“Playing the organ means showing a profound will of eternal perspective” claimed Charles-Marie Widor. Fragments of Widor’s symphony for organ were on the programmes of Parisian concerts and are testimony of the success of the organ repertoire outside church spheres as well: very often the nobility would adorn their salons with “divertissement” small organs and harmoniums.

Just as sacred music and religious music are persistently confused, French church music of the nineteenth century is often seen as a consummate expression of official art – with the word “official” taken to mean “academic” and “conservative”, thus disregarding the variety of means brought into play and the perspicacity of certain organists or maîtres de chapelle, such as Saint-Saëns, Franck, Baptiste, Fauré and Pierné. In the cities, church services were accompanied by ensembles composed basically of a few soloists gathered around a harmonium, or a great organ when required. In the wealthiest chapels, a violin, cello, harp and double bass would support a larger choir, whose soloists would perform solos worthy of grand opera. At the same time religious music made its way into the concert hall, where large-scale biblical works in the tradition of the oratorios of Mendelssohn and Liszt were given regularly – precious works that have now been forgotten: Le Passage de la Mer Rouge (Rabuteau, 1871), L’Incarnation de Jésus (Maréchal, 1873), Sainte Geneviève (Hillemacher, 1877), Le Sinaï (Broutin, 1880), Saül (Hüe, 1880), Saint Georges (Vidal, 1884), Les Saintes Maries de la Mer (Paladilhe, 1890)... and the more famous Martyre de Saint Sébastien by Debussy. Organist of the churches of Sainte-Clotilde and La Madeleine, Théodore Dubois composed many masses, motets and oratorios, the finest of which are probably his Messe pontificale, Les Sept Paroles du Christ and Le Paradis perdu, not to mention some motets using spectacular forces. He also left several books of more or less ambitious organ pieces.