Content deleted Content added
→Organist and composer: original image restored |
|||
Line 1:
{{Short description|French composer, musician and teacher (1845–1924)}}
{{Redirect2|Fauré|Gabriel Faure|other people with that surname|Fauré (surname)|the writer|Gabriel Faure (writer)}}
{{featured article}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}
<!-- Before adding an infobox, please consult [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Composers#Biographical infoboxes]] and seek consensus on this article's talk page. -->
[[File:Faure1907.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Fauré in 1907|alt=A head and shoulders portrait of a late-middle-aged man of the early twentieth century with white hair and a large white moustache]]
'''Gabriel Urbain Fauré'''{{refn|English: {{IPAc-en|UK|ˈ|f|ɔːr|eɪ|,_|ˈ|f|ɒr|eɪ}} {{respell|FOR(R)|ay}}, {{IPAc-en|US|f|oʊ|ˈ|r|eɪ|,_|f|ɔː|ˈ|r|eɪ}} {{respell|foh|RAY|,_|for|AY}};<ref>{{citation|last=Wells|first=John C.|year=2008|title=Longman Pronunciation Dictionary|edition=3rd|publisher=Longman|isbn=9781405881180}}</ref> {{IPA|fr|ɡabʁijɛl yʁbɛ̃ foʁe|lang|LL-Q150 (fra)-Adélaïde Calais WMFr-Gabriel Fauré.wav|small=no}}.|group=n}} (12 May{{refn|Some early sources including Copland say that Fauré was born on 13 May;<ref name=copland/> the birth register for that date reads "born yesterday" and authorities including Nectoux, Jones and Duchen give 12 May as the date of birth.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 3; Jones, p. 15; and Duchen, p. 12</ref> |group=n}} 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his ''[[Pavane (Fauré)|Pavane]]'', [[Requiem (Fauré)|Requiem]], ''[[Sicilienne (Fauré)|Sicilienne]]'', [[Fauré Nocturnes|nocturnes]] for piano and the songs "[[Trois mélodies, Op. 7 (Fauré)|Après un rêve]]" and "[[Clair de lune (Fauré)|Clair de lune]]". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more [[harmony|harmonically]] and [[melody|melodically]] complex style.
Fauré was born into a cultured but not especially musical family. His talent became clear when he was a young boy. At the age of nine, he was sent to the [[École Niedermeyer de Paris|École Niedermeyer]] music college in Paris, where he was trained to be a church organist and choirmaster. Among his teachers was [[Camille Saint-Saëns]], who became a lifelong friend. After graduating from the college in 1865, Fauré earned a modest living as an organist and teacher, leaving him little time for composition. When he became successful in his middle age, holding the important posts of organist of the [[Église de la Madeleine]] and director of the [[Conservatoire de Paris|Paris Conservatoire]], he still lacked time for composing; he retreated to the countryside in the summer holidays to concentrate on composition. By his last years, he was recognised in France as the leading French composer of his day. An unprecedented national musical tribute was held for him in Paris in 1922, headed by the president of the [[French Third Republic|French Republic]]. Outside France, Fauré's music took decades to become widely accepted, except in Britain, where he had many admirers during his lifetime.
Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of [[Romantic music|Romanticism]] with the [[modernism (music)|modernism]] of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, [[Chopin]] was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death, [[jazz]] and the [[atonality|atonal]] music of the [[Second Viennese School]] were being heard. The ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', which describes him as the most advanced composer of his generation in France, notes that his harmonic and melodic innovations influenced the teaching of harmony for later generations. During the last twenty years of his life, he suffered from increasing deafness. In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his works from this period are sometimes elusive and withdrawn in character, and at other times turbulent and impassioned.
==Biography==
===Early years===
Fauré was born in [[Pamiers]], [[Ariège (department)|Ariège]], in the south of France, the fifth son and youngest of six children of Toussaint-Honoré Fauré (1810–85) and Marie-Antoinette-Hélène Lalène-Laprade (1809–87).<ref name=d3>Duchen, p. 13</ref> According to the biographer [[Jean-Michel Nectoux]], the Fauré family dates to the 13th century in that part of France.<ref name=n3>Nectoux (1991), p. 3</ref> The family had at one time been substantial landowners, but by the 19th century its means had become reduced. The composer's paternal grandfather, Gabriel, was a butcher whose son became a schoolmaster.<ref>Duchen, p. 12</ref> In 1829 Fauré's parents married. His mother was the daughter of a minor member of the nobility. He was the only one of the six children to display musical talent; his four brothers pursued careers in journalism, politics, the army and the civil service, and his sister had a traditional life as the wife of a public servant.<ref name=d3/>
The young Fauré was sent to live with a foster mother until he was four years old.<ref name=n4>Nectoux (1991), p. 4</ref> When his father was appointed director of the École Normale d'Instituteurs, a teacher training college, at Montgauzy, near [[Foix]], in 1849, Fauré returned to live with his family.<ref>Duchen, p. 2</ref> There was a chapel attached to the school, which Fauré recalled in the last year of his life:
{{blockquote|I grew up, a rather quiet well-behaved child, in an area of great beauty. ... But the only thing I remember really clearly is the [[Pump organ|harmonium]] in that little chapel. Every time I could get away I ran there – and I regaled myself. ... I played atrociously ... no method at all, quite without technique, but I do remember that I was happy; and if that is what it means to have a vocation, then it is a very pleasant thing.<ref>Fauré in 1924, ''quoted'' in Duchen, p. 14</ref>|}}
[[File:Gabriel Fauré en uniforme de l'Ecole Niedermeyer restored.jpeg|thumb|upright|alt=young man in elaborate scholastic uniform with frock coat|Fauré as a student, 1864]]
An old blind woman, who came to listen and give the boy advice, told his father of Fauré's gift for music.<ref name=n4/> In 1853 Simon-Lucien Dufaur de Saubiac, of the [[National Assembly of France|National Assembly]],{{refn|Sources differ on Dufaur de Saubiac's position at the Assembly. Jones identifies him as "the parliamentary deputy for the ''département'',<ref name=j15>Jones, p. 15</ref> as does Johnson;<ref>Johnson, p. 27</ref> Orledge similarly identifies him as "the member of the Assembly for Ariège";<ref>Orledge, pp. 5–6</ref> Nectoux describes him as "a senior civil servant in the Chamber of Deputies (or ''Palais législatif'' as it was known in the Second Empire)";<ref name="n4"/> Duchen does not mention the Assembly, referring to Dufaur de Saubiac as "a local man who worked as an archivist in Paris".<ref>Duchen, p. 15</ref>|group= n}} heard Fauré play and advised Toussaint-Honoré to send him to the [[École Niedermeyer de Paris]], which [[Louis Niedermeyer]] was setting up in Paris.<ref name=n5>Nectoux (1991), p. 5</ref> After reflecting for a year, Fauré's father agreed and took the nine-year-old boy to Paris in October 1854.<ref name=grove>Nectoux, Jean-Michel. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/09366 "Fauré, Gabriel (Urbain)"], ''Grove Online'', Oxford Music Online, accessed 21 August 2010 {{subscription}}</ref>
Helped by a scholarship from the bishop of his home diocese, Fauré boarded at the school for 11 years.<ref name=n6>Nectoux, p. 6</ref> The régime was austere, the rooms gloomy, the food mediocre, and the required uniform elaborate.<ref name=j15/>{{refn|A later writer describes "a photo of Fauré as a boy wearing the school uniform and looking not unlike [[Arthur Sullivan]] as one of the children of the [[Chapel Royal]]".<ref>Henderson, A. M. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/922657 "Memories of Some Distinguished French Organists – Fauré"], ''[[The Musical Times]]'', September 1937, pp. 817–819 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} The musical tuition, however, was excellent.<ref name=j15/> Niedermeyer, whose goal was to produce qualified organists and choirmasters, focused on church music. Fauré's tutors were [[Clément Loret]] for organ, [[Pierre-Louis Dietsch|Louis Dietsch]] for harmony, Xavier Wackenthaler for [[counterpoint]] and [[fugue]], and Niedermeyer for piano, [[plainsong]] and composition.<ref name=grove/>
When Niedermeyer died in March 1861, [[Camille Saint-Saëns]] took charge of piano studies and introduced contemporary music, including that of [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]], [[Franz Liszt|Liszt]] and [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]].<ref>Jones, p. 16</ref> Fauré recalled in old age, "After allowing the lessons to run over, he would go to the piano and reveal to us those works of the masters from which the rigorous classical nature of our programme of study kept us at a distance and who, moreover, in those far-off years, were scarcely known. ... At the time I was 15 or 16, and from this time dates the almost filial attachment ... the immense admiration, the unceasing gratitude I [have] had for him, throughout my life."<ref>Fauré in 1922, ''quoted'' in Nectoux (1984), pp. 1–2</ref>
