FRANK MORANA
AmerOrganist 34/12

selling agent). $32.50. Cochereau's organ compositions

comprise only a handful of titles, and this work may date from

the early 1950s, that is, prior to his appointment at Notre-Dame.

The work falls squarely within the genre of the French organ symphony

as codified by Widor and Vierne, though there is no discernable

homage to sonata-form. The succession of movements is not

dramatically compelled, and might also be treated as four

separate pieces that just happen to fall within the rubric of

the symphony, in terms of tempo, tonality, and motivic

development. The first movement, Adagio et Allegro,

is a concise ternary form (Adagio-Allegro-Adagio), and

is also the most tonally obscure. The Adagio is built on a

gloomy ostinato, while the Allegro posits several contrasted

ideas. The second movement, Adagio, is the beauty of the set

with a first section that recalls the atmosphere of, say, the Aria from

the Sixth Symphony of Vierne, while the middle section is so

harmonically luscious as to almost smother the hearer. The

third movement, Scherzando, is a seamless, continuous whirl

in 3/8 time, in which the occasional reappearance of the

opening theme serves only as a springboard for the fantasy

of a master raconteur. The finale, Allegro, is a fugue in

the manner of Dupré's op. 7, no. 1, but is also the very

model of inelegance. Cochereau holds close to his jagged,

disjunct subject, but the associations of tonalities are

wildly free. In this respect, it is remarkable how much the

entire work has such a distinctive "post-modern" ring, when,

ironically, it might have been seen as a somewhat

backward-looking work at the time of its composition. The

piece also offers an interesting comparison between

Cochereau the composer, and Cochereau the improvisor, and

for the first three movements at least, one can detect

almost no difference between the two. The Chantraine

catalog of Cochereau's works (which otherwise consists

entirely of transcribed improvisations) grades the

publications according to their difficulty, and this one is

ranked as the most difficult of all. But not every piece in

an organ library need necessarily be acquired for the sake

of performance alone, and though the work demands an

extraordinary technical stamina for actual performance, it

is not beyond the reach of the many good organists who may

desire a closer acquaintance with the legacy of Cochereau.