Modern French Organ Music

Extract

It may be well to begin by explaining that in this paper the term “modern” refers not so much to the date of a composer as to the character of his music. This appears confusing until we remember that Guilmant (none of whose admirable pieces strike a modern note, and many of which show distinct signs of age) was born fifteen years after Franck, whose music is so much in the idiom of to-day that it is only now beginning to be fully appreciated. Again, Boëllmann is surely more modern than Bonnet, in spite of the occasional tonal and other spicy chords in the works of the latter. The fact is, a sprkinling of up-to-date progressions no more makes a work modem than do a few casual swallows make a summer. Of course, harmonic colour and melodic style count, but the main factor is vitality in idea and development, and I hope to be able to show that this vitality is a prime characteristic of the group of composers of whom I am to speak.