Saint-Saëns took great pleasure in his pupil's progress, which he helped whenever he could; Nectoux comments that at each step in Fauré's career "Saint-Saëns's shadow can effectively be taken for granted."<ref>Nectoux (1984), p. 2</ref> The close friendship between them lasted until Saint-Saëns died sixty years later.<ref name=copland>Copland, Aaron. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/738475 "Gabriel Fauré, a Neglected Master"], ''The Musical Quarterly'', October 1924, pp. 573–586 {{subscription}}</ref>
Fauré won many prizes while at the school, including a ''premier prix'' in composition for the ''[[Cantique de Jean Racine (Fauré)|Cantique de Jean Racine]]'', Op. 11, the earliest of his choral works to enter the regular repertory.<ref name=grove/> He left the school in July 1865, as a ''Laureat'' in organ, piano, harmony and composition, with a ''[[Maître de chapelle]]'' diploma.<ref name=nectoux502>Nectoux (1991), p. 502; and Jones, p. 20</ref>
===Organist and composer===
On leaving the École Niedermeyer, Fauré was appointed organist at the Church of Saint-Sauveur, at [[Rennes]] in [[Brittany]]. He took up the post in January 1866.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 12</ref> During his four years at Rennes he supplemented his income by taking private pupils, giving "countless piano lessons".<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 508</ref> At Saint-Saëns's regular prompting he continued to compose, but none of his works from this period survive.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 15</ref> He was bored at Rennes and had an uneasy relationship with the parish priest, who correctly doubted Fauré's religious conviction.<ref name=jones21/> Fauré was regularly seen stealing out during the sermon for a cigarette, and in early 1870, when he turned up to play at [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] one Sunday still in his evening clothes, having been out all night at a ball, he was asked to resign.<ref name=jones21>Jones, p. 21</ref> Almost immediately, with the discreet aid of Saint-Saëns, he secured the post of assistant organist at the church of [[Notre-Dame de Clignancourt]], in the north of Paris.<ref>Duchen, p. 28</ref> He remained there for only a few months. On the outbreak of the [[Franco-Prussian War]] in 1870 he volunteered for military service. He took part in the action to raise the [[Siege of Paris (1870-1871)|siege of Paris]], and saw action at [[Battle of Le Bourget|Le Bourget]], [[Champigny, Marne|Champigny]] and [[Créteil]].<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 503</ref> He was awarded a ''Croix de Guerre''.<!-- NOT THE WWI MEDAL OF THE SAME NAME – NO ARTICLE TO LINK TO--><ref name=d31>Duchen, p. 31</ref>
[[File:Fauré-ecole-group-.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.5|alt=group of 18 young and older men in 19th century dress|Staff and students of the École Niedermeyer, 1871. Fauré in front row second from left; [[André Messager]] in middle row second from right]]
After France's defeat by [[Prussia]], there was a brief, bloody conflict within Paris from March to May 1871 during the [[Paris Commune|Commune]].<ref name=d31/> Fauré escaped to [[Rambouillet]] where one of his brothers lived, and then travelled to Switzerland, where he took up a teaching post at the École Niedermeyer, which had temporarily relocated there to avoid the violence in Paris.<ref name=d31/> His first pupil at the school was [[André Messager]], who became a lifelong friend and occasional collaborator.<ref name=jones27>Jones, p. 27</ref> Fauré's compositions from this period did not overtly reflect the turmoil and bloodshed. Some of his colleagues, including Saint-Saëns, [[Charles Gounod|Gounod]] and [[César Franck|Franck]], produced elegies and patriotic odes. Fauré did not, but according to his biographer [[Jessica Duchen]], his music acquired "a new sombreness, a dark-hued sense of tragedy ... evident mainly in his songs of this period including ''L'Absent'', ''Seule!'' and ''La Chanson du pêcheur''."<ref name=d32>Duchen, p. 32</ref>
When Fauré returned to Paris in October 1871, he was appointed choirmaster at the [[Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris|Église Saint-Sulpice]] under the composer and organist [[Charles-Marie Widor]].<ref name=jones27/> In the course of his duties, he wrote several [[canticle]]s and [[motet]]s, few of which have survived.<ref>Nectoux, p. 18</ref> During some services, Widor and Fauré improvised simultaneously at the church's two organs, trying to catch each other out with sudden changes of key.<ref name=d32/> Fauré regularly attended Saint-Saëns's musical [[salon (gathering)|salons]] and those of [[Pauline Viardot]], to whom Saint-Saëns introduced him.<ref name=grove/>
Fauré was a founding member of the [[Société Nationale de Musique]], formed in February 1871 under the joint chairmanship of [[Romain Bussine]] and Saint-Saëns, to promote new French music.<ref>Vallas, p. 135</ref> Other members included [[Georges Bizet]], [[Emmanuel Chabrier]], [[Vincent d'Indy]], [[Henri Duparc (composer)|Henri Duparc]], César Franck, [[Édouard Lalo]] and [[Jules Massenet]].<ref>Jones, p. 28 and Grove</ref> Fauré became secretary of the society in 1874.<ref name=jones28/> Many of his works were first presented at the society's concerts.<ref name=jones28>Jones, p. 28</ref>
[[File:Fauré-1875.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=young man in semi profile, with luxuriant moustache and longish dark hair|Fauré in 1875]]
In 1874 Fauré moved from Saint-Sulpice to the [[Église de la Madeleine]], acting as deputy for the principal organist, Saint-Saëns, during the latter's many absences on tour.<ref>Jones, p. 29</ref> Some admirers of Fauré's music have expressed regret that although he played the organ professionally for four decades, he left no solo compositions for the instrument.<ref>''See'', for example, Henderson, A. M. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/922657 "Memories of Some Distinguished French Organists – Fauré"], ''The Musical Times'', September 1937, pp. 817–819 {{subscription}} and Orrey, Leslie. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/935506 "Gabriel Fauré, 1845–1924"], ''The Musical Times'', May 1945, pp. 137–139 {{subscription}}</ref> He was renowned for his improvisations,<ref>Henderson, A. M. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/922657 "Memories of Some Distinguished French Organists – Fauré"], ''The Musical Times'', September 1937, pp. 817–819 {{subscription}}</ref> and Saint-Saëns said of him that he was "a first class organist when he wanted to be".<ref name=nectoux41>Nectoux (1991), p. 41</ref> Fauré preferred the piano to the organ, which he played only because it gave him a regular income.<ref name=nectoux41/> Duchen speculates that he positively disliked the organ, possibly because "for a composer of such delicacy of nuance, and such sensuality, the organ was simply not subtle enough."<ref>Duchen, p. 17</ref>
The year 1877 was significant for Fauré, both professionally and personally.<ref name=jones33>Jones, p. 33</ref> In January his [[Violin Sonata No. 1 (Fauré)|first violin sonata]] was performed at a Société Nationale concert with great success, marking a turning-point in his composing career at the age of 31.<ref name=jones33/> Nectoux counts the work as the composer's first great masterpiece.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 80</ref> In March, Saint-Saëns retired from the Madeleine, succeeded as organist by [[Théodore Dubois]], his choirmaster; Fauré was appointed to take over from Dubois.<ref name=jones33/> In July Fauré became engaged to Pauline Viardot's daughter Marianne, with whom he was deeply in love.<ref name=jones33/> To his great sorrow, she broke off the engagement in November 1877, for reasons that are not clear.<ref name=jones50>Jones, p. 50</ref> To distract Fauré, Saint-Saëns took him to [[Weimar]] and introduced him to [[Franz Liszt]]. This visit gave Fauré a liking for foreign travel, which he indulged for the rest of his life.<ref name=jones50/> From 1878, he and Messager made trips abroad to see Wagner operas. They saw ''[[Das Rheingold]]'' and ''[[Die Walküre]]'' at the [[Cologne Opera]]; the complete ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen|Ring]]'' cycle at the [[Bavarian State Opera|Hofoper]] in Munich and at [[Her Majesty's Theatre]] in London; and ''[[Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg|Die Meistersinger]]'' in Munich and at [[Bayreuth Festival|Bayreuth]], where they also saw ''[[Parsifal]]''.<ref name="Jones, p. 51">Jones, p. 51</ref> They frequently performed as a party piece their joint composition, the irreverent ''Souvenirs de Bayreuth''. This short, up-tempo piano work for four hands sends up themes from ''The Ring''.<ref>Wagstaff, John and [[Andrew Lamb (writer)|Andrew Lamb]]. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/18492 "Messager, André"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford Music Online, accessed 14 August 2010 {{subscription}}</ref> Fauré admired Wagner and had a detailed knowledge of his music,<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 39</ref> but he was one of the few composers of his generation not to come under Wagner's musical influence.{{refn|Fauré liked some of Wagner's operas more than others. He loved ''Die Meistersinger'', ''Parsifal'' and the ''Ring'', was lukewarm about ''[[Tannhäuser (opera)|Tannhäuser]]'' and ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'' and detested ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]''. Duchen speculates that "the excess – in sentiment and length" of the last was fundamentally contrary to Fauré's aesthetic sensibilities.<ref>Duchen, p. 58</ref>|group= n}}
