This film looks at the early life and training of Charles-Marie Widor, and examines his development as a composer in the context of the composers who immediately preceded him.

A film by Fugue State Films exploring the life of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the greatest organ builder of the 19th century and also probably the most famous of all organ builders. Creator of such instruments as those in St Sulpice, Paris, and St Ouen, Rouen, he devised a new way of building organs that led directly to the development of the French Romantic school of organ composition.

Richard Brasier investigates the sources that are known to have survived of Franck’s Trois Chorals, comparing sketches, engravers’ copies, and fair copies to reveal a wealth of interpretative details.  This article has benefitted from the comprehensive work the author has done to produce a complete edition of Franck’s organ works for Lyrebird Music in recent years.

Tom Bell continues his video diary around the preparation of the organ works of Olivier Messiaen for performance, now looking at Messiaen’s organ music more widely.

Drew Cantrill-Fenwick traces the processes whereby an organ was build for La Madeleine, Paris, by an increasingly influential Aristide Cavaille-Coll.  His archival research allows us to see, stage by stage, the construction history of this much-lauded instrument.  The project was a multi-disciplinary affaire in which the influence of the artisan was replaced by that of the scholar, the administrator, and the politician.

In this film Franck and Performance Practice on the Organ, Joris Verdin demonstrates how to play Franck’s music in a historically informed manner.

In this video, Gerard Brooks presents an illustrated survey of French and Belgian organ repertoire from the nineteenth century and suggests ways to expand your repertoire with pieces of various standards of difficulty by both familiar and unfamiliar composers.

A recorded talk by Robert Sholl, with downloads, designed to help candidates the history of organ music written papers at FRCO, but also useful to others interested in French organ music from 1920-2000. 

Andrew Cantrill-Fenwick demonstrates how the organ and organ music developed in post-Revolutionary France, on the organ of Hexham Abbey.