Arrangements based on Gregorian cantus firmi and sacred character pieces

With their clear formal design and their manageable demands on technique, these pieces reflect Guilmant’s basic precept of creating works for church and concert performance. Stylistically, they are noteworthy for their evocative and confessional mood and their straightforward, highly melodious workmanship. The first four-piece cycle might be termed a “Gregorian Suite”; the second is a Christmas suite with Chorale, Magnificat and La Crèche. The Trois Oraisons can be regarded as Guilmant’s swan song: here the composer expressed his spiritual concerns, creating a transfigured idiom for the organ in a meditative and improvisatory vein while ingeniously blending Wagner’s tonal language with Lisztian intimacy.