===Middle years===
[[File:John Singer Sargent - Gabriel Fauré.jpg|thumb|Fauré by [[John Singer Sargent]], 1889]]
In 1883 Fauré married Marie Fremiet, the daughter of a leading sculptor, [[Emmanuel Frémiet|Emmanuel Fremiet]]<!--FREMIET, NOT FRÉMIET, IS CORRECT HERE-->.<ref name="Jones, p. 52">Jones, p. 52</ref>{{refn|Some sources put an acute accent on the first 'e' of the surname, but Marie Fremiet's letters show that she did not do so. The spelling without the accent is followed by Nectoux, Jones and Duchen.|group= n}} Nectoux comments that Marie was "without beauty, wit or a fortune ... narrow and cold",<ref>Nectoux, p. 37</ref> but records that "in spite of everything [Fauré] still felt a tenderness towards her". The marriage was affectionate, but Marie was, in Nectoux's phrase, "a stay-at-home", and she did not share her husband's wish to go out in the evenings,<ref name=n38>Nectoux, p. 38</ref> and became resentful of his frequent absences, his dislike of domestic life – ''"horreur du domicile"'' – and his love affairs, while she remained at home.<ref name="Jones, p. 52"/> Though Fauré valued Marie as a friend and confidante, writing to her often – sometimes daily – when away from home, she did not share his passionate nature, which found fulfilment elsewhere.<ref>Duchen, p. 66</ref> Fauré and his wife had two sons. The first, born in 1883, [[Emmanuel Fauré-Fremiet]] (Marie insisted on combining her family name with Fauré's),<ref name=n38/> became a biologist of international reputation.<ref>Willmer, E. N. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/769659 "Emmanuel Fauré-Fremiet, 1883–1971"], ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society'', Vol. 18 (November 1972), pp. 187–221 {{subscription}}</ref> The second son, Philippe, born in 1889, became a writer; his works included histories, plays, and biographies of his father and grandfather.<ref>[http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=Philippe+Faure-Fremiet&wcsbtn2w=Search "Philippe Fauré-Fremiet"], [[WorldCat]], accessed 2 April 2012</ref>
Contemporary accounts agree that Fauré was extremely attractive to women;{{refn|[[Alfredo Casella]], one of his pupils, wrote that Fauré had "the large, languid and sensual eyes of an impenitent [[Casanova]]". It was rumoured in Parisian musical circles that some of Fauré's most talented pupils may have been his illegitimate children. The rumours were never substantiated.<ref>Duchen, p. 63</ref>|group= n}} in Duchen's phrase, "his conquests were legion in the Paris salons."<ref>Duchen, Jessica. "A still, small voice", ''The Guardian'', 24 November 1995, p. A12</ref> After a romantic attachment to the singer [[Emma Bardac]] from around 1892,<ref name=nectoux181>Nectoux (1991), p. 181</ref> followed by another to the composer [[Adela Maddison]],<ref name="Orledge16">Orledge, pp. 16–17</ref> in 1900 Fauré met the pianist Marguerite Hasselmans, the daughter of [[Alphonse Hasselmans]]. This led to a relationship which lasted for the rest of Fauré's life. He maintained her in a Paris apartment, and she acted openly as his companion.<ref name=nectoux282>Nectoux (1991), pp. 282–285</ref>
[[File:Marie-and-Gabriel-Fauré.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=youngish couple in informal pose; the man is holding a small harp, the woman is looking at him|Fauré and Marie in 1889]]
To support his family, Fauré spent most of his time in running the daily services at the Madeleine and giving piano and harmony lessons.<ref>Duchen, p. 69</ref> His compositions earned him a negligible amount, because his publisher bought them outright, paying him an average of 60 [[French franc|francs]] for a song, and Fauré received no royalties.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 26</ref> During this period, he wrote several large-scale works, in addition to many piano pieces and songs, but he destroyed most of them after a few performances, only retaining a few movements in order to re-use motifs.<ref name=grove/> Among the works surviving from this period is the [[Requiem (Fauré)|Requiem]], begun in 1887 and revised and expanded, over the years, until its final version dating from 1901.<ref>Oliver, pp. 215–217</ref> After its first performance, in 1888, the priest in charge told the composer, "We don't need these novelties: the Madeleine's repertoire is quite rich enough."<ref>Duchen, p. 80</ref>
As a young man Fauré had been very cheerful; a friend wrote of his "youthful, even somewhat child-like, mirth."<ref>Jones, p. 31</ref> From his thirties he suffered bouts of depression, which he described as "[[spleen#Society and culture|spleen]]", possibly first caused by his broken engagement and his lack of success as a composer.<ref name=grove/> In 1890 a prestigious and remunerative commission to write an opera with lyrics by [[Paul Verlaine]] was aborted by the poet's drunken inability to deliver a libretto. Fauré was plunged into so deep a depression that his friends were seriously concerned about his health.<ref>Duchen, pp. 95–97</ref> [[Winnaretta Singer|Winnaretta de Scey-Montbéliard]],{{refn|Better known by her original name Winnaretta Singer and her later title the Princesse de Polignac.|group= n}} always a good friend to Fauré, invited him to [[Venice]], where she had a ''[[palazzo]]'' on the [[Grand Canal (Venice)|Grand Canal]].<ref>Orledge, p. 14</ref> He recovered his spirits and began to compose again, writing the first of his five ''[[Cinq mélodies "de Venise"|Mélodies de Venise]]'', to words by Verlaine, whose poetry he continued to admire despite the operatic debacle.<ref>Orledge, p. 15; and Duchen, pp. 98–99</ref>
[[File:Emma-Bardac-150px.jpg|thumb|alt=left profile of a young woman|Emma Bardac]]
About this time, or shortly afterwards, Fauré's liaison with Emma Bardac began; in Duchen's words, "for the first time, in his late forties, he experienced a fulfilling, passionate relationship which extended over several years".<ref>Duchen, p. 105</ref> His principal biographers all agree that this affair inspired a burst of creativity and a new originality in his music, exemplified in the song cycle ''[[La bonne chanson (Fauré)|La bonne chanson]]''.<ref>Duchen, p. 105; Johnson, p. 253; Jones, p. 68; Nectoux, p. 185; and Orledge, p. 15</ref> Fauré wrote the ''[[Dolly (Fauré)|Dolly Suite]]'' for [[piano duet]] between 1894 and 1897 and dedicated it to Bardac's daughter Hélène, known as "Dolly".<ref name=grove/>{{refn|In the UK, the first piece, "[[Berceuse]]", from the ''Dolly Suite'' became Fauré's best-known piece to several generations of children; it was used as the closing music for the [[BBC Home Service]] radio programme ''[[Listen with Mother]]'', which was broadcast from 1950 to 1982.|group= n}} Some people suspected that Fauré was Dolly's father, but biographers including Nectoux and Duchen think it unlikely. Fauré's affair with Emma Bardac is thought to have begun after Dolly was born, though there is no conclusive evidence either way.<ref>Nectoux, p. 181; and Duchen, p. 108</ref>
During the 1890s Fauré's fortunes improved. When [[Ernest Guiraud]], professor of composition at the [[Conservatoire de Paris|Paris Conservatoire]], died in 1892, Saint-Saëns encouraged Fauré to apply for the vacant post. The faculty of the Conservatoire regarded Fauré as dangerously modern, and its head, [[Ambroise Thomas]], blocked the appointment, declaring, "Fauré? Never! If he's appointed, I resign."<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 224</ref> However, Fauré was appointed to another of Guiraud's posts, inspector of the music conservatories in the French provinces.<ref name="Orledge, p. 15">Orledge, p. 15</ref> He disliked the prolonged travelling around the country that the work entailed, but the post gave him a steady income and enabled him to give up teaching amateur pupils.<ref>Jones, p. 65</ref>
[[File:Camille-Ambroise-Jules-Théodore.jpg|thumb|left|Clockwise from top left: [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]], [[Ambroise Thomas|Thomas]], [[Jules Massenet|Massenet]], [[Théodore Dubois|Dubois]]]]
