In this session, I will explore an approach to the tonal design of the nineteenth-century French organ through study of the registration practice of the period (1880-1900). Specifically, we will address the instrument "in play:" we will examine methods devised by organists and composers for deploying the resources found on these organs. We will focus on Cavaillé-Coll's instruments designed for church settings or concert hall settings from the last period -- the "symphonic organ" which took shape in the years from 1870 to 1899 -- taking into account that these organs, considered in the context of French nineteenth-century organ building traditions, are distinguished both by their power and their potential for expressivity.
- Substantial pedal divisions (larger than earlier pedal divisions, often including from ten to sixteen stops)
- Expressive divisions (Récit and, in many cases, Positif)
- Pédales de combinaison (registration aids facilitating quick changes)
Bearing in mind Loret's characterization of the distinctive quality of organ sound -- "l'orgue posséde de magnifiques jeux de fonds et des mélanges suaves qui n'existent pas dans l'orchestre" (in Cours d'orgue) -- we will investigate two representative registration practices. After considering the uses made by French organists of the "Fonds" (or Foundations), we will describe the means of facilitating on these organs the sonorous display of the instrument's powerful resources within extended passages in selected compositions by Franck, Saint-Saëns, Loret, Widor, Guilmant, and Gigout.
Finally, we will consider how what we learn from this study can inspire informed performances on the organs we play today.
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William Peterson
William Peterson is the Harry S. and Madge Rice Thatcher Professor of Music and College Organist at Pomona College.
As a performer, he has played concerts in recent years in many parts of the United States. He has performed a number of all-Bach recitals at various locations, including complete performances of Bach's Dritter Theil der Clavierübung. In September of 2006 he played a concert of French music - "French Organ Music from the Time of World War I" - on the Fisk organ (Fisk, Op. 116) in Finney Chapel at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music.
As a scholar he has worked extensively on French organ music of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is co-editor with Lawrence Archbold of French Organ Music from the Revolution to Franck and Widor (University of Rochester Press, 1995). Peterson is author of "Lemmens, His Ecole d'orgue, and Nineteenth-Century Organ Methods" in that volume. He is the author of "Organ Music in the Shadow of the Great War: A Preliminary Investigation" published in La Flûte harmonique (2007), a special issue devoted to the proceedings of a conference held in Paris and Reims in November of 2006. His article, "Storm Fantasies for the Nineteenth-Century Organ in France," appeared in Keyboard Perspectives, volume II (2009). Research projects have been supported by a Fulbright research grant (1985-86, in Belgium), by the Mellon Foundation (Mellon Summer Research Grant, 2005), and by the Pomona College Research Committee.
In October of 2002 he played the Inaugural Concert on the Hill Memorial Organ built by C.B. Fisk, of Gloucester, MA (Fisk, Op. 117) for Bridges Hall of Music at Pomona College. He was heard on "Pipedreams" (National Public Radio) in a 2006 broadcast: the program included music of Tournemire, Duruflé, and Widor recorded in concerts he presented in Bridges Hall in 2002 and 2003.
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