César Franck

Mark E. Bell (Lake Forest College)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

Born 10 Dec 1822
Died 8 Nov 1890
Activity 1830-1890

Places

Born in Belgium
Active in Belgium; France; Switzerland

Activities

Primary

Composer
Musician
Teacher/ Professor

Resources

Franck's Works

Save to Bookshelf

The way in which the French intellectual and musical élites studiously neglected César Franck during his lifetime is well documented. In retrospect, this is a curious phenomenon for a country and a century that claimed to value originality and artistic courage - and for an intelligentsia which prior to the failed Paris Commune in 1871 had elevated dissidence to the level of

Beau Crime

. Increasingly today, though, Franck is vindicated by the frequent performance of his works, by the inspiration he provided to composers and performers as far afield as Ernest Chausson, Gabriel Fauré, Marcel Dupré and Olivier Messiaen, and by a sphere of influence that goes beyond the discipline of music. Some writers go so far as to speculate, for example, whether there could have been Claude Debussy and…

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1093 words

Citation: Bell, Mark E.. "César Franck". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 October 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5849, accessed 22 November 2024.]