In 1896 Ambroise Thomas died, and Théodore Dubois took over as head of the Conservatoire. Fauré succeeded Dubois as chief organist of the Madeleine. Dubois' move had further repercussions: [[Jules Massenet|Massenet]], professor of composition at the Conservatoire, had expected to succeed Thomas, but had overplayed his hand by insisting on being appointed for life.<ref>Jones, p. 78</ref> He was turned down, and when Dubois was appointed instead, Massenet resigned his professorship in fury.<ref>Nectoux (1984), pp. 224–225</ref> Fauré was appointed in his place.<ref>Orledge, p. 16</ref> He taught many young composers, including [[Maurice Ravel]], [[Florent Schmitt]], [[Charles Koechlin]], [[Louis Aubert]], [[Jean Roger-Ducasse]], [[George Enescu]], [[Paul Ladmirault]], [[Alfredo Casella]] and [[Nadia Boulanger]].<ref name=grove/> In Fauré's view, his students needed a firm grounding in the basic skills, which he was happy to delegate to his capable assistant [[André Gedalge]].<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 246</ref> His own part came in helping them make use of these skills in the way that suited each student's talents. Roger-Ducasse later wrote, "Taking up whatever the pupils were working on, he would evoke the rules of the form at hand ... and refer to examples, always drawn from the masters."<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 307</ref> Ravel always remembered Fauré's open-mindedness as a teacher. Having received Ravel's [[String Quartet (Ravel)|String Quartet]] with less than his usual enthusiasm, Fauré asked to see the manuscript again a few days later, saying, "I could have been wrong".<ref>Nichols, p. 103</ref> The musicologist Henry Prunières wrote, "What Fauré developed among his pupils was taste, harmonic sensibility, the love of pure lines, of unexpected and colorful modulations; but he never gave them [recipes] for composing according to his style and that is why they all sought and found their own paths in many different, and often opposed, directions."<ref>Prunières, Henry, ''quoted'' in Copland. (Copland spells the given name as "Henri" and uses the older English term "receipts" for "recipes".)</ref>
Fauré's works of the last years of the century include [[incidental music]] for the English premiere of [[Maurice Maeterlinck]]'s ''[[Pelléas and Mélisande|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' (1898) and ''[[Prométhée]]'', a lyric tragedy composed for the amphitheatre at [[Béziers]]. Written for outdoor performance, the work is scored for huge instrumental and vocal forces. Its premiere in August 1900 was a great success, and it was revived at Béziers the following year and in Paris in 1907. A version with orchestration for normal opera house-sized forces was given at the [[Paris Opera|Paris Opéra]] in May 1917 and received more than forty performances in Paris thereafter.{{refn|The 1907 Paris premiere was staged at the [[Vincennes Racecourse|Hippodrome]], but the acoustics were so bad that the second performance was moved to the Opéra. The 1917 revised orchestration was made by Roger-Ducasse, at Fauré's request.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 370</ref>|group= n}}
From 1903 to 1921, Fauré regularly wrote music criticism for ''[[Le Figaro]]'', a role in which he was not at ease. Nectoux writes that Fauré's natural kindness and broad-mindedness predisposed him to emphasise the positive aspects of a work.<ref name=grove/>
===Head of Paris Conservatoire===
[[File:Maurice-Ravel-1910.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|alt=Head shot of a young man of the early twentieth century, looking at the camera|[[Maurice Ravel]]]]
In 1905 a scandal erupted in French musical circles over the country's top musical prize, the [[Prix de Rome]]. Fauré's pupil [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]] had been eliminated prematurely in his sixth attempt for this award, and many believed that reactionary elements within the Conservatoire had played a part in it.<ref>Orledge, p. 21</ref> Dubois, who became the subject of much censure, brought forward his retirement and stepped down at once.<ref>Nectoux, p. 267</ref> Appointed in his place, and with the support of the French government, Fauré radically changed the administration and curriculum. He appointed independent external judges to decide on admissions, examinations and competitions, a move which enraged faculty members who had given preferential treatment to their private pupils; feeling themselves deprived of a considerable extra income, many of them resigned.<ref>Woldu, Gail Hilson. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/928428 "Gabriel Fauré, directeur du Conservatoire: les réformes de 1905"], ''Revue de Musicologie'', T. 70e, No. 2e (1984), pp. 199–228, Société Française de Musicologie. French text. {{subscription}}</ref> Fauré was dubbed "[[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]]" by disaffected members of the old guard as he modernised and broadened the range of music taught at the Conservatoire. As Nectoux puts it, "where [[Daniel Auber|Auber]], [[Fromental Halévy|Halévy]] and especially [[Giacomo Meyerbeer|Meyerbeer]] had reigned supreme ... it was now possible to sing an aria by [[Jean-Philippe Rameau|Rameau]] or even some Wagner – up to now a forbidden name within the Conservatoire's walls".<ref name=Nectoux269>Nectoux (1991), p. 269</ref> The curriculum was broadened to range from Renaissance polyphony to the works of [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]].<ref name=Nectoux269/>
Fauré's new position left him better off financially. However, while he also became much more widely known as a composer, running the Conservatoire left him with no more time for composition than when he was struggling to earn a living as an organist and piano teacher.<ref>Jones, p. 110</ref> As soon as the working year was over, in the last days of July, he would leave Paris and spend the two months until early October in a hotel, usually by one of the Swiss lakes, to concentrate on composition.<ref name=Nectoux270>Nectoux (1991), p. 270</ref> His works from this period include his lyric opera, ''[[Pénélope]]'' (1913), and some of his most characteristic later songs (e.g., the cycle ''[[La chanson d'Ève]]'', Op. 95, completed in 1910) and piano pieces (Nocturnes Nos. 9–11; Barcarolles Nos. 7–11, written between 1906 and 1914).<ref name=grove/>
[[File:Fauré-by-Eugéne-Pirou.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=Photograph of elderly man with white hair and large white moustache facing towards the camera|Fauré at the turn of the century]]
Fauré was elected to the [[Institut de France]] in 1909, after his father-in-law and Saint-Saëns, both long-established members, had canvassed strongly on his behalf. He won the ballot by a narrow margin, with 18 votes against 16 for the other candidate, [[Charles Marie Widor|Widor]].<ref name=jones133>Jones, p. 133</ref>{{refn|Widor was elected the following year.<ref>Near, p. vi</ref>|group= n}} In the same year a group of young composers led by Ravel and Koechlin broke with the Société Nationale de Musique, which under the presidency of Vincent d'Indy had become a reactionary organisation, and formed a new group, the [[Société musicale indépendante]]. While Fauré accepted the presidency of this society, he also remained a member of the older one and continued on the best of terms with d'Indy; his sole concern was the fostering of new music.<ref name=jones133/> In 1911 he oversaw the Conservatoire's move to new premises in the rue de Madrid.<ref name=Nectoux270/>
During this time, Fauré developed serious problems with his hearing. Not only did he start to go deaf, but sounds became distorted, so that high and low notes sounded painfully out of tune to him.<ref name=landormy>[[Paul Landormy|Landormy, Paul]] and M. D. Herter. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/739035 "Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)"], ''The Musical Quarterly'', Vol. 17, No. 3 (July 1931), pp. 293–301 {{subscription}}</ref>
The turn of the 20th century saw a rise in the popularity of Fauré's music in Britain, and to a lesser extent in Germany, Spain and Russia.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 278</ref> He visited England frequently, and an invitation to play at [[Buckingham Palace]] in 1908 opened many other doors in London and beyond.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 283</ref> He was in London for the premiere of [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]]'s [[Symphony No. 1 (Elgar)|First Symphony]] in 1908 and dined with the composer.<ref>Moore, p. 547</ref> Elgar later wrote to their mutual friend [[Leo Frank Schuster|Frank Schuster]] that Fauré "was such a real gentleman – the highest kind of Frenchman and I admired him greatly."<ref name=a156/> Elgar tried to get Fauré's Requiem put on at the [[Three Choirs Festival]], but it did not finally have its English premiere until 1937, nearly fifty years after its first performance in France.<ref name=a156>Anderson, p. 156</ref> Composers from other countries also loved and admired Fauré. In the 1880s [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]] had thought him "adorable";<ref>Anderson, Robert. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/963471 "Review: Insights"], ''The Musical Times'', February 1985, pp. 93–94 {{subscription}}</ref> [[Isaac Albéniz|Albéniz]] and Fauré were friends and correspondents until the former's early death in 1909;<ref>Jones, p. 10</ref> [[Richard Strauss]] sought his advice;<ref>Jones, pp. 124–125</ref> and in Fauré's last years, the young American [[Aaron Copland]] was a devoted admirer.<ref name=copland/>
