{"id":402,"date":"2023-02-03T18:48:19","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T18:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/symphony-in-d-minor\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T19:47:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T19:47:51","slug":"symphony-in-d-minor","status":"publish","type":"program_note","link":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/symphony-in-d-minor\/","title":{"rendered":"Symphony in D Minor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Franck, along with Saint-Sa\u00ebns, must be considered the most important French musician in the second half of the nineteenth century.\u00a0\u00a0In this country concert halls have long been dominated by the hegemony of German-speaking composers, for a number of reasons.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Berlioz, of course, is well known, but after that, a few compositions by Franck, Saint-Sa\u00ebns, and others, such as d\u2019Indy, constitute the common French symphonic repertoire in this country before the advent of the towering Debussy and Ravel.\u00a0\u00a0Franck was born in what is today\u2019s Belgium, but later became a French citizen and spent most of his life in Paris, where he was a revered organist and teacher.\u00a0\u00a0He was perhaps the most important organist and composer for that instrument after J. S. Bach, and spent many years as the resident organist at the famed basilica church, Sainte-Clotilde, in Paris.\u00a0\u00a0Serving as professor at the Paris conservatory, he enjoyed the adulation of an important circle of pupils, most of whom went on to become a significant part of the music scene in late nineteenth-century France.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Although he composed many songs, sacred choral works, and other compositions for the stage, on the whole they don\u2019t measure up to the importance and quality of his keyboard compositions, chamber music, and symphonic works.\u00a0\u00a0There are exceptions, such as his evergreen\u00a0Panis angelicus<\/em>, but they are just that, exceptions.\u00a0\u00a0Success as a composer came rather late for him; his major works for orchestra were mostly written in the last decade of his life.\u00a0\u00a0Those compositions are the\u00a0Symphonic Variations,\u00a0<\/em>a few tone poems, and, of course, his evergreen\u00a0Symphony in D Minor.<\/em><\/p>\n

During most of the nineteenth century opera ruled the stage in France, and the symphony genre more or less languished.\u00a0\u00a0When Franck\u2019s\u00a0Symphony in D Minor\u00a0<\/em>was premi\u00e8red in 1889, the only major French symphonies high in the repertoire were Berlioz\u2019\u00a0Symphonie fantastique<\/em>\u00a0of almost sixty years earlier and Saint-Sa\u00ebns \u201cOrgan\u201d<\/em>\u00a0symphony, completed only three years earlier.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Its reception in Paris was mixed\u2014and world wide still is, to some degree\u2014with the usual divisions between the audience and the critics.\u00a0\u00a0But, it nevertheless achieved a permanent place in the standard repertoire.<\/p>\n

It is noteworthy for being in three movements, rather than the standard four, and its employment of cyclicism\u2014that is, the use of the same or similar musical material in all of the movements.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Written for the standard large instrumentation of the nineteenth-century orchestra, following longstanding French practice, it includes parts for two cornets in addition to two trumpets.\u00a0\u00a0But, more astounding to some contemporary snotty critics (Paris was reeking with conservative intellectuals in the arts at the time), Franck had the temerity to include a significant solo for the English horn!\u00a0\u00a0Thitherto, it was allowed only in the opera orchestra for Jewish and Arabic allusions.\u00a0\u00a0Finally, many found the somewhat dense chromatic language\u2014owing much to the influence of Wagner\u2019s\u00a0Tristan und Isolde–<\/em>and Franck\u2019s mastery of tight motivic manipulation and development a bit scholarly and overweening. Vincent d\u2019Indy reported that the initial audience couldn\u2019t make \u201chead nor tail\u201d of it.\u00a0\u00a0But that was then.\u00a0\u00a0Subsequent audiences have long found the composer\u2019s only mature symphony an attractive, unique work.<\/p>\n

The first movement opens slowly and ominously with the main theme heard immediately in the low strings.\u00a0\u00a0Shortly an\u00a0allegro<\/em>\u00a0follows with the same material.\u00a0\u00a0But, soon Franck\u2014almost operatically\u2014returns to an elaboration of the slow beginning, before jumping back into the faster tempo.\u00a0\u00a0This whole elaboration of the opening material is literally oozing with Franck\u2019s characteristic chromaticism.\u00a0\u00a0But, the happy secondary material in F major is easily to spot, and welcome in its straightforward diatonicism.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the ensuing development, Franck\u2019s respect for Beethoven\u2019s relentless economy of means and detailed manipulation of a few clear ideas is manifest.\u00a0\u00a0The lengthy and robust recap is heralded by a dignified, stentorian return to the very opening theme in the low brass.\u00a0\u00a0After working thoroughly through the familiar melodic material, a brief, tranquil section for solo woodwinds announces the short coda, ending almost abruptly with our familiar three-note opening theme.<\/p>\n

The second movement, of course, is the famous one with the controversial English horn solo.\u00a0\u00a0Accompanied by\u00a0pizzicato\u00a0<\/em>strings and a prominent harp, the English horn intones a melancholy tune, soon joined by a\u00a0cantabile\u00a0<\/em>countermelody in the violas.\u00a0\u00a0A new tune in the violins leads to the subsequent first contrasting section, built over a string filigree.\u00a0\u00a0The whole orchestra gradually enters, with the filigree continuing.\u00a0\u00a0The third section consists of several short variations on the familiar main theme of the English horn followed by a second contrasting section. The movement proper closes with an extensive treatment of the main theme accompanied by the familiar, soft\u00a0moto perpetuo<\/em>\u00a0in the strings.\u00a0\u00a0Finally, a substantial coda built upon much of what we\u2019ve heard before finally takes us out.<\/p>\n

The energetic third movement begins with a clear statement of the first theme in the bassoons and \u2018cellos, soon followed by the second theme heard first in the brass.\u00a0\u00a0All easy to spot.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But, soon, our old friend, the English horn solo from the second movement briefly appears, with the development right on its heels.\u00a0\u00a0Franck then, in his usual careful manner works his way through his material.\u00a0\u00a0It doesn\u2019t take long before the theme from the opening blazes away at the beginning of the rather short recapitulation.\u00a0\u00a0The more substantial coda features a lyrical statement of the very first theme heard at the beginning of the first movement, accompanied by the harp.\u00a0\u00a0But back to business, and the main theme of this last movement forcefully returns and takes us to the end.<\/p>\n

\u00a92025 William E. Runyan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"program_note_tax":[29],"class_list":["post-402","program_note","type-program_note","status-publish","hentry","program_note_tax-csarfranck"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/program_note"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"program_note_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note_tax?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}