Performed by The Toledo Symphony on April 17, 2026 at Rosary Cathedral

Triumphal March for the Centenary of Napoleon, Op. 46 
Louis Vierne (1870-1937) 

French organist and composer Louis Vierne was born almost fully blind. His parents were not musicians but recognized his musical aptitude early. In 1873, his family moved to Paris, where he had a procedure done that allowed him to see shapes and large letters. This opened the door to further musical training with a piano teacher who transcribed the music into a larger size for him before he moved on to lessons at the National Institute for the Young Blind.  

In 1881, Vierne attended an organ concert performed by César Franck. This experience affected him deeply, and he later wrote, “The organ played a mysterious prelude, quite unlike any I had heard... I was bowled over and became almost ecstatic. ... I could not hold back my tears. I knew nothing; I understood nothing; but my instinct was violently shaken by this expressive music echoing through every pore.” Vierne started part-time classes at the Paris Conservatory that same year, where he joined Franck’s studio. He became a full-time student there in 1890, serving as a teaching assistant until 1896.  

After graduation, Vierne started his family, and in 1900 took up the post of organist at Notre-Dame de Paris, where he stayed until his death. While there, he taught extensively, and his students included Maurice Duruflé and Nadia Boulanger. He also composed, performed, and toured regularly. As a composer, Vierne primarily focused on organ music, but also wrote six symphonies, a little chamber music, and various choral works. His music is well crafted and uses Romantic in style. 

Vierne composed his Marche Triomphale pour le Centenaire de Napoléon I, Op. 46 in 1921. Musicologist Emilie Capulet writes, “One of the largest commemorative projects of the early 20th century undertaken by the French was the May 1921 celebrations to mark the centenary of Napoleon’s death.” Several composers were commissioned, including Vierne and Gabriel Fauré.  

Vierne’s Marche Triomphale is alternately chordal and chromatic, with an introductory fanfare and contrasting themes, ending in a material that is almost funereal. Capulet points out its similarity in structure and instrumentation to Charles-Marie Widor’s Salvum Fac Populum Tuum, Op. 84 (1916), which Vierne would have been familiar with “as Widor had been his mentor and teacher of improvisation, plainsong and performance ... for many years.”  

The Marche Triomphale was premiered in May 1921 with Vierne at the organ and published posthumously in 1947; Vierne passed away in 1937 at Notre-Dame while giving his 1750th performance there. 

Marche Triomphale is scored for organ, three trumpets, three trombones, and timpani.  

Trois Nocturnes 
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) 

French composer Claude Debussy was deeply involved with contemporary artistic developments and movements, most notably impressionist painting and symbolist poetry. He also wanted to rebel against the strictures of his traditional training and find a way to make music more suggestive and less literal, while also creating something more French and less influenced by German musical tradition. Violinist Mark Steinberg of Yale University points out, “Ironically, exoticism and what we now call ‘world music’ furnished a large part of Debussy’s vocabulary in his quest to create something distinctly French…. Debussy’s creed was that French music should above all else exist to give pleasure, and the flavors of foreign lands were exploited for their sensual novelty, in the manner of the best fusion cuisine.” 

1894 was a busy year for Debussy. His Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun was premiered and resulted in immediate fame, work on his opera Pelléas and Mélisande was ongoing, and he started his Trois Nocturnes. The bulk of the work on the Nocturnes would be completed between 1897-99. The Nocturnes went through several stages of planning. Annotator Steven Ledbetter writes, “As early as 1892... [Debussy] wrote to his patron... that the work he was planning... Trois Scènes au crépuscule (“Three Scenes at Twilight”), was ‘almost finished.’” This version is lost now but was based on the poem Scènes au crépuscule by Henri de Régnier that included references to flutes and trumpets (heard in Fêtes) and a female choir. The next iteration is referenced in an 1894 letter from Debussy to the violinist and composer Eugene Ysaÿe: “I am working on three Nocturnes for violin and orchestra that are intended for you. ... This is, in fact, an experiment in the various arrangements that can be made with a single color—like the study of gray in painting.”  

Debussy’s Trois Nocturnes are inspired by the work of American painter James McNeill Whistler, specifically a set that are also called nocturnes that focus on the contrasts and relationships between light and dark. Debussy's three nocturnes are titled Nuages (“Clouds”), Fêtes (“Festivals”), and Sirènes (“Sirens”).  

Nuages features two main themes, the first opening the movement and the second played by the harp and flute. Ledbetter notes, “Debussy’s comment likening his music to ‘the study of gray’ fits best with Nuages. ... The subdued orchestral colors and dynamics ... hold the music within carefully prescribed limits.”  

