Claudia Valentine
MUS 110 ONLN
06/26/2015
Gabriel Fauré: Step Three
The Life of Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845-1924) was an influential French composer of the late 19th and early 20th century. He was swept into the world of music very early on in life when in 1854 he was sent from his home in the South of France to study music in Paris. The Niedermeyer School of Classical and Religious music would become his home for the next 10 years. Here he received a rigorous education in music composition and organ and piano performance, in addition to what we would now call a liberal arts curriculum. During his years at school, he met his life-long mentor and friend Camille Saint-Saëns. (Phillips 3) Upon graduation from the Niedermeyer School, Fauré was a master of composition and keyboard. (Henderson 818) Fauré began his professional music career as a church organist throughout France. He played at the Church of Saint Saveur in Rennes, the Notre Dame de Clignacourt in Paris, and Saint-Sulpice in Paris. (Henderson 818) He spent over 20 years at Église de la Madeleine, first as choirmaster in 1877 and then as organiste titulaire. He also served as Chair of Composition and subsequently Director, from 1905 to 1920, at the Conservatoire de Paris. Fauré’s other occupations, all of which regrettably took time away from his music composition, included writing as a critic for Le Figaro, and private teaching. (Phillips 3, 4) As a teacher, Fauré influenced the success of multiple recognized French composers including Maurice Ravel, Nadia Boulanger, and Charles Koechlin. (Houghton 19) He received many accolades and much critical recognition throughout his career. Of particular significance to the man himself was his election to the Institute de France in 1909. (Phillips 4) Fauré’s personal life was marked by romance, death of loved ones and all the other facets of a typical existence. In 1882 he married Marie Fremiet with whom he head two sons: Emmanuel in 1883 and Philippe in 1889. Though he remained close with his wife, in 1900, he became romantically involved with Marguerite Hasselmans who would remain his mistress for the rest of his life. In the late 1800s, his mother died, an event which inspired the Requiem, his best-known religious work. Fauré died in Paris in 1924.

Fauré’s Oeuvre
Though much of his work is not very well known outside of France, Fauré was a prolific composer in his 80 years of life. He wrote many art songs and duets, chamber pieces, choral music, sacred music, two pieces for harp, and one full opera. Here, I will divide his compositions into three categories (sacred music, melodies, and opera) and discuss a few standout pieces.
Fauré studied religious music in school, so it follows that a significant portion of his oeuvre would be made up of this type of music. In 1865, he wrote one of his earliest pieces Cantique de Jean Racine while still in school. The composition, written for chorus and organ, is set to Jean Racine’s French translation of a medieval Latin hymn. (Schwarm) Upon his graduation from Niedermeyer, he received first prize in composition for the work. In 1888, following the death of his mother, Fauré composed his Requiem, a special Catholic Mass performed in remembrance of the dead. (Orledge) Here is a link to a recording of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus’ performance of the 35-minute composition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnilUPXmipM.
Fauré wrote more art songs, or mélodies, than any other type of work. He was a master of composing for voice with piano accompaniment. In 1881 he composed Le Secret, a song set to the text of Mystère by poet Armand Silvestre. Some say the piece is a remnant from the destroyed opera Fauré and Silvestre had recently abandoned. (Johnson, Stokes 136) He dedicated this hauntingly beautiful piece to Alice Boissonet, a star pupil from one of his harmony classes. (130) Here, soprano Barbara Bonney deftly performs the contemplative and somber song with emotion and finesse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6MSEpKszus. The artful simplicity of the piano emphasizes the melody and text. One of Fauré’s most celebrated works is Claire de Lune, a song for voice and piano composed in 1887. The piece, set to the 1869 poem by Paul Verlaine, was dedicated to A.M. Emmanuel Jadin, a painter and friend to Fauré. This composition features a wandering, spontaneous solo vocal line with melodic piano accompaniment. It is considered by many to be a quintessential French mélodie. (Johnson 198, 199) This piece, and his introduction to Verlaine, marked a shift into Fauré’s later period of work. (Orledge)
Fauré’s opera, Pénélope is the most significant composition of his later life. He worked on it from 1907 to 1912, inspired by a chance conversation in 1907 with soprano Lucienne Breval whose friend, Réné Fauchois had just completed a play based on Homer’s Odyssey. (Houghton 22) Fauré and Fauchois worked together to create the libretto for the opera. The story, set in Ithaca, is told from the point of view of Pénélope, Ulysses’s wife, as she awaits the return of her husband who has been away at sea for 20 years. (23) The structure of the piece employs operatic principles of Richard Wagner, a pervasive contemporary whose work Fauré admired to no end. (26) Possibly due to bad timing and politics, Pénélope received mixed reviews and little worldwide recognition after its premier in 1913. (Houghton 55-91)

Fauré in Comparison
In March of 1903, Claude Debussy, one of the most recognized composers in the French tradition, published an article in which he dubbed Fauré “Master of Charms” for his early work in art songs. (Orledge) The two composers have some interesting things in common, including education in Paris and a fascination with the work of poet Paul Verlaine. They both composed music set to multiple Verlaine poems including Claire de Lune, for which Debussy composed twice, Maudoline, and En Sourdine. (Johnson 190) In terms of their actual compositions, however, the two didn’t have very much in common.
It makes sense to draw a comparison between the French mélodies of Fauré and the German lieder of Franz Schubert from decades before. (Copland) Both composers were heavily influenced by poets of their time: Schubert by Goethe and Fauré by Verlaine. Schubert may have lead the way for Fauré’s many art songs, but the significant difference between their works is the subject matter. Schubert’s work, like Elfking, was more dramatic and fairytale-based than that of Fauré whose subject matter was often Romantic, but more about love and nature, or expressive of inner emotion. Schumann’s song cycles are more comparable to Fauré’s work in style and subject matter. “In the lovely month of May” from A Poet’s Love is a precursor to certain Fauré songs, like Notre Amour from Fauré’s collection 3 Songs.
Fauré’s religious music, notably the Requiem, is also comparable to Arvo Part’s spiritual minimalism in Cantate Domino. Overall, Gabriel Fauré’s work is not easy to compare to the work of others in his time. He had quite an individual style of composition and was inspired, but very rarely stylistically influenced, by his contemporaries. However as a teacher and composer, he was very influential for future composers.

Works Cited
Copland, Aaron. "Gabriel Fauré, a Neglected Master." The Musical Quarterly 10.4 (1924): 573-86. JSTOR. Web. 13 June 2015.
Henderson, A. M. "Memories of Some Distinguished French Organists. Faure." The Musical Times 78.1135 (1937): 817-19. JSTOR. Web. 13 June 2015.
Houghton, Jenny Marie. ""Penelope" in the Press: 1913 The Early Critical Reception of Gabriel Faure's Only Opera." ProQuest. N.p., 2012. Web. 13 June 2015.
Johnson, Graham, and Richard Stokes. Gabriel Fauré: The Songs and Their Poets. Farnham, England: Ashgate, 2009. Print.
Orledge, Robert. "Fauré, Gabriel (Urbain)." The Oxford Companion to Music. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 14 Jun. 2015.
Phillips, Edward R. Gabriel Fauré A Guide to Research. London: Routledge, 1999. Print.
Schwarm, Betsy. "Cantique De Jean Racine, Op. 11." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 25 June 2015.

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