‘The Beatitudes’ is a work in which Franck’s best and most characteristic qualities of thought and workmanship are displayed in a wonderful degree. Of a deeply religious nature, profoundly earnest and sincere, working wholly for himself and his art-ideals, and wholly oblivious of the indifference with which an unappreciative generation received his great works, Franck translated into music his own inner self to a degree that has been vouchsafed to very few composers. The grandeur and religious significance of the underlying thoughts of this great theme struck deep into his gentle, tender nature and he was able to sustain a noble mode of musical speech from beginning to end without flagging. Three characteristics stand out prominently in his music--(1) a mysticism that throws a glamour of delicious vagueness of outline over all his modes of artistic expression, a mysticism that roots itself deep in the hidden things of the religious faith he so consistently held, (2) a complex and intricate polyphony that rivals Bach’s in its nobility and expressiveness, and (3) an astounding wealth of novel harmonies that elude analysis and enthrall the listener by their very elusiveness. ‘The Beatitudes’ was begun in 1870 and was published ten years later. Parts of it were performed in Paris from time to time, but the entire work did not come to public hearing until one year after the composer’s death--at Dijon in 1891 at the Commemoration Festival of St. Bernard. Its first Paris performance was March 19, 1893, under Colonne, and France at last awoke to the recognition of the greatness of her departed adopted son. The text is a poetic paraphrase of the Sermon on the Mount, made by Madame Colomb. It is not altogether adequate and is interspersed with philosophical episodes that at times suggest spiritualism and other irrelevant matter. Curiously enough it was frequently these extraneous parts that touched Franck most deeply and occasioned some of his finest outbursts of religious rapture. The strongest musical parts of the oratorio are the fine choral writing and the skillful handling of the orchestra in exploiting and illustrating the poetic and dramatic meaning of the text. In the orchestral numbers his most brilliant style is revealed. His treatment of the various characters--Satan, the Voice of Christ, Mater Dolorosa--is often very dramatic, almost theatrical: other characters are the Angel of Forgiveness and the Angel of Death. The central theme which runs through the whole work is the perpetual conflict between good and evil, and ‘terrestrial’ and ‘celestial’ choruses are frequently used to illustrate these opposing forces.