César Franck

“ A tendency towards the employment of curious rhythms often imparts a peculiar "cachet" to Lalo's compositions. In all his works he exhibits a complete mastery over orchestral resources, a branch of the art in which French composers as a rule excel.
The name of César Franck is less known in England. Although a Belgian by birth, he may through his long residence in France be reckoned amongst the composers of that country. His reputation has been steadily on the increase of late, and some of his enthusiastic admirers have not scrupled to call him the "French Bach." ”

“ ADRIENNE TONER
PART I CHAPTER I “COME down to Coldbrooks next week-end, will you, Roger?” said Barney Chadwick. He had been wandering around the room, pausing once to glance at the César Franck on the piano and once at the window to look down at the Thames, and his voice now, though desultory in intention, betrayed to his friend preoccupation and even anxiety. “There is going to be an interesting girl with us: American; very original and charming.”
Roger Oldmeadow sat at his writing-bureau in the window, and his high dark head was silhouetted against the sky. ”

“ The Quintet, for pianoforte and strings in F minor and major, is a typical example of the composer's profound learning and immense technical mastery, of his lofty ideal as a musical artist, and of his quite marvellous originality. Judging by such a composition, one would hardly claim the gift of melodic charm for César Franck. He has little or no lyrism, and he seems to be chiefly interested in delivering music from the bondage of the tonic and dominant system, while calling upon each instrument for what is most characteristic in its technical resource. ”

“ André's, like monsieur de Maubert's, like madame Vervier's, was a pagan philosophy and his was a Christian. He did not believe that they could understand César Franck.
“Ah! He is not for me!” cried mademoiselle Blanche, appropriately, her chin in her hand as she looked out with brilliant, intelligent eyes at the far horizon. It was strange to see her sitting there, her face whetted by artificial emotion, dyed and touched and rearranged to suit a fashion, among things as primitive as rocks and cliffs and sky. “It is a music without breathing; without blood ”

“ And if one thinks, too, of the artists who, though not his pupils, felt his power—artists such as Gabriel Fauré, Alexandre Guilmant, Emmanuel Chabrier, and Paul Dukas—one may see that nearly the whole musical generation of Paris of that time took its inspiration from César Franck. And it was largely with the intention of perpetuating his teaching that his pupils, Charles Bordes and Vincent d'Indy, and his friend, Alexandre Guilmant, founded in 1894, four years after his death, the Schola Cantorum, which has kept his memory alive ever since. ”

“ WIDOR, CHARLES MARIE (1845– ) , French composer and organist, was born at Lyons on the 22nd of February 1845. He studied first at Lyons, then at Brussels under Lemmens for the organ and Fétis for composition. In 1870 he became organist of the church of Saint Sulpice in Paris. He succeeded César Franck as professor of the organ at the Paris Conservatoire, where he was also appointed professor of composition, counterpoint and fugue in 1896. A very prolific composer, he displayed his creative ability in a variety of different styles. ”

“ The immediate success and the noisy renown of the Society were due to other things besides the talent of its conductor, who combined with a lively artistic intelligence both common-sense and energy and a remarkable gift for organisation—it was due partly to the help of favourable circumstances, partly to the surfeit of Wagnerism, of which I have just spoken, and partly to the birth of a new religious art, which had sprung up since the death of César Franck round the memory of that great musician. ”

“ From 1859 to 1865 she attracted attention as a piano prodigy and singer of French songs of her own composition. As early as 1862 she published some pieces under the pseudonym of 'Hermann Zenta.' After a course of instruction from H. Lambert, Klosé, and Saint-Saëns, she became a pupil of César Franck in 1876. having previously acquired no little fame by her setting of 'In Exitu Israel,' in 1873, and an opera 'Héro et Léandre,' produced at the Opéra Populaire in 1874. ”

