By Pierre Petit - This image is available from the New York Public Library's Digital Library under the digital ID 1158368: digitalgallery.nypl.org → digitalcollections.nypl.org, Public Domain

César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck (1822 – 1890)

Cantabile in B Major (Three Pieces, 1878), mm 61-64 Prélude, Fugue et Variation Op. 18, mm 79-81 and 117-128

Franck is notorious for writing chords that span a tenth or more. Various sources suggest that the Bonnet edition of Franck’s works has numerous suggestions for players with normal-sized hands. I haven’t been able to find this edition, so if anyone knows where it can be found, I’d welcome advice on that. In the meantime I’ve found three sources of advice on the Internet. If you know of others (that is, specifically on how to play those enormous chords), please do share them.

First, this reprint of a special supplement to The American Organist, on the centenary of Franck’s death, includes Rollin Smith’s discussion of the B minor and A minor chorales -- which might persuade you to buy his books on Franck.

Secondly, the American organist Joby Bell has done a blog series on ‘the big twelve’.

And finally, there is a Rice University thesis by Janet Jouett on playing 19th- and 20th-century French repertoire with smaller hands; Jouett discusses the B minor and A minor chorales, as well as other works by Vierne and Widor.