Gabriel Fauré - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Faur in 1907

Gabriel FaurFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gabriel Urbain Faur (French: [abil yb fe];12 May 1845 4 November 1924)[n 1] was a Frenchcomposer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was oneof the foremost French composers of his generation,and his musical style influenced many 20th-centurycomposers. Among his best-known works are hisPavane, Requiem, nocturnes for piano and the songs"Aprs un rve" and "Clair de lune". Although hisbest-known and most accessible compositions aregenerally his earlier ones, Faur composed many ofhis most highly regarded works in his later years, ina more harmonically and melodically complex style.

Faur was born into a cultured but not especiallymusical family. His talent became clear when he wasa small boy. At the age of nine, he was sent to a music college in Paris, where he was trained to be achurch organist and choirmaster. Among his teachers was Camille Saint-Sans, who became a lifelongfriend. After graduating from the college in 1865, Faur earned a modest living as an organist andteacher, leaving him little time for composition. When he became successful in his middle age, holdingthe important posts of organist of the glise de la Madeleine and director of the Paris Conservatoire, hestill lacked time for composing; he retreated to the countryside in the summer holidays to concentrate oncomposition. By his last years, Faur was recognised in France as the leading French composer of hisday. An unprecedented national musical tribute was held for him in Paris in 1922, headed by thepresident of the French Republic. Outside France, Faur's music took decades to become widelyaccepted, except in Britain, where he had many admirers during his lifetime.

Faur's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the secondquarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Faur'sdeath, jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard. The Grove Dictionaryof Music and Musicians, which describes him as the most advanced composer of his generation inFrance, notes that his harmonic and melodic innovations influenced the teaching of harmony for latergenerations. During the last twenty years of his life, he suffered from increasing deafness. In contrastwith the charm of his earlier music, his works from this period are sometimes elusive and withdrawn incharacter, and at other times turbulent and impassioned.

Contents1 Biography

1.1 Early years1.2 Organist and composer

Gabriel Faur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Faur

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1.3 Middle years1.4 Head of Paris Conservatoire1.5 Last years and legacy

2 Music2.1 Vocal music2.2 Piano works2.3 Orchestral and chamber works2.4 Recordings2.5 Modern assessment

3 Notes and references4 Sources5 External links

BiographyEarly yearsFaur was born in Pamiers, Arige, Midi-Pyrnes, in the south of France, the fifth son and youngest ofsix children of Toussaint-Honor Faur (181085) and Marie-Antoinette-Hlne Lalne-Laprade(180987).[3] According to the biographer Jean-Michel Nectoux, the Faur family (pronounced "Faoure"in the occitan local dialect) dates to the 13th century in that part of France.[4] The family had at one timebeen substantial landowners, but by the 19th century its means were reduced. The composer's paternalgrandfather, Gabriel, was a butcher whose son became a schoolmaster.[5] In 1829 Faur's parentsmarried. His mother was the daughter of a minor member of the nobility. He was the only one of the sixchildren to display musical talent; his four brothers pursued careers in journalism, politics, the army andthe civil service, and his sister had a traditional life as the wife of a public servant.[3]

The young Faur was sent to live with a foster mother until he was four years old.[6] When his fatherwas appointed director of the cole Normale d'Instituteurs, a teacher training college, at Montgauzy,near Foix, in 1849, Faur returned to live with his family.[7] There was a chapel attached to the school,which Faur recalled in the last year of his life:

I grew up, a rather quiet well-behaved child, in an area of great beauty. ... But the only thingI remember really clearly is the harmonium in that little chapel. Every time I could get awayI ran there and I regaled myself. ... I played atrociously ... no method at all, quite withouttechnique, but I do remember that I was happy; and if that is what it means to have avocation, then it is a very pleasant thing.[8]

An old blind woman, who came to listen and give the boy advice, told his father of Faur's gift formusic.[6] In 1853 Simon-Lucien Dufaur de Saubiac, of the National Assembly,[n 2] heard Faur play andadvised Toussaint-Honor to send him to the cole de Musique Classique et Religieuse (School ofClassical and Religious Music), which Louis Niedermeyer was setting up in Paris.[13] After reflecting


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Faur as a student, 1864

for a year, Faur's father agreed and took the nine-year-old boy to Parisin October 1854.[14]

Helped by a scholarship from the bishop of his home diocese, Faurboarded at the school for 11 years.[15] The rgime was austere, the roomsgloomy, the food mediocre, and the required uniform elaborate.[9][n 3]The musical tuition, however, was excellent.[9] Niedermeyer, whose goalwas to produce qualified organists and choirmasters, focused on churchmusic. Faur's tutors were Clment Loret for organ, Louis Dietsch forharmony, Xavier Wackenthaler for counterpoint and fugue, andNiedermeyer for piano, plainsong and composition.[14]

When Niedermeyer died in March 1861, Camille Saint-Sans tookcharge of piano studies and introduced contemporary music, includingthat of Schumann, Liszt and Wagner.[17] Faur recalled in old age, "Afterallowing the lessons to run over, he would go to the piano and reveal tous those works of the masters from which the rigorous classical nature ofour programme of study kept us at a distance and who, moreover, in those far-off years, were scarcelyknown. ... At the time I was 15 or 16, and from this time dates the almost filial attachment ... theimmense admiration, the unceasing gratitude I [have] had for him, throughout my life."[18]

