Symphonie Nr 3 - Cantilène

When, after eight years, Vierne returned to the organ in the summer of 1911 for his Third Symphony, he was a far more experienced composer, and he was also more intimately familiar with his organ at Notre Dame. Vierne would write many more organ works in the future, but this is considered his masterpiece.

The second movement, Cantilène, is, as the title implies, a song without words. Not the most comforting of songs, though; the single, long theme meanders unsettlingly through A minor, winding through various ornaments and uneasily dipping into other keys before fading away. At the midpoint comes the Intermezzo, offering some emotional relief with its balletic D major acrobatics. The melody leaps and twists in a style that almost seems Spanish, and modulates far from its tonal center. The music is slightly grotesque in a mildly humorous manner, something of a low-key danse macabre.