widor, served as organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris for 37 years, until his death at the console during a recital. The OrganScore edition covers the 24 Pièces de Fantaisie and the six Organ Symphonies (to be published shortly).
“24 Pièces de Fantaisie”, in two volumes
The Twenty-Four Pieces of Fantasy are written for a three-manual organ with pedal. Published in 1926 and 1927, they form four suites of six pieces each. According to the composer, they are of “moderate difficulty” and their duration “varies between three and five minutes”. In practice, this largely depends on the chosen tempo, and some pieces may last up to seven or eight minutes.
The OrganScore format is particularly well suited to these works, in which the hands may be unable to leave the manuals for very long passages. The four suites are distributed across two volumes.
VOLUME I
Suite 1 (Op. 51), Suite 2 (Op. 53)
VOLUME II
Suite 3 (Op. 54), Suite 4 (Op. 55)
The Six Organ Symphonies
Louis Vierne’s six organ symphonies were composed between 1899 and 1930, evolving from a Romantic style close to that of Charles-Marie Widor towards a more chromatic language, including occasional dissonances that verge on atonality. They are representative of a musical genre inaugurated by César Franck—the organ symphony—which continued well beyond Vierne in the French organ repertoire.
All the symphonies except No. 1 consist of five movements. They follow a tonal ascent from D minor to A minor, all written in minor keys.
