François BENOIST
(1794-1878)

Offertoires 8-9, Pièces 1-12, Élévations (4), Grand Chœur, Introduction, Sortie, Rentrée de procession (2)

Contents

Bibliothèque de l'organiste. Suite n° 5. Pièces de différents caractères (1841) : Pièce n° 1 en ut majeur; Élévation n° 5 en ut majeur; Élévation n° 6 en ut majeur; Pièce n° 2 en ut majeur; Pièce n° 3 en sol majeur; Pièce n° 4 en sol majeur; Grand Chœur en ré majeur.

Suite n° 6 (1842) : Pièce n° 5 en sol majeur; Pièce n° 6 en sol; Pièce n° 7 en fa majeur; Pièce n° 8 en ut; Pièce n° 9 en ré majeur; Pièce n° 10 en si b majeur; Introduction n° 11 en sol majeur.

Suite n° 7 : Offertoire n° 8 en ut; Offertoire n° 9 en ré majeur.

Suite n° 8 (1859) : Rentrée de procession en mi b majeur; Élévation n° 5 en ut majeur; Rentrée de procession en sol majeur; Élévation n° 6 en ré majeur; Sortie en fa majeur; Pièce n° 12 en si b majeur.

Summary

It may be impossible to fix Benoist's élévations and character pieces to a certain instrument but one thing is sure: the idea of the expressive organ is present in his music. The great offertoires and grands chœurs ask for an organ with even up to five manuals. In the offertoires of grand chœur character known from the first Suites, Benoist strictly uses indications of manuals in order to indicate dynamic changes, then he gives up that old praxis in favour of another, introduced in the Élévations of the 4th Suite, using all kinds of dynamic marks: pp, ff, sf, fp, etc.

Préludes, Rentrées de procession, Offertoires, Communions, Versets, Prières, Sortie, pièces diverses.

Contents

Suite n° 9 (1860): Rentrée de procession in C major; Solo for Oboe in C major; Moderato sempre legato in C major; Communion in F major; Rentrée de procession in G major; Verse in G major; Sortie in A major; Offertory in A major.

Suite n° 10 (1860): First Prelude in C minor; Second Prelude in C major; First Verse in C minor; Second Verse in C major; Duo in C minor; Offertory in C major; Prelude for 5 voices in D major; Andante in D major; Short Verse in D minor; Prelude in G minor; Amen in E b major; Communion in E b minor; Trio in E b major.

Suite n° 11 (1861): Communion in F major; Prayer in F major; Communion in F major; Verse in F major; Verse in G major; Prayer in G major; Offertory in G minor/major; Duo in G major.

Suite n° 12 (1861): Prelude in D mineur; 1st Verse in D; 2nd Verse in D; 3rd Verse in D minor; Communion in E b major; Prelude in F major; Communion in F major; Verse in G major; Cantabile in B b major; Prelude in C major; Communion in C major.

Summary

In the musical texture, we can observe the ability of Benoist to combine a homophonic and polyphonic method as well as his imaginative way of developing seemingly poor motifs. His frequent modulations are often third-oriented and, on the whole, enharmonic changes with common tones and chromatic glides play an important part ion the harmonic development. It is not uncommon for sequential episodes to contain features from Baroque music.

In contrast to Lefébure-Wely that mostly uses a strictly realized sonata form, Benoist uses a free monothematic form.