As a result of his study with Jacques Lemmens and his own further research, Widor earnestly believed that he maintained the unsullied tradition of Bach. Schweitzer concurred:

For example, Widor firmly held that his style of “absolute legato” followed that of Bach:

The performance practice line of transmission from Bach to later generations of organists did not stop with Widor. Marcel Dupré—Widor's pupil, successor at Saint-Sulpice, and perhaps the strongest exponent of the Bach tradition—did not hesitate to declare: “The filiation of the tradition from J. S. Bach to our days is known with exactitude.” However, whereas Widor was somewhat pragmatic in the application of the “tradition,” Dupré stepped in to erect “Lois d'exécutions à l'orgue” (Laws of organ performance), based on the tradition he professed to have received from both Widor and Guilmant: “All these laws must be strictly observed, not only in performing the organ works of Bach, but also every work written in a polyphonic style, and when improvising. While being logical by themselves, they are traditional, coming to us from Bach.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the relatively contemporary musicologist Félix Raugel continued to support the purported lineage (tradition) in his 1980 article on Widor: “Lemmens, who was the most recent member of a line of teachers connected directly to Bach, taught [Widor] traditional German interpretations of Bach to which [Widor] remained loyal for the rest of his life.”