Saint-Sans took great pleasure in his pupil's progress, which he helped whenever he could; Nectouxcomments that at each step in Faur's career "Saint-Sans's shadow can effectively be taken forgranted."[19] The close friendship between them lasted until Saint-Sans died sixty years later.[1] Faurwon many prizes while at the school, including a premier prix in composition for the Cantique de JeanRacine, Op. 11, the earliest of his choral works to enter the regular repertory.[14] He left the school inJuly 1865, as a Laureat in organ, piano, harmony and composition, with a Matre de Chapellediploma.[20]

Organist and composerOn leaving the cole Niedermeyer, Faur was appointed organist at the Church of Saint-Sauveur, atRennes in Brittany. He took up the post in January 1866.[21] During his four years at Rennes hesupplemented his income by taking private pupils, giving "countless piano lessons".[22] At Saint-Sans'sregular prompting he continued to compose, but none of his works from this period survive.[23] He wasbored at Rennes and had an uneasy relationship with the parish priest, who correctly doubted Faur'sreligious conviction.[24] Faur was regularly seen stealing out during the sermon for a cigarette, and inearly 1870, when he turned up to play at Mass one Sunday still in his evening clothes, having been outall night at a ball, he was asked to resign.[24] Almost immediately, with the discreet aid of Saint-Sans,he secured the post of assistant organist at the church of Notre-Dame de Clignancourt, in the north ofParis.[25] He remained there for only a few months. On the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870he volunteered for military service. He took part in the action to raise the Siege of Paris, and saw actionat Le Bourget, Champigny and Crteil.[26] He was awarded a Croix de Guerre.[27]


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Staff and students of the coleNiedermeyer, 1871. Faur in frontrow second from left; AndrMessager in middle row second fromright

Faur in 1875

After France's defeat by Prussia, there was a brief, bloodyconflict within Paris from March to May 1871 during theCommune.[27] Faur escaped to Rambouillet where one of hisbrothers lived, and then travelled to Switzerland, where he tookup a teaching post at the cole Niedermeyer, which hadtemporarily relocated there to avoid the violence in Paris.[27] Hisfirst pupil at the school was Andr Messager, who became alifelong friend and occasional collaborator.[28] Faur'scompositions from this period did not overtly reflect the turmoiland bloodshed. Some of his colleagues, including Saint-Sans,Gounod and Franck produced elegies and patriotic odes. Faurdid not, but according to his biographer Jessica Duchen, hismusic acquired "a new sombreness, a dark-hued sense oftragedy ... evident mainly in his songs of this period including

L'Absent, Seule! and La Chanson du pcheur."[29]

When Faur returned to Paris in October 1871, he was appointed choirmaster at the glise Saint-Sulpiceunder the composer and organist Charles-Marie Widor.[28] In the course of his duties, he wrote severalcanticles and motets, few of which have survived.[30] During some services, Widor and Faurimprovised simultaneously at the church's two organs, trying to catch each other out with suddenchanges of key.[29] Faur regularly attended Saint-Sans's musical salons and those of Pauline Viardot,to whom Saint-Sans introduced him.[14]

Faur was a founding member of the Socit Nationale de Musique, formed in February 1871 under thejoint chairmanship of Romain Bussine and Saint-Sans, to promote new French music.[31] Othermembers included Georges Bizet, Emmanuel Chabrier, Vincent d'Indy, Henri Duparc, Csar Franck,douard Lalo and Jules Massenet.[32] Faur became secretary of the society in 1874.[33] Many of hisworks were first presented at the society's concerts.[33]

In 1874 Faur moved from Saint-Sulpice to the glise de la Madeleine,acting as deputy for the principal organist, Saint-Sans, during the latter'smany absences on tour.[34] Some admirers of Faur's music haveexpressed regret that although he played the organ professionally forfour decades, he left no solo compositions for the instrument.[35] He wasrenowned for his improvisations,[36] and Saint-Sans said of him that hewas "a first class organist when he wanted to be".[37] Faur preferred thepiano to the organ, which he played only because it gave him a regularincome.[37] Duchen speculates that he positively disliked the organ,possibly because "for a composer of such delicacy of nuance, and suchsensuality, the organ was simply not subtle enough."[38]

The year 1877 was significant for Faur, both professionally andpersonally.[39] In January his first violin sonata was performed at a


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Socit Nationale concert with great success, marking a turning-point in his composing career at the ageof 31.[39] Nectoux counts the work as the composer's first great masterpiece.[40] In March, Saint-Sansretired from the Madeleine, succeeded as organist by Thodore Dubois, his choirmaster; Faur wasappointed to take over from Dubois.[39] In July Faur became engaged to Pauline Viardot's daughterMarianne, with whom he was deeply in love.[39] To his great sorrow, she broke off the engagement inNovember 1877, for reasons that are not clear.[41] To distract Faur, Saint-Sans took him to Weimarand introduced him to Franz Liszt. This visit gave Faur a liking for foreign travel, which he indulgedfor the rest of his life.[41] From 1878, he and Messager made trips abroad to see Wagner operas. Theysaw Das Rheingold and Die Walkre at the Cologne Opera; the complete Ring cycle at the Hofoper inMunich and at Her Majesty's Theatre in London; and Die Meistersinger in Munich and at Bayreuth,where they also saw Parsifal.[42] They frequently performed as a party piece their joint composition, theirreverent Souvenirs de Bayreuth. This short, up-tempo piano work for four hands sends up themes fromThe Ring.[43] Faur admired Wagner and had a detailed knowledge of his music,[44] but he was one ofthe few composers of his generation not to come under Wagner's musical influence.[n 4]

