César-Auguste-Jean-Guilliaume-Hubert Franck (1822-1890) can be considered the father of the French school of organ composition. While born in France, he was of Belgian ancestry. Originally his father intended that he become a piano virtuoso. He studied at the Liège (1830-35) and Paris (1837-42) conservatories, but after an appointment to Ste. Clotilde in 1858 he found his true keyboard métier.
In addition to his organ compositions there are orchestral, piano, chamber, choral, & vocal solo works in various forms.
The encoded music in this collection was transcribed (in 1993) using Ad Lib Visual Composer v. 1.25. There are a series of 12 .ROL files as shown below. In addition to those files there should also be an INS directory in which is stored the data (obtained through use of Ad Lib Instrument Maker v. 111) the Ad Lib synthesizer board needs to put forth the desired "instrument" sounds.
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN AD LIB COMPUTER MUSIC SYSTEM, DO NOT EXPECT THIS MATERIAL TO PLAY. I'VE HEARD THAT THE FILES ARE COMPATIBLE WITH SOME OTHER SYSTEMS, BUT THIS IS STRICTLY RUMOR.
It is strongly recommended that playback of this material use high quality sound equipment, preferably with a good ambience synthesizer adjusted to provide cathedral-like reverberation characteristics.
CONTENTS
Six Pièces (1860-62
Fantaisie in C, Op. 16 FRANCK1.ROL
Grande Pièce Symphonique, Op. 17 FRANCK2.ROL
Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18 FRANCK3.ROL
Pastorale, Op. 19 FRANCK4.ROL
Prière, Op. 20 FRANCK5.ROL
Final, Op. 21 FRANCK6.ROL
Trois Pièces (1878)
Fantaisie in A FRANCK7.ROL
Cantabile FRANCK8.ROL
Pièce Héroïque FRANCK9.ROL
Trois Chorals (1892)
#1 in E FRANCK10.ROL
#2 in Bm FRANCK11.ROL
#3 in Am FRANCK12.ROL
For the foreseeable future the transcriber will have the following address:
Roy V. Childs
17421 69th Ave., S.E.
Snohomish, WA 98290-8359
USA
Corrections, comments, critiques (preferably constructive) will be welcomed, however I cannot promise to reply to all. If a reply is desired by any residents of the USA, please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope.
For those of you who may use these ROL files to operate MIDI equipment, please be advised that not all the voices are carried throughout all pieces. Generally the 9th voice (& frequently the 8th) is used for the pedal notation, usually the 1st voice is used for the highest notation, &c. But there are times when there are cross-overs, as it were. I suspect this may be aggravating to you, but I didn't originally provide these transcriptions for MIDI users.
