César Franck differs from his French contemporaries by reason of what might be termed the masculine severity of his inspiration, together with monumental mastery of polyphonic design, exhaustless command of orchestral resources.
Lalo. In antithesis to Franck's severe and somewhat solemn style of writing, that of Lalo betrays a fund of spontaneous invention, curious rhythmic effects, charming and sprightly instrumentation, and great aptitude for imbuing his works with the necessary local coloring.
Godard. In France, Godard occupies a conspicuous position on the programs of orchestral concert music. His musical ideas and instrumentation are both graceful and charming.
d'Indy. In earnest endeavor and in faithful adherence to high ideals d'Indy has proved himself a worthy successor to his teacher, César Franck, whom he copies in exceedingly complicated development of subject-matter. Not content with incorporating in his works the most advanced tenets of Wagner, he further has explored the pathway opened up by Brahms. He is essentially a symphonist, evolves his conceptions on broad and dignified lines, and displays a masterful deployment of orchestral resources.
A little coterie of Frenchmen—Adam, Maillart and Delibes—have distinguished themselves by almost exclusive devotion to the lightest of operatic forms. Conspicuous among these is Delibes by reason of his naïve descriptive powers and clever instrumentation.
Thomas, Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Bizet, Chabrier, Massenet may be regarded as the foremost French composers of the nineteenth century and the greatest French orchestrator after Berlioz is Saint-Saëns.
Thomas. The orchestration of Thomas is clear in ensemble, ingenious in detail, polished, refined and never overloaded. Characteristic tone-color and poetically conceived combinations reveal the skilful hand of a competent master.
Gounod stands as the most illustrious recent representative of lyric opera and exhibits the unusual attribute of attaining excellent results without apparent effort. His scoring follows the general path indicated by Auber and Meyerbeer, but it further shows that he possessed a considerable knowledge of the German science of instrumentation.