The outbreak of the First World War almost stranded Fauré in Germany, where he had gone for his annual composing retreat. He managed to get from Germany into Switzerland, and thence to Paris.<ref>Jones, pp. 160–161</ref> He remained in France for the duration of the war. When a group of French musicians led by Saint-Saëns tried to organise a boycott of German music, Fauré and Messager dissociated themselves from the idea, though the disagreement did not affect their friendship with Saint-Saëns.{{refn|Fauré and Messager were privately concerned that their old friend was in danger of looking foolish with his excess of patriotism,<ref>Jones, pp. 162–165</ref> and also his growing tendency to denounce the works of rising young composers, as in his condemnation of Debussy's ''En blanc et noir'': "We must at all costs bar the door of the Institut against a man capable of such atrocities; they should be put next to the [[cubist]] pictures."<ref>Nectoux (1984), p. 108</ref>|group= n}} Fauré did not recognise nationalism in music, seeing in his art "a language belonging to a country so far above all others that it is dragged down when it has to express feelings or individual traits that belong to any particular nation."<ref>Caballero, Carlo. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/746624 "Review: Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life"], ''19th-Century Music'', Vol. 16, No. 1 (Summer, 1992), pp. 85–92 {{subscription}}</ref> Nonetheless, he was aware that his own music was respected rather than loved in Germany. In January 1905, visiting [[Frankfurt]] and [[Cologne]] for concerts of his music, he had written, "The criticisms of my music have been that it's a bit cold and too well brought up! There's no question about it, French and German are two different things."<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 277</ref>
===Last years and legacy===
In 1920, at the age of 75, Fauré retired from the Conservatoire because of his increasing deafness and frailty.<ref name=grove/> In that year he received the Grand-Croix of the [[Légion d'honneur]], an honour rare for a musician. In 1922 the president of the republic, [[Alexandre Millerand]], led a public tribute to Fauré, a national ''hommage'', described in ''[[The Musical Times]]'' as "a splendid celebration at the [[Sorbonne (building)|Sorbonne]], in which the most illustrious French artists participated, [which] brought him great joy. It was a poignant spectacle, indeed: that of a man present at a concert of his own works and able to hear not a single note. He sat gazing before him pensively, and, in spite of everything, grateful and content."<ref name=landormy/>
[[File:Fauré hommage.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.5|alt=interior of a large hall with a huge crowd|National ''hommage'' to Fauré, 1922. Fauré and [[Alexandre Millerand|President Millerand]] are in the box between the statues]]
Fauré suffered from poor health in his later years, brought on in part by heavy smoking. Despite this, he remained available to young composers, including members of [[Les Six]], most of whom were devoted to him.<ref name=landormy/>{{refn|[[Francis Poulenc|Poulenc]] was the exception among Les Six in disliking Fauré's music. Nectoux comments that this seems strange because of all the members of Les Six, Poulenc "is the nearest to Fauré in the limpid clarity and singing quality of his own writing, in his charm".<ref>Nectoux, p. 434</ref>|group= n}} Nectoux writes, "In old age he attained a kind of serenity, without losing any of his remarkable spiritual vitality, but rather removed from the sensualism and the passion of the works he wrote between 1875 and 1895."<ref name=grove/>
In his last months, Fauré struggled to complete his [[String Quartet (Fauré)|String Quartet]]. Twenty years earlier he had been the dedicatee of Ravel's String Quartet. Ravel and others urged Fauré to compose one of his own. He refused for many years, on the grounds that it was too difficult. When he finally decided to write it, he did so in trepidation, telling his wife, "I've started a Quartet for strings, without piano. This is a genre which Beethoven in particular made famous, and causes all those who are not Beethoven to be ''terrified'' of it."<ref>Jones, p. 202</ref> He worked on the piece for a year, finishing it on 11 September 1924, less than two months before he died, working long hours towards the end to complete it.<ref name=p3>[[Stéphan Perreau|Perreau]], p. 3</ref> The quartet was premiered after his death;<ref>Jones, p. 192</ref> he declined an offer to have it performed privately for him in his last days, as his hearing had deteriorated to the point where musical sounds were horribly distorted in his ear.<ref>Nectoux, p. 292</ref>
Fauré died in Paris from [[pneumonia]] on 4 November 1924 at the age of 79. He was given a state funeral at the Église de la Madeleine and is buried in the [[Passy Cemetery]] in Paris.<ref>Duchen, p. 212</ref>
After Fauré's death, the Conservatoire abandoned his radicalism and became resistant to new trends in music, with Fauré's own harmonic practice being held up as the farthest limit of modernity, beyond which students should not go.<ref name=nectoux469/> His successor, [[Henri Rabaud]], director of the Conservatoire from 1922 to 1941, declared "modernism is the enemy".<ref>Nichols, Roger. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/7e4c5b76-d2e7-48f4-a46e-65d62c35288a "Henri Rabaud"], BBC Music, accessed 1 April 2012</ref> The generation of students born between the wars rejected this outdated premise, turning for inspiration to [[Béla Bartók|Bartók]], the [[Second Viennese School]], and the latest works of [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]].<ref name=nectoux469>Nectoux (1991), p. 469</ref>
In a centenary tribute in 1945, the musicologist Leslie Orrey wrote in ''The Musical Times'', "'More profound than Saint-Saëns, more varied than Lalo, more spontaneous than d'Indy, more classic than Debussy, Gabriel Fauré is the master ''par excellence'' of French music, the perfect mirror of our musical genius.' Perhaps, when English musicians get to know his work better, these words of Roger-Ducasse will seem, not over-praise, but no more than his due."<ref>
Orrey, Leslie.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/935506 "Gabriel Fauré, 1845–1924"], ''The Musical Times'', May 1945, pp. 137–139 {{subscription}}</ref>
==Music==
{{Main|List of compositions by Gabriel Fauré}}
[[File:Faure Requiem Manuscript.gif|right|thumb|alt=Page of musical manuscript|Manuscript page of the [[Requiem (Fauré)|Requiem]]]]
[[Aaron Copland]] wrote that although Fauré's works can be divided into the usual "early", "middle" and "late" periods, there is no such radical difference between his first and last manners as is evident with many other composers. Copland found premonitions of late Fauré in even the earliest works, and traces of the early Fauré in the works of his old age: "The themes, harmonies, form, have remained essentially the same, but with each new work they have all become more fresh, more personal, more profound."<ref name=copland/> When Fauré was born, Berlioz and Chopin were still composing; the latter was among Fauré's early influences.<ref>Orledge, p. 59; and Nectoux (1991), p. 48</ref> In his later years Fauré developed compositional techniques that foreshadowed the [[atonal]] music of [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]],<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 415</ref> and, later still, drew discreetly on the techniques of jazz.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 401</ref> Duchen writes that early works such as the ''Cantique de Jean Racine'' are in the tradition of French nineteenth-century romanticism, yet his late works are as modern as any of the works of his pupils.<ref>Duchen, p. 6</ref>
Influences on Fauré, particularly in his early work, included not only Chopin but Mozart and Schumann. The authors of ''[[The Record Guide]]'' (1955), [[Edward Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville|Sackville-West]] and [[Desmond Shawe-Taylor (music critic)|Shawe-Taylor]], wrote that Fauré learnt restraint and beauty of surface from Mozart, tonal freedom and long melodic lines from Chopin, "and from Schumann, the sudden felicities in which his development sections abound, and those codas in which whole movements are briefly but magically illuminated."<ref>Sackville-West, pp. 263–264</ref> His work was based on the strong understanding of harmonic structures that he gained at the [[Louis Niedermeyer|École Niedermeyer]] from Niedermeyer's successor [[Gustave Lefèvre]].<ref name=grove/> Lefèvre wrote the book ''Traité d'harmonie'' (Paris, 1889), in which he sets out a harmonic theory that differs significantly from the classical theory of [[Jean-Philippe Rameau|Rameau]], no longer outlawing certain chords as "[[Consonance and dissonance|dissonant]]".{{refn|In particular, [[Seventh chord|seventh]] and [[ninth]] chords were no longer considered dissonant, and the [[mediant]] could be altered without changing the [[Musical mode|mode]].<ref name=grove/>|group= n}} By using unresolved mild discords and colouristic effects, Fauré anticipated the techniques of [[Impressionist music|Impressionist]] composers.<ref name=baker/>
