FRANK MORANA
AmerOrganist 33/2

The house of Schott takes no small pride in its catalog of French

music, and in the fact that Widor, at age 89, expressed the

regret that he had not had all of his organ symphonies engraved

by Schott. The present composition was meant to coincide

with the 150th anniversary of the birth of Widor, and was

premiered by Odile Pierre a year later at Trier Cathedral.

The work includes quotations from Widor's Fifth and Sixth

Symphonies (the Toccata and first movement, respectively),

two Hungarian folk melodies (a reference to Widor's

family ancestry), and the theme CHARLES-MARIE WIDOR, as

derived from the "musical alphabet." The latter theme is

treated in a curiously concrete fashion, as if the notes

themselves were of intrinsic, rather than merely symbolic

significance. Thus, the entire introductory movement

consists of no less than five permutations of this 17-note

row in declamatory whole-note chords, alternating with

four-bar "lyrical" statements that combine most of the other

themes. The ensuing Fugue begins in a strict academic

manner, with WIDOR as subject, CHARLES-MARIE as

countersubject, and again, the themes from Symphonies 5 and

6. But for all the infusion of counterpoint, these themes

lack the extraordinary rhythmic propulsion of Widor's own

treatments, and the entire work would have been much closer

in spirit to Widor had it attempted to capture more of his

characteristic flamboyance and relentless structural clarity.