“ This score, which recalls by its charm and melodic simplicity Mehul's 'Joseph,' but with more tenderness and modern feeling, is certainly a masterpiece."
But alas, hard times came upon the Franck family. The rich pupils, who formed the young men's chief clientèle, all left Paris, alarmed by the forebodings of the revolution of 1848. Just at this most inopportune moment, César decided to marry. ”

“ I could just see a long, dark figure, with the lighter outline of a face, and, having little else to do just then, I fell to thinking of this curious contraband, who evidently prized his freedom highly, yet seemed in no haste to enjoy it. Doctor Franck had offered to send him on to safer quarters, but he had said, "No, thank yer, Sir, not yet," and then had gone away to fall into one of those black moods of his, which began to disturb me, because I had no power to lighten them. ”

“ He kept his face, glowing from the kitchen fire, turned toward Franck with an expression of courteous waiting and politely besought him in Italian to keep on singing. Finally, since Franck, instead of answering, arose, gave him a comically commanding look, and waved his fork like a baton, he began, striking up an accompaniment with a catching rhythm, which titillated his auditors' nerves. He was an excellent singer and a master-hand at playing the mandolin. ”

“ Marcel Franck, of a half-Jewish family, was one of those charming types that are sometimes produced by the mixed marriage of well chosen individuals of two races. Of medium height, slim, graceful and elegant, he had blue eyes set in a dead white face, a slightly curved nose, a small fair beard, and an elongated, somewhat horsey profile that recalled Alfred de Musset. His glance was intelligent and caressing, by turns coaxing and impudent. ”

“ D’ye hear me!”
“Now, then, Franck,” said the proprietor—this sudden rise in the social scale had given me even the right to be addressed by name—“Walhalla has a fever. Out for good, I suppose. Damn it, Casey!” turning to his right-hand man, “I’m always losing my exhibits. Look at this trip! My best bare-back skirt dies of cholera in Singapore. My best cycler breaks his neck in Rangoon. The plague walks off with my best trap man in Bombay—damn the hole! Why in hell is it always the stars that go? Now it’s Walhalla. Five turns cut out already. If we lose any more, we’re done for. ”

“ I crossed it by climbing a willow on one bank and swinging into the branches of another opposite, and plunged into another wilderness of sand.
Toward dusk I came upon a peasant’s cottage on a tiny plain, and halted for water. A youth in the much patched uniform of the Turkish soldier, sitting on the well-curb, brought me a basinful. I had started on again, when a voice rang out behind me: “Hé! D’ou est-ce que vous venez? Ou est-ce que vous allez?” In the doorway of the 88hovel stood a slatternly woman of some fifty years of age. I told her my nationality.
“American?” ”

“ A dozen beachcombers were sitting over cards and samshoo at the small tables. As I reached for the pen a sudden shout sounded behind me:—
“By God! There’s the very bloke now! The bum that carries a camera. Hello, Franck!”
The speaker dashed across the room with outstretched hand. It was Haywood, that much-wanted youth, famous for his adventures in Sing Sing and India.
“I was this minute spinnin’ your yarn to Bob here,” he cried, indicating a grinning seaman at his heels, “when who should come in but yourself as big as life. Gee! ”

“ A countryman, strolling by, paused to stare, and sitting down on the far end of the bench, watched me intently. Now a Frank is no more of a novelty in Alexandria than in Kansas City, even though in ragged garb; for, given a great port anywhere on the earth’s surface, you will find Jack Tar, at least, rambling penniless and forlorn through her streets. Either the native was astonished to see a man work, even with his hands, when he was not paid to do so, or the knife had attracted his attention. ”

“ He settled in Paris, and studied at the Conservatoire. Modest and retiring by nature, “le bon père Franck,” as he was called, divided his time between teaching, composing, and playing the organ of the Ste. Clotilde Church. His simple faith and earnest work recall the spirit of the old mediæval artists, who devoted their lives and their music to the glory of the Lord. Franck’s works show a mastery and power that his pupils are scarcely able to equal, and his compositions have fairly won the esteem that was denied to them during the composer’s lifetime. ”