In contrast with his harmonic and melodic style, which pushed the bounds for his time, Fauré's rhythmic motives tended to be subtle and repetitive, with little to break the flow of the line, although he used discreet syncopations, similar to those found in [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]'s works.<ref name=grove/> Copland referred to him as "the Brahms of France".<ref name=copland/> The music critic Jerry Dubins suggests that Fauré "represents the link between the late German Romanticism of Brahms ... and the French Impressionism of Debussy."<ref>Dubins, Jerry. "Review", ''Fanfare'', May 2006, pp. 245–246</ref>
To Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, Fauré's later works do not display the easy charm of his earlier music: "the luscious romantic harmony which had always been firmly supported by a single [[tonality]], later gave way to a severely monochrome style, full of [[enharmonic]] shifts, and creating the impression of [[polytonality|several tonal centres]] simultaneously employed."<ref>Sackville-West, p. 264</ref>
==
Fauré is regarded as one of the masters of the French art song, or ''[[mélodie]]''.<ref name=grove/> Ravel wrote in 1922 that Fauré had saved French music from the dominance of the German ''[[Lied]]''.<ref>Ravel, p. 23</ref> Two years later the critic [[Samuel Langford]] wrote of Fauré, "More surely almost than any writer in the world he commanded the faculty to create a song all of a piece, and with a sustained intensity of mood which made it like a single thought".<ref name=mgobit>"Gabriel Fauré", ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'', 5 November 1924, p. 16</ref> In a 2011 article the pianist and writer [[Roy Howat]] and the musicologist Emily Kilpatrick wrote:
{{blockquote|His devotion to the ''mélodie'' spans his career, from the ever-fresh "Le papillon et la fleur" of 1861 to the masterly cycle ''[[L'horizon chimérique]]'', composed sixty years and more than a hundred songs later. Fauré's songs are now core repertoire for students and professionals, sung in conservatories and recital halls throughout the world.<ref>Howat, Roy and Emily Kilpatrick. "Editorial Challenges in the Early Songs of Gabriel Fauré", ''Notes – Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association'', December 2011, pp. 239–283</ref>|}}
In Copland's view, the early songs, written in the 1860s and 1870s under the influence of [[Charles Gounod|Gounod]], except for isolated songs such as "[[Après un rêve]]" or "Au bord de l'eau", show little sign of the artist to come. With the second volume of the sixty collected songs written during the next two decades, Copland judged, came the first mature examples of "the real Fauré". He instanced "Les berceaux", "Les roses d'Ispahan" and especially "[[Clair de lune (Fauré)|Clair de lune]]" as "so beautiful, so perfect, that they have even penetrated to America", and drew attention to less well known mélodies such as "Le secret", "Nocturne", and "Les présents".<ref name=copland/> Fauré also composed a number of [[song cycle]]s. ''[[Cinq mélodies "de Venise"]]'', Op. 58 (1891), was described by Fauré as a novel kind of song [[suite (music)|suite]], in its use of [[theme (music)|musical themes]] recurring over the cycle. For the later cycle ''[[La bonne chanson (Fauré)|La bonne chanson]]'', Op. 61 (1894), there were five such themes, according to Fauré.<ref>Orledge, pp. 78–81</ref> He also wrote that ''La bonne chanson'' was his most spontaneous composition, with Emma Bardac singing back to him each day's newly written material.<ref name="Orledge, p. 15"/> Among later works were cycles drawn from the poems of [[Charles van Lerberghe]], ''[[La chanson d'Ève]]'' (1910) and ''[[Le jardin clos]]'' (1914).<ref>Johnson, p. 329</ref>
{{
| filename = CantiqueDeJeanRacine.ogg
| description = A shorter choral work by Fauré
| format = [[Ogg]]
}}
The [[Requiem (Fauré)|Requiem]], Op. 48, first performed in 1888, was not composed to the memory of a specific person but, in Fauré's words, "for the pleasure of it." It has been described as "a lullaby of death" because of its predominantly gentle tone.<ref>[[Anthony Payne|Payne, Anthony]], "[https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/sweet-lullaby-of-death-1265213.html Sweet lullaby of death"], ''[[The Independent]]'', 5 April 1997</ref> Fauré omitted the [[Dies irae]], though reference to the day of judgment appears in the [[Requiem#Libera Me|Libera me]], which, like [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]], he added to the normal liturgical text.<ref>Rosen, pp. 60–74</ref> Fauré revised the Requiem over the years, and a number of different performing versions are now in use, from the earliest, for small forces, to the final revision with full orchestra.<ref>Orledge, Robert [https://www.jstor.org/stable/963753 "Fauré Revised"], ''The Musical Times'', May 1980, p. 327 {{subscription}}</ref>
Fauré's operas have not found a place in the regular repertoire. ''Prométhée'' is the more neglected of the two, with only a handful of performances in more than a century.<ref>Duchen, p. 197</ref> Copland considered ''[[Pénélope]]'' (1913) a fascinating work, and one of the best operas written since Wagner; he noted, however, that the music is, as a whole, "distinctly non-theatrical."<ref name=copland/> The work uses [[leitmotif]]s, and the two main roles call for voices of heroic quality, but these are the only ways in which the work is Wagnerian. In Fauré's late style, "tonality is stretched hard, without breaking."<ref>Murray, p. 120</ref> On the rare occasions when the piece has been staged, critical opinion has generally praised the musical quality of the score, but has varied as to the dramatic effectiveness of the work. When the opera was first presented in London in 1970, in a student production by the [[Royal Academy of Music]], [[Peter Heyworth]] wrote, "A score that offers rich rewards to an attentive ear can none the less fail to cut much ice in the theatre. ... Most of the music is too recessive to be theatrically effective."<ref>Heyworth, Peter. "Neglected Penelope", ''[[The Observer]]'', 29 November 1970, p. 78</ref> However, after a 2006 production at the [[Wexford Festival]], Ian Fox wrote, "Fauré's ''Pénélope'' is a true rarity, and, although some lovely music was anticipated, it was a surprise how sure the composer's theatrical touch was."<ref>Fox, Ian. "Opera in Review", Opera Canada, January 2006, pp. 45–47</ref>
==
{{Main|Piano music of Gabriel Fauré}}
Fauré's major sets of piano works are thirteen [[nocturne]]s, thirteen [[barcarolle]]s, six [[impromptu]]s, and four valses-caprices. These sets were composed across the decades of his career, and display the change in his style from uncomplicated youthful charm to a final enigmatic, but sometimes fiery introspection, by way of a turbulent period in his middle years.<ref name=copland/> His other notable piano pieces, including shorter works, or collections composed or published as a set, are ''Romances sans paroles'', [[Ballade (classical music)|Ballade]] in F{{music|sharp}} major, [[Mazurka]] in B{{music|flat}} major, ''Thème et variations'' in C{{music|sharp}} minor, and ''Huit pièces brèves''. For [[piano four hands|piano duet]], Fauré composed the ''[[Dolly (Fauré)|Dolly Suite]]'' and, together with his friend and former pupil [[André Messager]], an exuberant parody of [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] in the short suite ''Souvenirs de Bayreuth''.<ref>Duchen, pp. 222–224</ref>
The piano works often use [[Arpeggio|arpeggiated]] figures, with the melody interspersed between the two hands, and include finger substitutions natural for organists. These aspects make them daunting for some pianists. Even a virtuoso like Liszt said that he found Fauré's music hard to play.<ref name="Jones, p. 51"/>{{refn|Fauré visited Liszt in Zürich in July 1882. The elder composer played one of his own compositions and then began Fauré's [[Ballade (classical music)|Ballade]] in F{{music|sharp}} major. After a few bars he said, "I've run out of fingers", and asked Fauré to play the rest of the piece to him. Nectoux and Duchen speculate that Liszt may have had difficulty in reading the manuscript or wanted to hear how Fauré himself would play.;<ref>Nectoux (1991), p.51; and Duchen, p. 61</ref> Jones and Morrison simply state that Liszt found the music "too difficult".<ref>Jones, p. 51; and Morrison, p. 11</ref>|group= n}} The early piano works are clearly influenced by Chopin.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 49</ref> An even greater influence was [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]], whose piano music Fauré loved more than any other.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 43</ref> In Copland's view, it was with the sixth Nocturne that Fauré fully emerged from any predecessor's shadow.<ref name=copland/> The pianist [[Alfred Cortot]] said, "There are few pages in all music comparable to these."<ref name=copland/> The critic Bryce Morrison has noted that pianists frequently prefer to play the charming earlier piano works, such as the Impromptu No. 2, rather than the later piano works, which express "such private passion and isolation, such alternating anger and resignation" that listeners are left uneasy.<ref>Morrison, p. 7</ref> In his piano music, as in most of his works, Fauré shunned virtuosity in favour of the classical lucidity often associated with the French.<ref name=baker/> He was unimpressed by purely virtuoso pianists, saying, "the greater they are, the worse they play me."<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 379</ref>
