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Updated: June 28, 2025
As Vincent d'Indy, one of Franck's most gifted and famous pupils, writes: "Here, in the dusk of this organ-loft, which I can never think of without emotion, he spent the best part of his life.
M. d'Indy writes his own poems for his "actions musicales" Wagner's example, it seems, has been catching. We have seen how the harmony of a work may suffer through the dual gifts of its author; though he may have thought to perfect his composition by writing both words and music. But an artist's poetical and musical gifts are not necessarily of the same order.
The musicianship Kneisel had given me; I was used to his style and at home with his ideas, and am happy to think that he was satisfied. A year later as assistant concertmaster in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, I had a chance to become practically acquainted with the orchestral works of Strauss, d'Indy and other moderns, and enjoy the Beethoven, Brahms and Tschaikovsky symphonies as a performer.
He assured the artistic success not only of the men like Magnard and d'Indy and Dukas, whose art shows obvious signs of his influence. Composers like Debussy and Ravel, who appear to have arrived at maturity independently of him, have nevertheless benefited immeasurably by his work.
At the present moment the Society seems more exclusively French than ever; and the influence of M. Vincent d'Indy and the school of Franck is predominant.
None has felt Franck's power, both morally and musically, more than M. Vincent d'Indy; and none holds a more profound reverence for the man whose pupil he was for so long. The first time I saw M. d'Indy was at a concert of the Société nationale, in the Salle Pleyel, in 1888.
The changes are very abrupt: we are hurried from a world of human beings to a world of abstract ideas, and then taken from an atmosphere of religion to a land of fairies. The work is, however, clear enough from a musical point of view. The more complex the elements that M. d'Indy gathers round him the more anxious he is to bring them into harmony.
It is not all light in that soul; but the light that is there does not affect us less because it shines from afar, "Dans un écartement de nuages, qui laisse Voir au-dessus des mers la céleste allégresse...." And so Franck seems to me to differ from M. d'Indy in that he has not the latter's urgent desire for clearness. Clearness is the distinguishing quality of M. d'Indy's mind.
M. d'Indy has closely studied the history of his art; but the chief interest of his writings lies rather in their unconscious expression of the spirit of modern art than in what they tell us about the past. M. d'Indy is not a man hedged in by the boundaries of his art; his mind is open and well fertilised.
There was a short address from Monseigneur Deramecourt, Bishop of Soissons a stately figure seated on the Episcopal throne in the chancel. The music was quite beautiful. We had the famous "Chanteurs de St. Gervais," and part of the chæurs d'Esther, composed by Moreau, and sung in splendid style by Mme. Jeanne Maunay, M. Vincent d'Indy accompanying on the organ.
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