Class Notes: Fun Facts about César Franck

César Franck

I, too, have written some beautiful things.
—César Franck

This essay was submitted to fulfill a class assignment. The assignment requirements were detailed and specific, but nonetheless yielded some “fun facts” about Franck. (Hint to readers: the footnotes likely contain the best bits.) Most of all, I knew readers would enjoy learning that Franck’s works were catalogued and by whom and look forward to an opportunity to check my counts of Franck’s compositions by genre. (Also, just a note to say, computer malfunctions and class work have put me behind in visiting; I’m hoping to catch up a bit in the next few days.)

Introduction

My introduction to César Franck’s music came in the guise of a creature of fiction, the composer Vinteuil in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Byron Adams wrote that the “equally timid” Franck was the model for “the timid composer whose heart was broken by his mannish daughter’s lesbianism.” [B 40] I knew little about Franck, so this assignment seemed a good opportunity to learn more.