===Orchestral and chamber works===
Fauré was not greatly interested in orchestration, and on occasion asked his former students such as [[Jean Roger-Ducasse]] and [[Charles Koechlin]] to orchestrate his concert and theatre works. In Nectoux's words, Fauré's generally sober orchestral style reflects "a definite aesthetic attitude ... The idea of timbre was not a determining one in Fauré's musical thinking".<ref name=nectoux259>Nectoux (1991), p. 259</ref> He was not attracted by flamboyant combinations of tone-colours, which he thought either self-indulgent or a disguise for lack of real musical invention.<ref name=grove/> He told his students that it should be possible to produce an orchestration without resorting to [[glockenspiel]]s, [[celesta]]s, [[xylophone]]s, bells or electrical instruments.<ref name=d132>Duchen, p. 132</ref> Debussy admired the spareness of Fauré's orchestration, finding in it the transparency he strove for in his own 1913 ballet ''[[Jeux]]''; [[Francis Poulenc|Poulenc]], by contrast, described Fauré's orchestration as "a leaden overcoat ... instrumental mud".<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 258</ref> Fauré's best-known orchestral works are the suites ''[[Masques et bergamasques (Fauré)|Masques et bergamasques]]'' (based on music for a dramatic entertainment, or ''divertissement comique''), which he orchestrated himself,<ref>Duchen, p. 196</ref> ''[[Dolly (Fauré)|Dolly]]'', orchestrated by [[Henri Rabaud]],<ref>Duchen, p. 226</ref> and ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (Fauré)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' which draws on incidental music for [[Maurice Maeterlinck|Maeterlinck]]'s play; the stage version was orchestrated by Koechlin, but Fauré himself reworked the orchestration for the published suite.<ref name=d132/>
{{listen
| filename = faurepiece.ogg
| title = Pièce for Oboe and Harp
| description = Arranged for bassoon and piano, performed by Kathleen Walsh (bassoon) and Amy Crane (piano)
| format = [[Ogg]]
| filename2 = Faure - Elegie.ogg
| title2 = Élégie
| description2 = Performed by Hans Goldstein (cello) and Eli Kalman (piano)
| format2 = [[ogg]]
| filename3 = Faure - Fantasie.ogg
| title3 = Fantaisie
| description3 = Performed by Alex Murray (flute) and [[Martha Goldstein]] (piano)
| format3 = [[ogg]]
}}
In the [[chamber music|chamber]] repertoire, his two piano quartets, in [[Piano Quartet No. 1 (Fauré)|C minor]] and [[Piano Quartet No. 2 (Fauré)|G minor]], particularly the former, are among Fauré's better-known works.<ref name=sackville265>Sackville-West, p. 265</ref> His other chamber music includes two [[piano quintet]]s, two [[cello sonata]]s, two [[violin sonata]]s, a [[piano trio]] and a [[String Quartet (Fauré)|string quartet]]. Copland (writing in 1924 before the string quartet was finished) held the [[Piano Quintet No. 2 (Fauré)|second quintet (in C minor, Opus 115)]] to be Fauré's masterpiece: "... a pure well of spirituality ... extremely classic, as far removed as possible from the romantic temperament."<ref name=copland/> Other critics have differed somewhat: ''The Record Guide'' commented, "The ceaseless flow and restricted colour scheme of Fauré's last manner, as exemplified in this Quintet, need very careful management, if they are not to become tedious."<ref name=sackville265/> Fauré's last work, the [[String Quartet (Fauré)|String Quartet]], has been described by critics in ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'' magazine as an intimate meditation on the last things,<ref>Nichols, Roger. "Fauré and Ravel", ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'', August 2000, p. 69</ref> and "an extraordinary work by any standards, ethereal and other-worldly with themes that seem constantly to be drawn skywards."<ref>Cowan, Rob. "Debussy, Fauré, Ravel", ''Gramophone'', December 2008, p. 97</ref>
===Recordings===
Fauré made piano rolls of his music for several companies between 1905 and 1913.{{refn|The rolls of the "Romance sans paroles" No. 3, Barcarolle No. 1, Prelude No. 3, Pavane, Nocturne No. 3, ''Sicilienne'', Thème et variations and Valses-caprices Nos. 1, 3 and 4 survive, and several rolls have been re-recorded on disc.<ref>Nectoux (1991), p. 45</ref>|group= n}} Well over a hundred recordings of Fauré's music were made between 1898 and 1905, mostly of songs, with a few short chamber works, by performers including the singers [[Jean Noté]] and [[Pol Plançon]] and players such as [[Jacques Thibaud]] and [[Alfred Cortot]].<ref>[http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/discography/search/page(3);jsessionid=27803555EFC93E15A626A15C419F9F75.balancer5# Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music], accessed 3 May 2012</ref> By the 1920s a range of Fauré's more popular songs were on record, including "Après un rêve" sung by Olga Haley,<ref>"Vocalion", ''The Gramophone'', April 1925, p. 63</ref> and "Automne" and "Clair de lune" sung by [[Ninon Vallin]].<ref>"Ninon Vallin", ''The Gramophone'', November 1929, p. 19</ref> In the 1930s better-known performers recorded Fauré pieces, including [[Georges Thill]] ("En prière"),<ref>"Georges Thill", ''The Gramophone'', December 1937, p. 18</ref> and [[Jacques Thibaud]] and [[Alfred Cortot]] (Violin Sonata No. 1 and Berceuse).<ref>"Review", ''The Gramophone'', July 1932, p. 11; and "Chamber Music", ''The Gramophone'', December 1932, p. 19</ref> The Sicilienne from ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' was recorded in 1938.<ref>Anderson, W R. "Second Reviews", ''The Gramophone'', July 1938, p. 24</ref>
By the 1940s there were a few more Fauré works in the catalogues. A survey by [[John Culshaw]] in December 1945 singled out recordings of piano works played by [[Kathleen Long]] (including the Nocturne No. 6, Barcarolle No. 2, the Thème et Variations, Op. 73, and the Ballade Op. 19 in its orchestral version conducted by [[Boyd Neel]]), the Requiem conducted by [[Ernest Bourmauck]], and seven songs sung by [[Maggie Teyte]].<ref>Culshaw, John. "The Return of Fauré", ''The Gramophone'', December 1945, p. 15</ref> Fauré's music began to appear more frequently in the record companies' releases in the 1950s. ''[[The Record Guide]]'', 1955, listed the Piano Quartet No. 1, Piano Quintet No. 2, the String Quartet, both Violin Sonatas, the Cello Sonata No. 2, two new recordings of the Requiem, and the complete song cycles ''La bonne chanson'' and ''La chanson d'Ève''.<ref>Sackville-West, pp. 265–268</ref>
In the LP and particularly the CD era, the record companies have built up a substantial catalogue of Fauré's music, performed by French and non-French musicians. Several modern recordings of Fauré's music have come to public notice as prize-winners in annual awards organised by ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'' and the [[BBC]].{{refn|Among these are, from ''Gramophone'': Gerard Souzay – Best Historical Vocal, 1991; Piano Quartets, Domus – Chamber, 1986; Piano Quintets, Domus – Chamber, 1995; String Quartet (+ Debussy, Ravel), Quatuor Ebène – Recording of the Year, 2009; Nocturnes, Germaine Thyssens-Valentin – Historic Reissue, 2002]; [[Gramophone Award#1985|Requiem, Rutter et al – Choral, 1985]]. Among ''BBC Awards:'' [http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Hyperion/CDA67664 String Quartet (+ Franck), Dante Quartet – Chamber, 2009].|group= n}} Sets of his major orchestral works have been recorded under conductors including [[Michel Plasson]] (1981)<ref>EMI Records, catalogue number 5 86564-2</ref> and [[Yan Pascal Tortelier]] (1996).<ref>Chandos Records, catalogue number Chan 9412</ref> Fauré's main chamber works have all been recorded, with players including the <!--no dates for these next as released ad hoc over the 60s to 00s--> [[Ysaÿe Quartet (1984)|Ysaÿe Quartet]], [[Domus]], [[Paul Tortelier]], [[Arthur Grumiaux]], and [[Joshua Bell]].<ref>March, pp. 450–453</ref> The complete solo piano works have been recorded by [[Kathryn Stott]] (1995),<ref>Hyperion Records, catalogue number DA 66911/4</ref> [[Paul Crossley (musician)|Paul Crossley]] (1984–85)<ref>CRD Records, catalogue number 5006</ref> and [[Lucas Debargue]] (2021-2022)<ref>Sony Classical, catalogue number G010005158780N</ref> with substantial sets of the major piano works from [[Germaine Thyssens-Valentin]],<ref>EMI Records, digital remastering from 1956 to 1965) @ Testament 2002, issued under license from EMI Records Ltd.,</ref> [[Jean-Philippe Collard]] (1982–84),<ref>EMI Records, catalogue number 5 85261-2</ref> [[Pascal Rogé]] (1990),<ref>Decca Records, catalogue number 425 606–40</ref> and [[Kun-Woo Paik]] (2002).<ref>Decca Records, catalogue number 470 246–2</ref> Fauré's songs have all been recorded for CD, including a complete set (2005), anchored by the accompanist [[Graham Johnson (musician)|Graham Johnson]], with soloists [[Jean-Paul Fouchécourt]], [[Felicity Lott]], [[John Mark Ainsley]] and [[Jennifer Smith (soprano)|Jennifer Smith]], among others.<ref>Hyperion Records, catalogue numbers CDA67333-CDA67336</ref> The Requiem and the shorter choral works are also well represented on disc.<ref>March, pp. 455–456</ref> ''[[Pénélope]]'' has been recorded twice, with casts headed by [[Régine Crespin]] in 1956, and [[Jessye Norman]] in 1981, conducted respectively by [[Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht]] and [[Charles Dutoit]].<ref>Discoreale Records, catalogue number DR 10012-4; and Erato Records, catalogue number STU71386</ref> ''Prométhée'' has not been recorded in full, but extensive excerpts were recorded under [[Roger Norrington]] (1980).<ref>Aristocrat Records, catalogue number 7466 lE5531</ref>
