Organ symphony
An organ symphony is a large-scale, mostly multi-movement composition for the organ , which clearly contains elements of a symphony for orchestra (e.g. often movements in sonata form , which it then has in common with the organ sonata ), and especially in their registration can sound the organ orchestral.
The genre originated in France in the 19th century with the Grande Pièce Symphonique by César Franck . The most important contributions were made by Charles-Marie Widor and Louis Vierne . The latter composer's symphonies are considered to be the most important of the genre. A special characteristic of many organ symphonies is their number of movements, which usually goes beyond the traditional four-movement structure. Widor wrote symphonies with up to seven movements. After the six-movement first symphony, Vierne raised five movements to the norm in his other five works. Other organ symphony composers were Marcel Dupré and Charles Tournemire .
The fact that the genre of the organ symphony was not cultivated outside France (e.g. with the organ symphony by Sigfrid Karg-Elert ) is due to the special characteristics of French organ building. Their most prominent representative, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll , designed his organs in such a way that their sound was explicitly symphonic. This type of construction was only sporadic in other countries.
The third symphony op. 78 by Camille Saint-Saëns , which has an organ in addition to a large orchestra, is also known as the “Organ Symphony” .
After the death of its main representatives, the genre lost its importance. Organ symphonies are rarely composed today. Composers who have dedicated themselves to the genre are Enjott Schneider , who has so far composed 16 organ symphonies (2005-2016) and Kalevi Aho with the symphony for organ with the subtitle Alles Vergängliche (2007), which refers to the closing verses from Goethe's Faust II was created at the suggestion of the organist Jan Lehtola , who premiered the four-movement, approximately fifty-minute work on June 25, 2009 on the organ of the church in Mäntää . Their models were not the works of Widor or Vierne, but rather they “tie in with the tradition of symphonic development”. To date, Andreas Willscher (Hamburg) has composed a total of 27 organ symphonies .
Individual evidence
- ^ Enjott Schneider: Organ Symphony No. 16 Martin Luther for Organ. Retrieved June 15, 2019 .
- ↑ Kalevi Aho, BIS-SACD-1946, supplement, 16-17