Middle years

In 1883 Faur married Marie Fremiet, the daughter of a leading sculptor, Emmanuel Fremiet.[46][n 5] Themarriage was affectionate, but Marie became resentful of Faur's frequent absences, his dislike ofdomestic life "horreur du domicile" and his love affairs, while she remained at home.[46] ThoughFaur valued Marie as a friend and confidante, writing to her often sometimes daily when away fromhome, she did not share his passionate nature, which found fulfilment elsewhere.[47] Faur and his wifehad two sons. The first, born in 1883, Emmanuel Faur-Fremiet (Marie insisted on combining her familyname with Faur's), became a biologist of international reputation.[48] The second son, Philippe, born in1889, became a writer; his works included histories, plays, and biographies of his father andgrandfather.[49]

Contemporary accounts agree that Faur was extremely attractive to women;[n 6] in Duchen's phrase,"his conquests were legion in the Paris salons."[51] After a romantic attachment to the singer EmmaBardac from around 1892,[52] followed by another to the composer Adela Maddison,[53] in 1900, Faurmet the pianist Marguerite Hasselmans, the daughter of Alphonse Hasselmans. This led to a relationshipwhich lasted for the rest of Faur's life. He maintained her in a Paris apartment, and she acted openly ashis companion.[54]

To support his family, Faur spent most of his time in running the daily services at the Madeleine andgiving piano and harmony lessons.[55] His compositions earned him a negligible amount, because hispublisher bought them outright, paying him an average of 60 francs for a song, and Faur received noroyalties.[56] During this period, he wrote several large-scale works, in addition to many piano piecesand songs, but he destroyed most of them after a few performances, only retaining a few movements inorder to re-use motifs.[14] Among the works surviving from this period is the Requiem, begun in 1887and revised and expanded, over the years, until its final version dating from 1901.[57] After its firstperformance, in 1888, the priest in charge told the composer, "We don't need these novelties: the


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Faur and Marie in 1889

Emma Bardac

Madeleine's repertoire is quite rich enough."[58]

As a young man Faur had been very cheerful; a friend wrote of his"youthful, even somewhat child-like, mirth."[59] From his thirties hesuffered bouts of depression, which he described as "spleen", possiblyfirst caused by his broken engagement and his lack of success as acomposer.[14] In 1890 a prestigious and remunerative commission towrite an opera with lyrics by Paul Verlaine was aborted by the poet'sdrunken inability to deliver a libretto. Faur was plunged into so deep adepression that his friends were seriously concerned about his health.[60]Winnaretta de Scey-Montbliard,[n 7] always a good friend to Faur,invited him to Venice, where she had a palazzo on the Grand Canal.[61]

He recovered his spirits and began to compose again, writing the first of his five Mlodies de Venise, towords by Verlaine, whose poetry he continued to admire despite the operatic debacle.[62]

About this time, or shortly afterwards, Faur's liaison with Emma Bardacbegan; in Duchen's words, "for the first time, in his late forties, heexperienced a fulfilling, passionate relationship which extended over severalyears".[63] His principal biographers all agree that this affair inspired a burstof creativity and a new originality in his music, exemplified in the songcycle La bonne chanson.[64] Faur wrote the Dolly Suite for piano duetbetween 1894 and 1897 and dedicated it to Bardac's daughter Hlne,known as "Dolly".[14][n 8] Some people suspected that Faur was Dolly'sfather, but biographers including Nectoux and Duchen think it unlikely.Faur's affair with Emma Bardac is thought to have begun after Dolly wasborn, though there is no conclusive evidence either way.[65]

During the 1890s Faur's fortunes improved. When Ernest Guiraud, professor of composition at theParis Conservatoire, died in 1892, Saint-Sans encouraged Faur to apply for the vacant post. Thefaculty of the Conservatoire regarded Faur as dangerously modern, and its head, Ambroise Thomas,blocked the appointment, declaring, "Faur? Never! If he's appointed, I resign."[66] However, Faur wasappointed to another of Guiraud's posts, inspector of the music conservatories in the Frenchprovinces.[67] He disliked the prolonged travelling around the country that the work entailed, but thepost gave him a steady income and enabled him to give up teaching amateur pupils.[68]

In 1896 Ambroise Thomas died, and Thodore Dubois took over as head of the Conservatoire. Faursucceeded Dubois as chief organist of the Madeleine. Dubois' move had further repercussions: Massenet,professor of composition at the Conservatoire, had expected to succeed Thomas, but had overplayed hishand by insisting on being appointed for life.[69] He was turned down, and when Dubois was appointedinstead, Massenet resigned his professorship in fury.[70] Faur was appointed in his place.[71] He taughtmany young composers, including Maurice Ravel, Florent Schmitt, Charles Koechlin, Louis Aubert,Jean Roger-Ducasse, George Enescu, Paul Ladmirault, Alfredo Casella and Nadia Boulanger.[14] InFaur's view, his students needed a firm grounding in the basic skills, which he was happy to delegate to


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Clockwise from top left: Saint-Sans,Thomas, Massenet, Dubois

