LDV113-4

28 FRANCK Is it not surprising that Franck was, in a sense, the leader of the ‘Ars Gallica’ movement, the torchbearer of the Société Nationale de Musique which most French composers joined after the defeat of Sedan, even though he was often scorned by the critics, and indeed by many of his colleagues? It’s true that Franck became, albeit unwillingly, the leader of a certain musical movement, later championed in a quasi-political manner by ‘la bande à Franck’ [the Franck gang] to use the expression of the time. Let’s not forget the eminent position occupied by the arts in the society of the Second Empire and the Third Republic. Public controversies in that milieu could be violent and they didn’t spare composers. I’ve always wondered why Franck was sometimes treated badly. Perhaps he wasn’t very good at promoting his own music, which may have seemed too Germanic? Yet he was a profoundly good man; as Debussy put it, ‘to have found a beautiful harmony brought him enough joy for a whole day’. His organ playing was also criticised for being too pianistic, not legato enough, with exaggerated use of arpeggios . . . Stuff and nonsense!