Debussy cited childhood time in the Bois de Boulogne as the inspiration for Fêtes, and it is much more rhythmic than Nuages. The third movement, Sirènes, takes us back to Debussy’s love of the sea. Ledbetter describes it as “iridescent in color, [and] of decoration without themes in the normal sense.” He continues, “Literary inspiration may have come either from [Régnier’s poem L’Homme et la sirène] or from one of Swinburne (Nocturne); both poems deal with mermaids and effects of their love on mortals. The instrumental use of the women’s chorus, singing wordlessly, evokes the song of these sirens from the ocean’s depths.”  

In his own note about the Trois Nocturnes, Debussy wrote, “The title Nocturnes is to be interpreted here in a general and, more particularly, in a decorative sense. Therefore, it is not meant to designate the usual form of the Nocturne, but rather all the various impressions and the special effects of light that the word suggests. ‘Nuages’ (Clouds) renders the immutable aspect of the sky and the slow, solemn motion of the clouds, fading away in grey tones lightly tinged with white. ‘Fêtes’ (Festivals) gives us the vibrating, dancing rhythm of the atmosphere with sudden flashes of light. There is also the episode of the procession (a dazzling fantastic vision), which passes through the festive scene and becomes merged in it. But the background remains resistantly the same: the festival with its blending of music and luminous dust participating in the cosmic rhythm. ‘Sirènes’ (Sirens) depicts the sea and its countless rhythms and presently, amongst the waves silvered by the moonlight, is heard the mysterious song of the Sirens as they laugh and pass on.” 

The first two movements of Debussy’s Trois Nocturnes were premiered in Paris in 1900 with Camille Chevillard conducting, and the first performance of the complete work followed a year later. Nuages is scored for two flutes, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, timpani, harp, and strings. Fêtes adds a third flute, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, percussion, and a second harp. Sirènes subtracts trombones and tuba and adds a wordless chorus of sopranos and mezzo-sopranos.  

Symphonie Concertante for Organ and Orchestra, Op. 81 
Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) 

Belgian organist and composer Joseph Jongen was a piano prodigy and began attending the Liège Conservatory at the age of seven. He took up composition as a teenager and earned separate degrees in piano and organ. In 1897, he won the coveted Prix de Rome, which afforded him the opportunity to travel to Italy, after which he continued his travels in Germany and France over the next few years.  

In 1903, Jongen returned to Belgium to teach harmony and counterpoint at his alma mater. His tenure was cut short when World War I broke out, and he moved his family to England until the end of the war. Once it was over, he moved back to Belgium and became a professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where he remained until 1939.  

Jongen’s compositions probably number well over 200, but he discarded at least 70 of them. His music is often inspired by César Franck, and has been praised for its emotion, beauty, and elegance of form.  

Jongen completed his Symphonie Concertante, Op. 81 in 1926. It is in four movements, and the opening allegro begins with a light fugue. Jongen wrote, “Unlike many composers who have recourse to fugues at the end of their work, the present composer has introduced a fugue at the very beginning.” The divertimento that follows is energetic and sometimes reflective. The meter is not symmetrical, which gives a playfully uncomfortable impression. As the movement progresses, Jongen introduces references to the opening fugal material. The divertimento ends softly with the organ, harp, flute, and a triangle.  

The third movement is the most impressionistic and sensuous of the group and features the flute. Jongen hoped “[the] organ and orchestra [would]... realize the best union possible” in terms of texture and color. The final Toccata is marked “moto perpetuo” and is powerful and dramatic. Annotator Meg Ryan points out its similarities with “the great French toccatas of Widor and Vierne.” A friend of Jongen, violinist and composer Eugene Ysaÿe was impressed with the demands made on the organist and wrote, “The role you assign to the King of Instruments and its abundant resources... is not limited or restricted; it is clearly a second orchestra that enriches the first.” 

Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante is an important contribution to the organ repertoire and has been performed extensively. It was commissioned by Rodman Wanamaker for the Grand Court at his department store in Philadelphia. Wanamaker’s housed a massive organ with 1,670 pipes and 455 ranks that was built for Wanamaker’s in 1911. The commission was partially funded by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra.  

Jongen was initially scheduled to play the premiere in 1928, but had to postpone due to the death of his father. Further delays were necessary when the organ needed repairs, and then when Wanamaker died unexpectedly, and the project was essentially canceled. All of these circumstances led Jongen to call it “that unfortunate work.” Nevertheless, Jongen premiered his Symphonie Concertante in Brussels in 1928, and the American premiere finally happened in 1935 at Carnegie Hall.  

Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante is scored for three flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings, and organ.