Charles-Marie Widor wrote his Organ Symphony in G minor, no. 6, in 1885, and published it three years later. Though Widor wrote music for a great variety of ensembles, only his organ works are regularly played today, of which his Organ Symphonies are the most notable. Widor was at the front of a revival in French organ music, which had become almost extinct during the nineteenth century. A new generation of organs, however, made it possible to write complex pieces which spawned a general revival, not only in france, but in Germany and the rest of Europe. The Op. 42 Organ Symphonies represent a step in a more mature way for Widor, who had written four of this pieces earlier in his career, catalogued now as Op. 13.
