Orchestrations and Transformations: Guilmant, Widor, and the Emergence of Music for Organ and Orchestra in France

This essay traces the emergence of music for organ and orchestra in France. Félix-Alexandre Guilmant and Charles-Marie Widor were the first two Frenchmen to compose and perform such works. Guilmant premiered his Symphonie pour orgue et orchestre, op. 42, in 1878. Widor’s Symphonie pour orgue et orchestre, op. 42(bis), was first performed in 1882. The musical material of neither of these symphonies was originally conceived for organ and orchestra. Rather than create new musical works, both composers opted to re-work existing compositions for solo organ. Guilmant’s first symphony is an orchestration of Sonata I in D Minor, op. 42, while Widor’s symphony is based on one movement of his Symphonie II and two movements from his Symphonie VI. In addition to tracing the development of the genre, this document examines primary instrumentation texts that originated in France during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. Biographical information about the composers is also included. The concluding section of this essay focuses on salient compositional strategies the two composers employed as they orchestrated and transformed their solo organ works into symphonies for organ and orchestra.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Musical Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Ging, Michael David

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dirst, Matthew

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Koozin, Timothy
• Robinson, Daryl
• Weber, Betsy C.

• Guilmant
• Widor
• Symphony for Organ and Orchestra
• Orchestration

Statement dc:rights

• The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10657/3123

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/3123