Maurice Ravel

his capable assistant Andr Gedalge.[72] His own part came inhelping them make use of these skills in the way that suited eachstudent's talents. Roger-Ducasse later wrote, "Taking upwhatever the pupils were working on, he would evoke the rulesof the form at hand ... and refer to examples, always drawn fromthe masters."[73] Ravel always remembered Faur'sopen-mindedness as a teacher. Having received Ravel's StringQuartet with less than his usual enthusiasm, Faur asked to seethe manuscript again a few days later, saying, "I could have beenwrong".[74] The musicologist Henry Prunires wrote, "WhatFaur developed among his pupils was taste, harmonicsensibility, the love of pure lines, of unexpected and colorfulmodulations; but he never gave them [recipes] for composingaccording to his style and that is why they all sought and foundtheir own paths in many different, and often opposed,

directions."[75]

Faur's works of the last years of the century include incidental music for the English premiere ofMaurice Maeterlinck's Pellas et Mlisande (1898) and Promthe, a lyric tragedy composed for theamphitheatre at Bziers. Written for outdoor performance, the work is scored for huge instrumental andvocal forces. Its premiere in August 1900 was a great success, and it was revived at Bziers thefollowing year and in Paris in 1907. A version with orchestration for normal opera house-sized forceswas given at the Paris Opra in May 1917 and received more than forty performances in Paristhereafter.[n 9] From 1903 to 1921, Faur regularly wrote music criticism for Le Figaro, a role in whichhe was not at ease. Nectoux writes that Faur's natural kindness and broad-mindedness predisposed himto emphasise the positive aspects of a work.[14]

Head of Paris ConservatoireIn 1905 a scandal erupted in French musical circles over the country's topmusical prize, the Prix de Rome. Faur's pupil Ravel had been eliminatedprematurely in his sixth attempt for this award, and many believed thatreactionary elements within the Conservatoire had played a part in it.[77]Dubois, who became the subject of much censure, brought forward hisretirement and stepped down at once.[78] Appointed in his place, and with thesupport of the French government, Faur radically changed the administrationand curriculum. He appointed independent external judges to decide onadmissions, examinations and competitions, a move which enraged facultymembers who had given preferential treatment to their private pupils; feelingthemselves deprived of a considerable extra income, many of them resigned.[79]Faur was dubbed "Robespierre" by disaffected members of the old guard as hemodernised and broadened the range of music taught at the Conservatoire. As Nectoux puts it, "whereAuber, Halvy and especially Meyerbeer had reigned supreme ... it was now possible to sing an aria byRameau or even some Wagner up to now a forbidden name within the Conservatoire's walls".[80] The


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Faur at the turn of thecentury

curriculum was broadened to range from Renaissance polyphony to the works of Debussy.[80]

Faur's new position left him better off financially. However, while he also became much more widelyknown as a composer, running the Conservatoire left him with no more time for composition than whenhe was struggling to earn a living as an organist and piano teacher.[81] As soon as the working year wasover, in the last days of July, he would leave Paris and spend the two months until early October in ahotel, usually by one of the Swiss lakes, to concentrate on composition.[82] His works from this periodinclude his lyric opera, Pnlope (1913), and some of his most characteristic later songs (e.g., the cycleLa chanson d've, Op. 95, completed in 1910) and piano pieces (Nocturnes Nos. 911; Barcarolles Nos.711, written between 1906 and 1914).[14]

Faur was elected to the Institut de France in 1909, after his father-in-law and Saint-Sans, both long-established members, had canvassedstrongly on his behalf. He won the ballot by a narrow margin, with 18votes against 16 for the other candidate, Widor.[83][n 10] In the same yeara group of young composers led by Ravel and Koechlin broke with theSocit Nationale de Musique, which under the presidency of Vincentd'Indy had become a reactionary organisation, and formed a new group,the Socit Musicale Indpendante. While Faur accepted the presidencyof this society, he also remained a member of the older one andcontinued on the best of terms with d'Indy; his sole concern was thefostering of new music.[83] In 1911 he oversaw the Conservatoire's moveto new premises in the rue de Madrid.[82] During this time, Faurdeveloped serious problems with his hearing. Not only did he start to godeaf, but sounds became distorted, so that high and low notes soundedpainfully out of tune to him.[85]

The turn of the 20th century saw a rise in the popularity of Faur's musicin Britain, and to a lesser extent in Germany, Spain and Russia.[86] Hevisited England frequently, and an invitation to play at Buckingham

Palace in 1908 opened many other doors in London and beyond.[87] He attended the London premiere ofElgar's First Symphony, in 1908, and dined with the composer afterwards.[88] Elgar later wrote to theirmutual friend Frank Schuster that Faur "was such a real gentleman the highest kind of Frenchmanand I admired him greatly."[89] Elgar tried to get Faur'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 inFrance.[89] Composers from other countries also loved and admired Faur. In the 1880s Tchaikovskyhad thought him "adorable";[90] Albniz and Faur were friends and correspondents until the former'searly death in 1909;[91] Richard Strauss sought his advice;[92] and in Faur's last years, the youngAmerican, Aaron Copland was a devoted admirer.[1]

The outbreak of the First World War almost stranded Faur in Germany, where he had gone for hisannual composing retreat. He managed to get from Germany into Switzerland, and thence to Paris.[93]He remained in France for the duration of the war. When a group of French musicians led by


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National hommage to Faur, 1922. Faur andPresident Millerand are in the box between thestatues

