Symphonie gothique

Symphonie gothique, also unofficially known as Symphony for Organ No. 9 in C minor, Op. 70, is an organ symphony written by French organist and composer Charles-Marie Widor between 1894 and 1895.

Background

Widor wrote his Symphonie Gothique in 1894 and 1895 as one of the two later organ symphonies that followed his original eight organ symphonies. These symphonies were divided into two large groups: the first one comprising symphonies 1 to 4 (in C minor, D major, E minor, and F minor) and the second one comprising symphonies 5 to 8 (F minor, G minor, A minor, and B major). Although the key sequence of the earlier symphonies continued (this one being in C minor), Widor did not number it as "Ninth" out of deference to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Instead, he named it after the architectural style of the church associated with the instrument for which it was written: the abbey church of Saint-Ouen, in Rouen, where Cavaillé-Coll had built one of his major late organs and which Widor inaugurated in 1890. Ironically, certain technical features of the instrument prevent the work from being performed exactly as written on that organ.

The first three movements of the symphony were written in Persanges in Jura in the summer of 1894. A preliminary version of this symphony was premiered in the early months of 1895 by Louis Vierne at the Église d'Écully, in Lyon.