Organ Works (Dover Music for Organ) [Paperback]

Cesar Franck (Author), Classical Piano Sheet Music (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1987 | Series: Dover Music for Organ

Treasury of great composer's best-known works for organ, including 6 Pieces (Liszt ranked them with the masterpieces of Bach), Trois Pieces — including the well-known Pièce Héroïque — and the Trois Chorals, perhaps Franck's finest organ works. Reproduced directly from authoritative Durand edition in an oblong format designed for easy use at the keyboard.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (December 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486255174
• ISBN-13: 978-0486255170
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 11.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,053,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Franck

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars most-nearly-complete, but seriously out-of-date, June 23, 1998

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Organ Works (Dover Music for Organ) (Paperback)

This a reprint of Seiffert's 1901(?) ed. of both 'free' and hymntune-based works, with the free ones in a slightly more practical sequence than in the early publication. The scholarly apparatus is unfortunately omitted, and it both includes works now widely regarded as inauthentic, and excludes works now widely regarded as authentic. Small print, but that has its advantages: a whole work on one page or a double-page spread (no page-turn).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reproduction of first-edition of all of César Franck's major organ works (some errors discreetly corrected already)!, December 31, 2007

By 

Alexander Z. Damyanovich (Flesherton, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Organ Works (Dover Music for Organ) (Paperback)

Although from time to time one reads of an "Andantino in g-minor" being out there, the major organ works of César Franck comprise 12 pieces: 6 from 1862 ("Six Pièces pour Grand-Orgue"), 3 from 1878 ("Trois Pièces") and 3 from 1890, his year of death ("Trois Chorals", which are his actual swan-song). Although sometimes he's not the best at sticking to forms (sometimes his improvising got too obviously into his written-down music), overall one can't argue against what's very inspired music of a profound and noble faith one wishes were more in evidence these days.

[These 12 major works are so designated to distinguish them from a number of lesser pieces, many of them collected under the heading "L'Organiste" which are intended mostly for liturgical use and quickly get cloying if played in concert in too great a number. It's these 12 pieces that are regularly found on concert programmes as well as in church usage.]

Interestingly enough, it's often been difficult to get one's hands upon a single-volume issue of these pieces (Kalmus used to issue them in 4 smaller volumes) - until Dover came out with this edition. I cannot recommend it too highly: excellent republication of Durand's first printing thereof - and when I note that a number of errors present in the initial publication (still visible in the Kalmus reprints) are discreetly corrected here, it helps make this edition even more reliable and praiseworthy!

Very strongly recommended for organists, music-lovers generally and notably as a wonderful corrective to today's age of unbelief - hearing (and playing) these works truly is a tonic for the soul! [Personally, I wish they had been printed in portrait instead of the landscape format used here; however, I do know that a number of organists like this particular format and so this form has no bearing upon the mark hereby given.] GET IT!!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keystones of Organ Repertoire, February 10, 2009

By 

Mark Thomas (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Organ Works (Dover Music for Organ) (Paperback)

This is Dover's reproduction of the authoritative Breitkopf & Härtel editions of these pieces. The above reviewer is right--the Brahms pieces are set much larger than the Mendelssohn. But there are some nice advantages to this edition.
-In the Brahms chorale preludes, the chorale text is written directly over the cantus firmus.
-There is a critical commentary, which also includes translations of the chorale texts.
-Mendelssohn's instructions for registration are reprinted before the Six Sonatas. These instructions are extremely useful for German romantic music in general.

The Schumann pieces included in this volume were originally written, not for organ, but for pedal piano-forte--an instrument that Schumann loved, but which failed to gain popularity.

Note also: Although this volume contains all of Brahms's organ works, it does not contain all the organ works of Mendelssohn and Schumann. In particular, it does not contain Schumann's beautiful canonic etudes (highly recommended).