The general public were not really interested in the art of the old
musicians until the _Association des Chanteurs de Saint-Gervais_ was
founded in 1892 by Charles Bordes, the choirmaster of the church of
Saint-Gervais. The immediate success and the noisy renown of the Society
were due to other things besides the talent of its conductor, who
combined with a lively artistic intelligence both common-sense and
energy and a remarkable gift for organisation--it was due partly to the
help of favourable circumstances, partly to the surfeit of Wagnerism, of
which I have just spoken, and partly to the birth of a new religious
art, which had sprung up since the death of Cesar Franck round the
memory of that great musician.
It is not my intention here to write an appreciation of Cesar Franck's
genius, but it is not possible to understand the musical movement in
Paris of the last fifteen years if one does not take into account the
importance of his teaching. The organ class at the Conservatoire, where
in 1872 Franck succeeded his old master Benoist, was for a long time, as
M. Vincent d'Indy says, "the true centre for the study of Composition
at the Conservatoire.
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