Organ Symphony No. 5 in F minor, Op. 42 No. 1: IV. Adagio, by Widor
Every score here is public domain, free to read, print and keep. Open it in the browser and it plays, at whatever tempo you can read it.
Get the practice plan for Organ Symphony No. 5 in F minor, Op. 42 No. 1: IV. Adagio
Here it is. Check your inbox for day 1.
- Hear it through at Slow (25 bpm). Open it in the reader, choose Slow, and follow the page with your eyes without playing. As it plays, count 4 to the bar.
- Learn the right hand of bars 1 to 8 on its own, in C major. Say the note names out loud the first time through, then play it three times without stopping.
- Learn the left hand of the same bars on its own. Keep it quiet and even: it is the floor the tune stands on.
- Put hands together at Slow, 25 bpm. Bars 1 to 8 only. Stop after every wrong note and play that bar again before moving on.
- Move up to Steady (38 bpm) once Slow feels easy three times in a row. Then learn the next 8 bars the same way: right hand, left hand, together.
- Play the whole piece (about 3 minutes) from the start, at whatever speed keeps it going. A steady run with a few slips beats a fast one that stops.
About this piece
This is the quiet Adagio that comes just before the famous Toccata in Widor's Fifth Organ Symphony, arranged for piano from the organ original. A gently turning melody in the top voice is followed a little later, two octaves lower, by the bass, which copies it in canon, and the harmony drifts through distant keys before returning to C major.
How to play it
Bring out the top melody and then listen for the same notes arriving in the bass; both lines should sing. The inner voices move chromatically, so keep them soft and connected, using the sustain pedal only lightly.
Reading it, and printing it
The score opens in Artform's reader, which shows the music as engraved notation and plays it back so you can hear the line before you try it. You can slow the tempo down, loop a passage that is not working yet, and print the page when you would rather have paper on the stand.
The file itself is MusicXML, which MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale and Dorico all open, so the notes are yours to keep whatever you read them in.
Edition: Mutopia Project #1201, licensed CC BY-SA. Converted to MusicXML by Artform and checked note for note against the original.
Who Widor was
French organist and composer who played at the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris for sixty-four years. His organ symphonies put the full sound of the organ on show. The Toccata from his Fifth Symphony is played at weddings everywhere.
Learn the music behind it
Reading a piece and understanding it are different skills. If you want the harmony under this one, the chord trainer teaches chords the way songs use them, and the scale pages cover the fingering for every key, including C major.