2 - The First Creative Period (1864–79)

Summary

On pourait [sic] dire qu'il se conformait, sans y songer peut-être, à l'immortel principe du vieil Horace: lucidus ordo. Par une intuition lui révélant que les lois de l'art correspondent aux lois de l'esprit humain, il estimait que l'ordre, c'est-à-dire l'harmonieuse réalisation que nécessite une idée organisatrice, est véritablement une source de lumière.

It could be said that [Widor] conformed, perhaps without thinking of it, to the immortal principle of the aged Horace: lucid order. By an intuition revealing to him that the laws of art correspond to the laws of the human spirit, he assessed that order, that is to say the harmonious realization that an organizing idea necessitates, is truly a source of light.

—Adolphe Boschot Notice sur la vie et les oeuvres de M. Charles-Marie Widor

“The young artist made a good show of it”

The organ of Saint-Sulpice, completed in 1862, was the largest instrument ever built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll; it had to have the sonic resources to command a space capable of holding ten thousand people—a space second in size only to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Having five manuals, one hundred speaking stops distributed over seven levels, and requiring several strong men to pump the bellows, it was a technical and tonal marvel. The builder had expended over three times the amount of the contract to produce his magnum opus.

Cavaillé-Coll was always deeply concerned—perhaps never more so than at Saint-Sulpice—that the most able and deserving organists play his instruments and gain appointments to important posts. Eager to hear Widor, fresh from instruction with Lemmens, Cavaillé-Coll offered his young friend an occasion to try out his newest and grandest instrument:

A gathering of artists took place Tuesday [July 28, 1863] at Saint-Sulpice to hear, on the grand orgue of Messrs. Cavaillé-Coll, a young organist, Mr. Ch. Widor of Lyon. This program consisted of seven pieces by different masters: Handel, Hesse, [J.] S. Bach, Lemmens. One especially took note of an Allegro by Handel, a Fanfare, a Prière, and a Grand-choeur Finale by Lemmens, perfectly adapted to the character of a large organ in a large church. Moreover, the young organist interpreted the works very well, and particularly those by Mr. Lemmens, of whom he is one of the best students.