Named in memory of the great Belgian composer César Franck (1822–1890), well known for his piano and organ works and beautiful symphony in D minor. His ancestry included members of the famous school of Wallonian painters, and his admiration for them influenced his way of composing — as a “musician painter”. After only a year’s study in Paris he received “grand prix d’honneur” for piano, and a few years later the first prize for fugue, the art of which in France he restored following a lengthy period of discredit. For organ he achieved only the second prize, because the jury was not inclined to accept his genial and daring way of combining the theme of the fugue with the free theme cyclic principle. Appointed organist at St. Clothilde in 1859, he became a master in the art of improvisation. (M 17467) _ _.