The way in which the French intellectual and musical élites studiously neglected César Franck during his lifetime is well documented. In retrospect, this is a curious phenomenon for a country and a century that claimed to value originality and artistic courage - and for an intelligentsia which prior to the failed Paris Commune in 1871 had elevated dissidence to the level of
Beau Crime. Increasingly today, though, Franck is vindicated by the frequent performance of his works, by the inspiration he provided to composers and performers as far afield as Ernest Chausson, Gabriel Fauré, Marcel Dupré and Olivier Messiaen, and by a sphere of influence that goes beyond the discipline of music. Some writers go so far as to speculate, for example, whether there could have been Claude Debussy and…
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Citation: Bell, Mark E.. "César Franck". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 October 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5849, accessed 24 April 2024.]