“ Her vociferous affection for Americans would, no doubt, have forced her to cling to my coat-tails had I attempted to escape. Chattering disconnectedly, she prepared a supper of lentils, bread-sheets, olives, and crushed sugar cane, and set out—to the horror of the Mohammedan youth—a bottle of beet (native wine) . The meal over, she lighted a narghileh, leaned back in a home-made chair, and blew smoke at the ceiling with a far-away look in her eyes.
“Oh, my God!” she cried suddenly, “You sing American song! I like this no-good soldier hear good song. Then he sing Arab song for you.” ”

“ A metleek is only a cent. Yet, as you pass through the streets of Damascus, the constant calling for it sounds like a multitude searching the wilderness for a lost child. “Metleek!” cries the seller of flat loaves, on the ground at your feet. “Metleek!” screams the wandering bartender, jingling his brass disks. The word is shouted commandingly from the peddler whose novelty has attracted a crowd, fiercely from the angry-looking fellow whose stand has been deserted, pleadingly from the crippled beggar, who threads his way with astonishing swiftness through the human whirlpool. ”

“ I donned the helmet and strolled down to the landing jetty, where “the boys” were accustomed to gather of an evening to enjoy the only cool breeze that ever invaded Colombo. Few had been the changes in the beachcomber ranks during my absence. Amid the drowsy yarning there sounded often a familiar refrain:—“The circus is coming.” No one knew just when; but then, one doesn’t worry in Ceylon. If he hasn’t rice, he eats bananas. If he can’t find work, it is a joy merely to lie in the shade and breathe. ”

“ Beside the Englishman stood a youthful memsahib, in snow-white gown. A millinery shop could not have looked more out of place in these blistered paddy fields of the Irawaddy delta.
“Trouble you for a drink of water?” I panted, halting in the shade of the bungalow, which, like all dwellings in this region, stood some eight feet above the ground, on bamboo stilts.
“A drink of water!” cried the lady, smiling down upon us. “Do you think we see white men so often that we let them go as easily as that? Come up here at once.”
“We’re just sitting down to lunch,” said the man. ”

“ Whoever would have guessed that these gloomy-faced great ones could laugh? The chief fell to shaking as with a fit; his advisers doubled up with laughter. They shrieked until they were heard in the neighboring huts. Wild-eyed Siamese tumbled into the shack. Within two minutes half the village had flocked into the room to see those strange beings who ate sugar with their rice.
The head man stopped laughing, then became stern and drove all but the high and mighty among his people forth into the night. Among those who stayed was a babu. He was a Siamese youth who had been educated in Rangoon. ”

“ Even far back in Moulmein, we had been warned that the jungle folk of Siam would not sell food to travelers. Far off in this howling wilderness among the mountains, the people had never used money and did not know that our coins had any value.
We went on, and just at sunset burst into the scattered village of Banpáwa. About forty howling storms had poured upon us during the day, and we had waded through an even greater number of streams. My jacket was torn to ribbons; my back and shoulders were painfully sunburned; in a struggle with a stubborn thicket I had lost a leg of my trousers. ”

“ An enemy suggested an adjournment to the café and left the new Cicero—the penniless being denied admittance—to deliver his maiden speech to the unpeopled darkness.
The keeper, with his best company smile, placed a chair for me in the center of the room; the elder men grouped themselves about me on similar articles of furniture; and the younger squatted on their haunches around the wall. The language of signs was proving a poor means of communication, when a native, in more elaborate costume, pushed into the circle and addressed me in French. ”

“ While one negro held a sugar-cane, another rolled the sapling back and forth along it, the juice running down the groove into a gourd or pot. Wherever the breeze reached us the weather was agreeable; in the breathless pockets of the hills the humid heat hung about us like a hot wet blanket.
The marine-gendarme commander of Jacmel met us with an automobile farther out along the trail than one had ever been driven before, and the astounded natives fled shrieking before it as if the malignant spirits they fancied they could hear groaning under its hood were visibly pursuing them. ”