Unheralded Greatness: Episode 2- Cesar Franck's Symphony in D minor

I didn't make it far enough in either music theory or music history to properly analyze Cesar Franck's Symphony in D minor, but I have played it...so maybe I'm somewhat qualified. The one thing I can say, as a musician, is that this thing is fun as hell to play. I don't remember everything I've ever played, but this is one of the most memorable. Maybe I still love this piece because it is such a gigantic piece of music for a high school orchestra to play. Maybe I associate it with being a bad ass musician in high school, the last enormously successful period of my life. Either way...I'm about the only one I know who loves this piece. I'm always surprised when people say they've never heard of it.


Let me start of saying that there is nothing spectacular about Franck's life. He was born in Belgium, as most Belgians are, and went off to study music in Paris. After deciding to shy away from becoming a virtuoso, much to his father's chagrin, he decided to teach organ to the masses. He taught D'Indy (my favorite composer name to say), Duprac and other famous French musicians. To supplement his income, I guess, he played organs at church, too. He was in a pretty bad traffic accident and died due to complications from it. I'm not sure what a "bad traffic accident" in the 1890s was, but I imagine it involved carriages and mimes. Now he resides at Montparnasse Cemetery with all of the other famous people (Sartre, Beckett and more).


I can't really say anything else intelligent about the piece. Maybe my goal was more to make you aware than to analyze it. Truth be told, I can't analyze it using the words of a music scholar. I'm just not that well-versed in that language.

Other than the actual music, something that is remarkable about this piece is that Franck mixes a typically French, cyclic form while using more Germanic sounds. Yeah, I read this on wikipedia. Sue me. What is so interesting to me is the negativity this piece of music spawned. The music critics and composers of his time were at best non-plussed with the symphony; at worst, they thought it was awful. Did the Franco-Prussian War have anything to do with the backlash? Probably. It's not as drastic a break as Stravinsky, but it's kind of cool. If Stravinsky was like The Sex Pistols, Franck was kind of like The Velvet Underground. Without one, you wouldn't have another.

Another remarkable thing about this piece is that it was one of Franck's last. Before he got in his horrible carriage-and-mime crash, he pounded this baby out and premiered it a year before he died. Up until now, Franck had been known mostly as one of the best organists and composers of organ music. That's a big deal, but it's not huge. It's like he was saving his skillz for just before he died. His symphony (his only symphony) was a last gasp from an unexpected source.

Since wikipedia states it much better than I could, here is a brief description of the piece:

In a departure from typical late-romantic symphonic structure, the Symphony in D minor is in three movements, each of which makes reference to the initial four-bar theme introduced at the beginning of the piece. The elision of the standard Scherzo movement is in part compensated for with a scherzo-like treatment in the second movement.

• I. Lento; Allegro ma non troppo.

An expansion of a standard sonata-allegro form, the symphony begins with a harmonically lithe subject (below) that is spun through widely different keys throughout the movement.

This simple theme forms the thematic basis for the cyclic treatment in the rest of the work.

• II. Allegretto

Famous for the haunting melody played by the English horn above plucked harp and strings. The movement is punctuated by two trios and a lively section that is reminiscent of a scherzo.

• III. Finale: Allegro non troppo

The movement begins with possibly the most joyful and upbeat melody Franck ever wrote and is written in a variant of Sonata form. The coda, which recapitulates the core thematic material of the symphony, is an exultant exclamation of the first theme, inverting its initial lugubrious appearance and bringing the symphony back to its beginnings.

You can find a way to listen to it on your own. It's out there. Youtube would be easiest. The copy I own is conducted by Bernstein and you can hear him getting so into the 3rd movement's high point that he tips the podium. I listen to it so much that I expect to hear a wooden bang on every recording. My favorite part comes at 6:23 in the video below (though I urge you to listen to the whole thing).




As an added bonus, here's a short introduction to the major theme of the symphony, as played by a little girl.



Please enjoy Cesar Franck's Symphony in D minor. I promise that you will not regret listening to it.