Muzyczne dedykacje organowe w muzyce francuskiej XX wieku

Music dedication is an additional source not only of biographical curiosities or testimonies of friendship ties but also of real knowledge of composers. The French composers of the last centu-ry who were placing dedications in their organ works were guided by various reasons. The dedica-tions create a peculiar kind of map of the music in the 20th-century France. The author is analyzing the pieces in which either the concrete person is being called in the title e.g. Suite pour…, Hom-mage à…, à la memoire de…, or their names are placed in the subtitle. The aim of this paper is not a detective research of the relations that connect the composer with the addressee of dedication, though sometimes by tracking the mentioned persons one may complete or explain many biograph-ical details (just like in the organ series of e.g. Joseph Bonnet, Gaston Litaize, or Louis Vierne). Because of the great number of dedications (presented in the table provided), the author has tried to divide them into some groups and to make a classification: (1) dedications referring to the past that are the expression of the homage paid to the composers especially important for the French religious or organ music (e.g. Jean Titelouze, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Jean-Phillippe Rameau, César Franck, or Gabriel Fauré); (2) works addressed by the grateful disciples to their master, not only to the teachers of playing the organ — owing to them we can find out about the educational experience of the organists, who at that time were very often composers, too; (3) dedications reflecting the disciple-master relation, but also the one of predecessor-successor in case of the titular organists in Paris churches — it turns out to be the confirmation of the “organist to organist” relation and the relation of friendship, as well; (4) wish to commemorate the organist having died prematurely (e.g. Jehan Alain or Jean-Claude Touche); (5) works offered as a gift to the personages from the circle of the art and culture creators (organ masters, music critics, poets), as well as to the very closest persons among the friends and family.