Saint-Sans tried to organise a boycott of German music, Faur and Messager dissociated themselvesfrom the idea, though the disagreement did not affect their friendship with Saint-Sans.[n 11] Faur didnot recognise nationalism in music, seeing in his art "a language belonging to a country so far above allothers that it is dragged down when it has to express feelings or individual traits that belong to anyparticular nation."[96] Nonetheless, he was aware that his own music was respected rather than loved inGermany. 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 questionabout it, French and German are two different things."[97]

Last years and legacyIn 1920, at the age of 75, Faur retired from the Conservatoire because of his increasing deafness andfrailty.[14] In that year he received the Grand-Croix of the Lgion d'honneur, an honour rare for amusician. In 1922 the president of the republic, Alexandre Millerand, led a public tribute to Faur, anational hommage, described in The Musical Times as "a splendid celebration at the Sorbonne, in whichthe most illustrious French artists participated, [which] brought him great joy. It was a poignantspectacle, 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."[85]

Faur 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 weredevoted to him.[85][n 12] Nectoux writes, "In old agehe attained a kind of serenity, without losing any ofhis remarkable spiritual vitality, but rather removedfrom the sensualism and the passion of the works hewrote between 1875 and 1895."[14]

In his last months, Faur struggled to complete astring quartet. Twenty years earlier he had been thededicatee of Ravel's String Quartet. Ravel and othersurged Faur to compose one of his own. He refusedfor many years, on the grounds that it was toodifficult. When he finally decided to write it, he didso in trepidation, telling his wife, "I've started aQuartet for strings, without piano. This is a genre

which Beethoven in particular made famous, and causes all those who are not Beethoven to be terrifiedof it."[99] He worked on the piece for a year, finishing it on 11 September 1924, less than two monthsbefore he died, working long hours towards the end to complete it.[100] The quartet was premiered afterhis death;[101] he declined an offer to have it performed privately for him in his last days, as his hearinghad deteriorated to the point where musical sounds were horribly distorted in his ear.[102]

Faur died in Paris from pneumonia on 4 November 1924 at the age of 79. He was given a state funeral


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Manuscript page of the Requiem

at the glise de la Madeleine and is buried in the Passy Cemetery in Paris.[103]

After Faur's death, the Conservatoire abandoned his radicalism and became resistant to new trends inmusic, with Faur's own harmonic practice being held up as the farthest limit of modernity, beyondwhich students should not go.[104] His successor, Henri Rabaud, director of the Conservatoire from 1922to 1941, declared "modernism is the enemy".[105] The generation of students born between the warsrejected this outdated premise, turning for inspiration to Bartk, the Second Viennese School, and thelatest works of Stravinsky.[104]

In a centenary tribute in 1945, the musicologist Leslie Orrey wrote in The Musical Times, "'Moreprofound than Saint-Sans, more varied than Lalo, more spontaneous than d'Indy, more classic thanDebussy, Gabriel Faur is the master par excellence of French music, the perfect mirror of our musicalgenius.' Perhaps, when English musicians get to know his work better, these words of Roger-Ducassewill seem, not over-praise, but no more than his due."[106]

MusicMain article: List of compositions by Gabriel Faur

Aaron Copland wrote that although Faur's works can be dividedinto the usual "early", "middle" and "late" periods, there is nosuch radical difference between his first and last manners as isevident with many other composers. Copland foundpremonitions of late Faur in even the earliest works, and tracesof the early Faur in the works of his old age: "The themes,harmonies, form, have remained essentially the same, but witheach new work they have all become more fresh, more personal,more profound."[1] When Faur was born, Berlioz and Chopinwere still composing; the latter was among his earlyinfluences.[107] In his later years Faur developed compositionaltechniques that foreshadowed the atonal music ofSchoenberg,[108] and, later still, drew discreetly on thetechniques of jazz.[109] Duchen writes that early works such asthe Cantique de Jean Racine are in the tradition of Frenchnineteenth-century romanticism, yet his late works are as modernas any of the works of his pupils.[110]

Influences on Faur, particularly in his early work, included not only Chopin but Mozart and Schumann.The authors of The Record Guide (1955), Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, wrote that Faur learntrestraint and beauty of surface from Mozart, tonal freedom and long melodic lines from Chopin, "andfrom Schumann, the sudden felicities in which his development sections abound, and those codas inwhich whole movements are briefly but magically illuminated."[111] His work was based on the strongunderstanding of harmonic structures that he gained at the cole Niedermeyer from Niedermeyer's


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successor Gustave Lefvre.[14] Lefvre wrote the book Trait d'harmonie (Paris, 1889), in which he setsout a harmonic theory that differs significantly from the classical theory of Rameau, no longer outlawingcertain chords as "dissonant".[n 13] By using unresolved mild discords and colouristic effects, Fauranticipated the techniques of Impressionist composers.[112]

In contrast with his harmonic and melodic style, which pushed the bounds for his time, Faur's rhythmicmotives tended to be subtle and repetitive, with little to break the flow of the line, although he useddiscreet syncopations, similar to those found in Brahms's works.[14] Copland referred to him as "theBrahms of France".[1] The music critic Jerry Dubins suggests that Faur "represents the link between thelate German Romanticism of Brahms ... and the French Impressionism of Debussy."[113]

To Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, Faur's later works do not display the easy charm of his earliermusic: "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 ofseveral tonal centres simultaneously employed."[114]