===Modern assessment===
A 2001 article on Fauré in ''[[Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians]]'' concludes thus:
{{blockquote| Fauré's stature as a composer is undiminished by the passage of time. He developed a musical idiom all his own; by subtle application of old modes, he evoked the aura of eternally fresh art; by using unresolved mild discords and special coloristic effects, he anticipated procedures of Impressionism; in his piano works, he shunned virtuosity in favor of the Classical lucidity of the French masters of the [[clavecin]]; the precisely articulated melodic line of his songs is in the finest tradition of French vocal music. His great Requiem and his ''Élégie'' for Cello and Piano have entered the general repertoire.<ref name=baker>Slonimsky, Nicholas. [http://bakr.alexanderstreet.com/View/665229/Highlight/faure#faure1 "Fauré, Gabriel (-Urbain)"], ''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'', Schirmer Reference, New York 2001, accessed 8 September 2010 {{subscription}}</ref>}}
Fauré's biographer Nectoux writes in the ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' that Fauré is widely regarded as the greatest master of French song, and that alongside the ''mélodies'', the chamber works rank as "Fauré's most important contribution to music".<ref name=grove/> The critic [[Robert Orledge]] writes, "His genius was one of synthesis: he reconciled such opposing elements as [[mode (music)|modality]] and tonality, anguish and serenity, seduction and force within a single non-eclectic style, as in the ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' suite, his symphonic masterpiece. The quality of constant renewal within an apparently limited range ... is a remarkable facet of his genius, and the spare, elliptical style of his single String Quartet suggests that his intensely self-disciplined style was still developing at the time of his death".<ref>Orledge, Robert. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e2442 "Fauré, Gabriel (Urbain)"], ''The Oxford Companion to Music'', Oxford Music Online, accessed 26 September 2010 {{subscription}}</ref>
==Notes and references==
=== Notes ===
{{Reflist|group=n|colwidth=24em}}
=== References ===
{{Reflist|colwidth=25em}}
==Sources==
* {{cite book|last= Anderson |first= Robert |year= 1993|title= Elgar |___location= London |publisher= J M Dent |isbn= 0-460-86054-2}}
* {{cite book|last= Duchen |first= Jessica |year= 2000 |title= Gabriel Fauré |___location= London |publisher= Phaidon |isbn= 0-7148-3932-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Johnson |first=Graham |authorlink=Graham Johnson (musician)|author2=Richard Stokes|year=2009 |title=Gabriel Fauré: The Songs and Their Poets |___location= Farnham, Kent, England, and Burlington, Vt|publisher=Ashgate |isbn=0-7546-5960-7}}
* {{cite book|last= Jones |first= J Barrie |year= 1989|title= Gabriel Fauré: A Life in Letters |___location= London |publisher= B T Batsford |isbn= 0-7134-5468-7}}
* {{cite book|editor-last= March |editor-first= Ivan|year= 2007|title= The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2008|___location= London|publisher= Penguin Books|isbn= 0-14-103336-3|url= https://archive.org/details/penguinguidetore00lond}}
* {{cite book|last= Moore |first= Jerrold Northrop |year= 1987|title= Elgar: A Creative Life |___location= Oxford |publisher= Oxford Paperbacks |isbn= 0-19-284014-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Morrison |first=Bryce |year=1995 |title=''Notes to'' The Complete Piano Music of Gabriel Fauré |___location=London |publisher= Hyperion Records|oclc=224489565 }}
* {{cite book|author=Murray, David|editor=Amanda Holden|chapter=Fauré, Gabriel |title=The Penguin Opera Guide|___location=London|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1997|isbn=0-14-051385-X|url=https://archive.org/details/operaguidepengui00nich}}
* {{cite book |last= Nectoux |first= Jean-Michel |author-link= Jean-Michel Nectoux |translator= J A Underwood |year= 1984 |title= Gabriel Fauré: His Life Through Letters |___location= London |publisher= Boyars |isbn= 0-7145-2768-8 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/gabrielfaurehisl0000faur }}
* {{cite book|last= Nectoux |first= Jean-Michel|year= 1991 |title= Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life |___location= Cambridge |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn= 0-521-23524-3 |others=[[Roger Nichols (musical scholar)|Roger Nichols]] (trans)}}
* {{cite book|last=Near |first=John R |title=Charles-Marie Widor: Symphonie pour orgue et orchestre, opus 42 [bis] |___location=Middleton |publisher=A-R Editions |isbn=0-89579-515-9}}
* {{cite book|last= Nichols |first= Roger |year= 1987|title= Ravel Remembered|___location= London |publisher= Faber and Faber |isbn= 0-571-14986-3}}
* {{cite book|chapter=Fauré: Requiem|title= Choral Music on Record |author=Oliver, Michael|editor=Alan Blyth| ___location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press| year=1991 | isbn=0-521-36309-8}}
* {{cite book |last= Orledge |first= Robert |year= 1979 |title= Gabriel Fauré |___location= London |publisher= Eulenburg Books |isbn= 0-903873-40-0 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/gabrielfaur0000orle }}
* {{cite book|last=Perreau |first=Stephan |year= 2000|title=''Notes to'' Ravel and Fauré String Quartets |___location=Hong Kong |publisher= Naxos Records|oclc= 189791192}}
* {{cite book|author=Ravel, Maurice|editor= Henry Prunières|chapter=Les Mélodies de Gabriel Fauré|title= Hommage musical à Fauré| ___location=Paris | language=French|publisher=La revue musicale| year=1922 | oclc= 26757829}}
* {{cite book|last= Rosen |first= David |year= 1995|title= Verdi: Requiem| ___location= Cambridge |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn= 0-521-39767-7}}
* {{cite book|last= Sackville-West |first= Edward |author2=Desmond Shawe-Taylor|year=1955 |title= The Record Guide |___location=London |publisher=Collins |oclc= 500373060}}
* {{cite book|last= Vallas |first= Léon |authorlink = Léon Vallas |translator=[[Hubert J Foss|Hubert Foss]] |year= 1951|title= César Franck |___location= London |publisher= Harrap |oclc= 910827}}
==External links==
{{Commons}}
* [http://www.kunstderfuge.com/faure.htm Gabriel Fauré MIDI files] – Kunst der Fuge site
* {{IMSLP|id=Faur%C3%A9%2C_Gabriel|cname=Gabriel Fauré}}
* {{ChoralWiki}}
* [http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?Composer=FaureG Free scores] at the [[Mutopia Project]]
* [http://hdl.handle.net/1802/1718 Oeuvres complètes pour orgue / J.S. Bach : révision par Gabriel Fauré.] From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
* [http://hdl.handle.net/1802/1311 Septuor pour trompette, deux violons, alto, violoncelle, contre-basse et piano, op. 65 par C. Saint-Saëns, à 4 mains par G. Fauré.] From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=732p69PAG74C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Gabriel+Faur%C3%A9&hl=es&sa=X&ei=kQ6WUK3sN6n4yAHaj4GoBw&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Gabriel%20Faur%C3%A9&f=false ''Gabriel Fauré: A Research and Information Guide'' by Edward R. Phillips]
* [http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/los-conciertos-de-la-2/conciertos-la2-20120225-0756-169/1332466/ Requiem op. 48 de Gabriel Fauré]. Orchestre symphonique de la radio-télévision espagnole. Petri Sakari, chef d'orchestre.
{{Gabriel Fauré}}
{{Portal bar|Classical music|Opera|Biography|Music}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faure, Gabriel}}
[[Category:Gabriel Fauré| ]]
[[
[[
[[Category:19th-century French classical composers]]
[[Category:19th-century French pianists]]
[[Category:19th-century French male musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century French classical composers]]
[[Category:20th-century French musicians]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris]]
[[Category:Burials at Passy Cemetery]]
[[Category:Classical composers of church music]]
[[Category:Deaf classical musicians]]
[[Category:French deaf people]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in France]]
[[Category:Directors of the Conservatoire de Paris]]
[[Category:French classical organists]]
[[Category:French military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War]]
[[Category:French opera composers]]
[[Category:Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in France]]
[[Category:French male opera composers]]
[[Category:French male classical organists]]
[[Category:Occitan musicians]]
[[Category:People from Pamiers]]
[[Category:Pupils of Camille Saint-Saëns]]
[[Category:19th-century French organists]]
[[Category:19th-century French composers]]
[[Category:Ballets Russes composers]]
| |||