Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Examples
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: “You know Bach: you know all”
- Part One Background
- 1 “Art does not know the absolute”
- 2 “The art of organ playing has not changed at all since Johann Sebastian Bach”
- 3 “In France we have neglected performance much too much in favor of improvisation”
- Part Two Maxims
- Appendix 1 Symphonies pour orgue, “Avant-propos”
- Appendix 2 Technique de l'orchestre moderne, “L'orgue”
- Appendix 3 Initiation musicale, “L'orgue”
- Appendix 4 L'orgue moderne; La décadence dans la facture contemporaine
- Appendix 5 Key to Widor's System of Abbreviated Registration, Symphonie gothique, First Movement
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - “The art of organ playing has not changed at all since Johann Sebastian Bach”
from Part One - Background
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Examples
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: “You know Bach: you know all”
- Part One Background
- 1 “Art does not know the absolute”
- 2 “The art of organ playing has not changed at all since Johann Sebastian Bach”
- 3 “In France we have neglected performance much too much in favor of improvisation”
- Part Two Maxims
- Appendix 1 Symphonies pour orgue, “Avant-propos”
- Appendix 2 Technique de l'orchestre moderne, “L'orgue”
- Appendix 3 Initiation musicale, “L'orgue”
- Appendix 4 L'orgue moderne; La décadence dans la facture contemporaine
- Appendix 5 Key to Widor's System of Abbreviated Registration, Symphonie gothique, First Movement
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
As a result of his study with Jacques Lemmens and his own further research, Widor earnestly believed that he maintained the unsullied tradition of Bach. Schweitzer concurred:
Guilmant, Widor and Gigout, the creators of modern French organ music, derive directly from Bach… .
The representatives of the old German organ school, that still preserved some traditions from the Bach epoch, played Bach's preludes and fugues throughout on the great organ with diapasons and mixtures. Reeds sometimes strengthened the pedal…. The Belgian and French organists— Lemmens, Guilmant, Widor, Gigout—always played Bach according to the principles of the old German school.
For example, Widor firmly held that his style of “absolute legato” followed that of Bach:
Although it is not historically proven, it is generally admitted that legato comes to us from Bach and his school; without doubt Handel and some virtuosos of the time practiced the connected style more or less strictly, but it very much appears we owe to Bach and his students the principle of absolute legato and from there all the improvements in fingering…. Apart from two or three exceptions, one must completely connect in the organ works of Bach.
The performance practice line of transmission from Bach to later generations of organists did not stop with Widor. Marcel Dupré—Widor's pupil, successor at Saint-Sulpice, and perhaps the strongest exponent of the Bach tradition—did not hesitate to declare: “The filiation of the tradition from J. S. Bach to our days is known with exactitude.” However, whereas Widor was somewhat pragmatic in the application of the “tradition,” Dupré stepped in to erect “Lois d'exécutions à l'orgue” (Laws of organ performance), based on the tradition he professed to have received from both Widor and Guilmant: “All these laws must be strictly observed, not only in performing the organ works of Bach, but also every work written in a polyphonic style, and when improvising. While being logical by themselves, they are traditional, coming to us from Bach.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the relatively contemporary musicologist Félix Raugel continued to support the purported lineage (tradition) in his 1980 article on Widor: “Lemmens, who was the most recent member of a line of teachers connected directly to Bach, taught [Widor] traditional German interpretations of Bach to which [Widor] remained loyal for the rest of his life.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Widor on Organ Performance Practice and Technique , pp. 9 - 12Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2019