Vocal music

Faur is regarded as one of the masters of the French art song, or mlodie.[14] Ravel wrote in 1922 thatFaur had saved French music from the dominance of the German Lied.[115] Two years later the criticSamuel Langford wrote of Faur, "More surely almost than any writer in the world he commanded thefaculty to create a song all of a piece, and with a sustained intensity of mood which made it like a singlethought".[116] In a 2011 article the pianist and writer Roy Howat and the musicologist Emily Kilpatrickwrote:

His devotion to the mlodie spans his career, from the ever-fresh "Le papillon et la fleur" of1861 to the masterly cycle L'horizon chimrique, composed sixty years and more than ahundred songs later. Faur's songs are now core repertoire for students and professionals,sung in conservatories and recital halls throughout the world.[117]

In Copland's view the early songs were written in the 1860s and 1870s under the influence of Gounod,and except for isolated songs such as "Aprs un rve" or "Au bord de l'eau" there is little sign of theartist 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 Faur". He instanced "Les berceaux", "Lesroses d'Ispahan" and especially "Clair de lune" as "so beautiful, so perfect, that they have evenpenetrated to America", and drew attention to less well known mlodies such as "Le secret", "Nocturne",and "Les prsents".[1] Faur also composed a number of song cycles. Cinq mlodies "de Venise", Op. 58(1891), was described by Faur as a novel kind of song suite, in its use of musical themes recurring overthe cycle. For the later cycle La bonne chanson, Op. 61 (1894), there were five such themes, accordingto Faur.[118] He also wrote that La bonne chanson was his most spontaneous composition, with EmmaBardac singing back to him each day's newly written material.[67]

The Requiem, Op. 48, was not composed to the memory of a specific person but, in Faur's words, "forthe pleasure of it." It was first performed in 1888. It has been described as "a lullaby of death" because


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Cantique de Jean Racine

A shorter choral work by Faur

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Berceuse from Dolly

The Berceuse from Dolly by GabrielFaur.

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of its predominantly gentle tone.[119] Faur omittedthe Dies Irae, though reference to the day ofjudgment appears in the Libera me, which, likeVerdi, he added to the normal liturgical text.[120]Faur revised the Requiem over the years, and anumber of different performing versions are now inuse, from the earliest, for small forces, to the finalrevision with full orchestra.[121]

Faur's operas have not found a place in the regular repertoire. Promthe is the more neglected of thetwo, with only a handful of performances in more than a century.[122] Copland considered Pnlope(1913) a fascinating work, and one of the best operas written since Wagner; he noted, however, that themusic is, as a whole, "distinctly non-theatrical."[1] The work uses leitmotifs, and the two main roles callfor voices of heroic quality, but these are the only ways in which the work is Wagnerian. In Faur's latestyle, "tonality is stretched hard, without breaking."[123] On the rare occasions when the piece has beenstaged, critical opinion has generally praised the musical quality of the score, but has varied as to thedramatic effectiveness of the work. When the opera was first presented in London in 1970, in a studentproduction by the Royal Academy of Music, Peter Heyworth wrote, "A score that offers rich rewards toan attentive ear can none the less fail to cut much ice in the theatre. ... Most of the music is too recessiveto be theatrically effective."[124] However, after a 2006 production at the Wexford Festival, Ian Foxwrote, "Faur's Pnlope is a true rarity, and, although some lovely music was anticipated, it was asurprise how sure the composer's theatrical touch was."[125]

Piano worksMain article: Piano music of Gabriel Faur

Faur's major sets of piano works are thirteennocturnes, thirteen barcarolles, six impromptus, andfour valses-caprices. These sets were composedacross the decades of his career, and display thechange in his style from uncomplicated youthfulcharm to a final enigmatic, but sometimes fieryintrospection, by way of a turbulent period in hismiddle years.[1] His other notable piano pieces, including shorter works, or collections composed orpublished as a set, are Romances sans paroles, Ballade in F major, Mazurka in B major, Thme etvariations in C major, and Huit pices brves. For piano duet, Faur composed the Dolly Suite and,together with his friend and former pupil Andr Messager, an exuberant parody of Wagner in the shortsuite Souvenirs de Bayreuth.[126]

The piano works often use arpeggiated figures, with the melody interspersed between the two hands, andinclude finger substitutions natural for organists. These aspects make them daunting for some pianists,and even a virtuoso like Liszt found Faur's piano music hard to play.[42] The early piano works areclearly influenced by Chopin.[127] An even greater influence was Schumann, whose piano music Faur

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Pice for Oboe and Harp

Arranged for bassoon and piano,performed by Kathleen Walsh(bassoon) and Amy Crane (piano)

lgie

Performed by Hans Goldstein (cello)and Eli Kalman (piano)

Fantasie

Performed by Alex Murray (flute) andMartha Goldstein (piano)

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loved more than any other.[128] In Copland's view, it was with the sixth Nocturne that Faur fullyemerged from any predecessor's shadow.[1] The pianist Alfred Cortot said, "There are few pages in allmusic comparable to these."[1] The critic Bryce Morrison has noted that pianists frequently prefer toplay 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 listenersare left uneasy.[129] In his piano music, as in most of his works, Faur shunned virtuosity in favour of theclassical lucidity often associated with the French.[112] He was unimpressed by purely virtuoso pianists,saying, "the greater they are, the worse they play me."[130]

