Charles-Marie Widor composed his seventh Organ Symphony in 1855 (later he revised it in 1918). It is a work in six movements, in the key of A minor, catalogued as no. 3 of his Op. 42. It first appeared in print in 1887. 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.
