L'Organiste: 63 Pièces pour Harmonium (1889-1890) is a collection of short pieces composed by César Franck (1822-1890) in his later years. Each miniature piece embodies Franck's characteristic rich color palette and a somewhat serene resonance. Although conceived to comprise approximately 100 pieces, the collection remained unfinished at 63 pieces due to the composer's death.

Although titled L'Organiste (The Organist), this collection was composed for the harmonium, which lacks a pedalboard, allowing the scores to be played directly on the piano. To bring out the charm of each piece, some musical ingenuity is occasionally required, such as for sustained notes characteristic of the organ (where sound does not decay) or passages where registrations specify notes an octave higher or lower than written. However, many pieces and phrases also feel well-suited to the clear timbre unique to the piano. Just as many works by J. S. Bach have been cherished by pianists despite not being conceived for the "piano" as the intended instrument, this beautiful collection of miniatures also possesses an appeal that transcends instrumental boundaries, drawing in us pianists.

The pieces are arranged such that the first seven are grouped as "Seven Pieces in C Major and C Minor," followed by "Seven Pieces in D-flat Major and C-sharp Minor," then "D Major and D Minor," and so on, ascending chromatically in groups of seven pieces. This method of progressing through the keys, starting from C and moving rightward on the keyboard, likely emulates Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier. The breakdown of each group of seven pieces per tonic is as follows: six versets (short pieces) alternating between major and minor keys, followed by a short, few-measure cadenza "Amen," and then concluded by a slightly longer seventh piece that incorporates melodies and motifs from the preceding Nos. 1 to 6. In the 1892 first edition, the last four pieces (Nos. 4-7 of "A-flat Major and G-sharp Minor") were missing, and the collection was published as L'Organiste: 59 Pièces pour Harmonium. Franck had been sending manuscripts to the publisher sequentially as he completed them, so it is probable that these four pieces, which constituted his "final additional submission," were overlooked during the compilation of his posthumous works or were mistakenly identified as separate, independent compositions.

Many may be familiar with the harmonium as the "foot-pumped organ" commonly found in school classrooms until recently (the author's elementary school classroom also had an old harmonium). It is a small organ with only manual keyboards and reed pipes. While the volume can be unstable because the player pumps air with their feet, it allows for subtle dynamic and nuanced changes. Although the harmonium in the author's classroom was the simplest type with only one timbre, Franck composed for an instrument capable of varying timbres by using five different sets of pipes, and the score indicates registrations (timbres) by stop numbers (referring to the pipes to be used).

In the past, L'Organiste was included as an entrance examination piece for organ at Tokyo University of the Arts. The purpose of assigning a collection of short pieces that do not demand difficult performance techniques to a wide range of examinees was likely to assess fundamental skills, similar to "Hanon" for piano or "Koechlin" for vocal studies. While opinions may differ on whether "fundamental skills as a performer" can be judged by Romantic miniatures, and indeed it has long been removed from Geidai's entrance exams, it is certain that encountering the various short pieces in L'Organiste was considered beneficial for young aspiring organists and an excellent collection for cultivating insight into musical scores. The author also feels that Franck's harmonic language, which frequently employs modulations and borrowed chords with many accidentals, makes it an excellent collection for sight-reading practice to develop a sense of harmony and tonality.

While Franck is often noted for his large-scale works employing cyclic form, through the diverse miniatures of L'Organiste, one should certainly also appreciate the simple and straightforward charms of his works beyond their "structural power," such as the beauty of his melodic lines and the color of his harmonies. Furthermore, in the seventh piece of each tonic group, one can savor the "art of construction" through a structure that reviews Nos. 1 to 6, thereby evoking cyclic form, making it quite a luxurious collection for Franck enthusiasts.

About the Author's Recording

In the recording made by the author in 2022, exactly 200 years after Franck's birth, for inclusion in the PTNA Piano Encyclopedia, Nos. 1 to 6 were recorded as six individual videos, as each piece is also an independent miniature. Conversely, the Amen and No. 7 were recorded as a single video. Although the Amen is originally perceived as a "conclusion to Nos. 1-6," and playing it immediately after No. 6 was considered, for this recording, given that No. 6 is a complete piece and No. 7 serves as a "review of Nos. 1-6," it was decided to play the Amen and No. 7 consecutively, as they are pieces whose charm is enhanced by the presence of Nos. 1-6. Furthermore, for the unfinished "A-flat Major and G-sharp Minor" group, the Amen was not composed. Therefore, the author arranged the concluding few measures of the "Aria" movement (in A-flat Major) from the composer's piano solo work Prélude, Aria et Final (1887) and appended it as an "Amen in A-flat Major" before No. 7.