Orchestral and chamber worksFaur was not greatly interested in orchestration, and on occasion asked his former students such as JeanRoger-Ducasse and Charles Koechlin to orchestrate his concert and theatre works. In Nectoux's words,Faur's generally sober orchestral style reflects "a definite aesthetic attitude ... The idea of timbre wasnot a determining one in Faur's musical thinking".[131] He was not attracted by flamboyantcombinations of tone-colours, which he thought either self-indulgent or a disguise for lack of realmusical invention.[14] He told his students that it should be possible to produce an orchestration withoutresorting to glockenspiels, celestas, xylophones, bells or electrical instruments.[132] Debussy admired thespareness of Faur's orchestration, finding in it the transparency he strove for in his own 1913 balletJeux; Poulenc, by contrast, described Faur's orchestration as "a leaden overcoat ... instrumentalmud".[133] Faur's best-known orchestral works are the suites Masques et bergamasques (based onmusic for a dramatic entertainment, or divertissement comique), which he orchestrated himself,[134]Dolly, orchestrated by Henri Rabaud,[135] and Pellas et Mlisande drawing on incidental music forMaeterlinck's play; the stage version was orchestrated by Koechlin, but Faur himself reworked theorchestration for the published suite.[132]

In the chamber repertoire, his two piano quartets,particularly the first, are among Faur'sbetter-known works.[136] His other chamber musicincludes two piano quintets, two cello sonatas, twoviolin sonatas, a piano trio and a string quartet.Copland (writing in 1924 before the string quartetwas finished) held the second quintet to be Faur'smasterpiece: "... a pure well of spirituality ...extremely classic, as far removed as possible fromthe romantic temperament."[1] Other critics havetaken a less favourable view: The Record Guidecommented, "The ceaseless flow and restrictedcolour scheme of Faur's last manner, asexemplified in this Quintet, need very carefulmanagement, if they are not to becometedious."[136] Faur's last work, the String Quartet,has been described by critics in Gramophone

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magazine as an intimate meditation on the last things,[137] and "an extraordinary work by any standards,ethereal and other-worldly with themes that seem constantly to be drawn skywards."[138]

Recordings

Faur made piano rolls of his music for several companies between 1905 and 1913.[n 14] Well over ahundred recordings of Faur's music were made between 1898 and 1905, mostly of songs, with a fewshort chamber works, by performers including the singers Jean Not and Pol Planon and players suchas Jacques Thibaud and Alfred Cortot.[140] By the 1920s a range of Faur's more popular songs were onrecord, including "Aprs un rve" sung by Olga Haley,[141] and "Automne" and "Clair de lune" sung byNinon Vallin.[142] In the 1930s better-known performers recorded Faur pieces, including Georges Thill("En prire"),[143] and Jacques Thibaud and Alfred Cortot (Violin Sonata No. 1 and Berceuse).[144] TheSicilienne from Pellas et Mlisande was recorded in 1938.[145]

By the 1940s there were a few more Faur works in the catalogues. A survey by John Culshaw inDecember 1945 singled out recordings of piano works played by Kathleen Long (including the NocturneNo. 6, Barcarolle No. 2, the Thme et Variations, Op. 73, and the Ballade Op. 19 in its orchestral versionconducted by Boyd Neel), the Requiem conducted by Ernest Bourmauck, and seven songs sung byMaggie Teyte.[146] Faur's music began to appear more frequently in the record companies' releases inthe 1950s. The Record Guide, 1955, listed the Piano Quartet No. 1, Piano Quintet No. 2, the StringQuartet, both Violin Sonatas, the Cello Sonata No. 2, two new recordings of the Requiem, and thecomplete song cycles La bonne chanson and La chanson d've.[147]

In the LP and particularly the CD era, the record companies have built up a substantial catalogue ofFaur's music, performed by French and non-French musicians. Several modern recordings of Faur'smusic have come to public notice as prize-winners in annual awards organised by Gramophone and theBBC.[n 15] Sets of his major orchestral works have been recorded under conductors including MichelPlasson (1981)[148] and Yan Pascal Tortelier (1996).[149] Faur's main chamber works have all beenrecorded, with players including the Ysae Quartet, Domus, Paul Tortelier, Arthur Grumiaux, andJoshua Bell.[150] The complete piano works have been recorded by Kathryn Stott (1995),[151] and PaulCrossley (198485),[152] with substantial sets of the major piano works from Jean-Philippe Collard(198284),[153] Pascal Rog (1990),[154] and Kun-Woo Paik (2002).[155] Faur's songs have all beenrecorded for CD, including a complete set (2005), anchored by the accompanist Graham Johnson, withsoloists Jean-Paul Fouchcourt, Felicity Lott, John Mark Ainsley and Jennifer Smith, among others.[156]The Requiem and the shorter choral works are also well represented on disc.[157] Pnlope has beenrecorded twice, with casts headed by Rgine Crespin in 1956, and Jessye Norman in 1981, conductedrespectively by Dsir-mile Inghelbrecht and Charles Dutoit.[158] Promthe has not been recorded infull, but extensive excerpts were recorded under Roger Norrington (1980).[159]

Modern assessmentA 2001 article on Faur in Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians concludes thus:


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Faur's stature as a composer is undiminished by the passage of time. He developed amusical idiom all his own; by subtle application of old modes, he evoked the aura ofeternally fresh art; by using unresolved mild discords and special coloristic effects, heanticipated procedures of Impressionism; in his piano works, he shunned virtuosity in favorof the Classical lucidity of the French masters of the clavecin; the precisely articulatedmelodic line of his songs is in the finest tradition of French vocal music. His great Requiemand his lgie for Cello and Piano have entered the general repertoire.[112]

