Maurice Le Boucher? Who was he? And wasn’t Cesar Frank the original “creator” of the Organ Symphonie?
Well, yes. Yes, it was Franck. But most organists know a LOT about Franck, and so why should I belabor that? A big reason for writing this book and these posts is to pique curiosity, to encourage folks to explore and hear things they’ve not heard, to walk outside of normal lines. So, this post goes out of order… because I want to. And, there is a Cesar Franck connection, too. We’ll get to that.
Maurice Le Boucher (b. 1882, Isigny-sur-Mer; d. 1964, Paris) was a student of Fauré and became director of the Conservatoire in Montpellier. He wrote this lone Symphonie for organ, a lush impressionistic work. The work is written in a cyclical form, with the themes undergoing transformations as the work progresses. (there’s your Franck connection) The Symphonie is not in movements per se, but is divided into sections by tempo and character. At the beginning of the first section:
At the beginning of the Adagio section:
In the fugato Allegro section:
in the Allegro vivace, both as an accompaniment:
and as a melody in the pedals:
There are also secondary themes throughout the piece, but the original melody returns over and over, and lends great cohesiveness to the work. The examples I’ve given here are only the main transformations of the theme – if you were to listen and/or study the work carefully, you would find other ways it is transformed and used as well. The Symphonie was published by Leduc in 1917. As I mentioned earlier, the Franck connection is due to the cyclical use of the theme, something that good ol’ Cesar was known for.
Franck-ly, I’m puzzled that this work isn’t known more – it is an amazing piece. Granted, not many have heard of Le Boucher… but the music is beautiful. Don’t believe me? listen for yourself… (and make sure you give the media a bit of time to pre-load, sometimes it takes the player a bit to respond after you click “the play button) :