The Catholic
party, who were awakening to new life in France just then, tried, after
his death, to identify his ideals with their own. But this was, as we
have said elsewhere,[225] to narrow Franck's mind; for its great charm
lay in its harmonious union of religion and liberty, which never limited
its artistic sympathies to an exclusive ideal. The composer's son, M.
Georges Cesar-Franck, has in vain protested against this monopoly of his
father, and says:
"According to certain writers, who wish to reduce everything to a
dead level and deduce all things from a single cause, Cesar Franck
was a mystic whose true domain was religious music. Nothing could
be wider of the mark. The public is given to generalisations, and
is too easily gulled. They will judge a composer on a single work,
or a group of works, and class him once and for all.... In
reality, my father was a man of all-round accomplishments. As a
finished musician, he was master of every form of composition. He
wrote both religious and secular music--melodies, dances,
pastorales, oratorios, symphonic poems, symphonies, sonatas, trios,
and operas.
Pages:
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378