Faur's biographer Nectoux writes in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians that Faur is widelyregarded as the greatest master of French song, and that alongside the mlodies, the chamber works rankas "Faur's most important contribution to music".[14] The critic Robert Orledge writes, "His genius wasone of synthesis: he reconciled such opposing elements as modality and tonality, anguish and serenity,seduction and force within a single non-eclectic style, as in the Pellas et Mlisande suite, hissymphonic masterpiece. The quality of constant renewal within an apparently limited range ... is aremarkable facet of his genius, and the spare, elliptical style of his single String Quartet suggests that hisintensely self-disciplined style was still developing at the time of his death".[160]

Notes and referencesNotes

^ Some early sources including Copland say that Faur was born on 13 May;[1] the birth register for that datereads "born yesterday" and authorities including Nectoux, Jones and Duchen give 12 May as the date ofbirth.[2]

1.

^ Sources differ on Dufaur de Saubiac's position at the Assembly. Jones identifies him as "the parliamentarydeputy for the dpartement,[9] as does Johnson;[10] Orledge similarly identifies him as "the member of theAssembly for Arige";[11] Nectoux describes him as "a senior civil servant in the Chamber of Deputies (orPalais lgislatif as it was known in the Second Empire)";[6] Duchen does not mention the Assembly,referring to Dufaur de Saubiac as "a local man who worked as an archivist in Paris".[12]

2.

^ A later writer describes "a photo of Faur as a boy wearing the school uniform and looking not unlikeArthur Sullivan as one of the children of the Chapel Royal".[16]

3.

^ Faur liked some of Wagner's operas more than others. He loved Die Meistersinger, Parsifal and the Ring,was lukewarm about Tannhuser and Lohengrin and detested Tristan und Isolde. Duchen speculates that "theexcess in sentiment and length" of the last was fundamentally contrary to Faur's aesthetic sensibilities.[45]

4.

^ Some sources put an acute accent on the first 'e' of the surname, but Marie Fremiet's letters show that shedid not do so. The spelling without the accent is followed by Nectoux, Jones and Duchen.

5.

^ Alfredo Casella, one of his pupils, wrote that Faur had "the large, languid and sensual eyes of animpenitent Casanova". It was rumoured in Parisian musical circles that some of Faur's most talented pupilsmay have been his illegitimate children. The rumours were never substantiated.[50]

6.

^ Better known by her original name Winnaretta Singer and her later title the Princesse de Polignac.7.^ In the UK, the first piece, "Berceuse", from the Dolly Suite became Faur's best-known piece to severalgenerations of children; it was used as the closing music for the BBC Home Service radio programme Listenwith Mother, which was broadcast from 1950 to 1982.

8.

^ The 1907 Paris premiere was staged at the Hippodrome, but the acoustics were so bad that the secondperformance was moved to the Opra. The 1917 revised orchestration was made by Roger-Ducasse, atFaur's request.[76]

9.

^ Widor was elected the following year.[84]10.


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^ Faur and Massenet were privately concerned that their old friend was in danger of looking foolish with hisexcess of patriotism,[94] and also his growing tendency to denounce the works of rising young composers, asin his condemnation of Debussy's En blanc et noir: "We must at all costs bar the door of the Institut against aman capable of such atrocities; they should be put next to the cubist pictures."[95]

11.

^ Poulenc was the exception among Les Six in disliking Faur's music. Nectoux comments that this seemsstrange because of all the members of Les Six, Poulenc "is the nearest to Faur in the limpid clarity andsinging quality of his own writing, in his charm".[98]

12.

^ In particular, seventh and ninth chords were no longer considered dissonant, and the mediant could bealtered without changing the mode.[14]

13.

^ The rolls of the "Romance sans paroles" No. 3, Barcarolle No. 1, Prelude No. 3, Pavane, Nocturne No. 3,Sicilienne, Thme et variations and Valses-caprices Nos. 1, 3 and 4 survive, and several rolls have beenre-recorded on disc.[139]

14.

^ 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 Ebne Recording of the Year, 2009; Nocturnes, Germaine Thyssens-Valentin Historic Reissue,2002]; Requiem, Rutter et al Choral, 1985. Among BBC Awards: String Quartet (+ Franck), DanteQuartet Chamber, 2009 (http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Hyperion/CDA67664).

15.

References

^ a b c d e f g h i j k Copland, Aaron. "Gabriel Faur, a Neglected Master" (http://www.jstor.org/stable/738475),The Musical Quarterly, October 1924, pp. 573586 (subscription required)

1.

^ Nectoux (1991), p. 3; Jones, p. 15; and Duchen, p. 122.^ a b Duchen, p. 133.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 34.^ Duchen, p. 125.^ a b c Nectoux (1991), p. 46.^ Duchen, p. 27.^ Faur in 1924, quoted in Duchen, p. 148.^ a b c Jones, p. 159.^ Johnson, p. 2710.^ Orledge, pp. 5611.^ Duchen, p. 1512.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 513.^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Nectoux, Jean-Michel. "Faur, Gabriel (Urbain)"(http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/09366), Grove Online, Oxford MusicOnline, accessed 21 August 2010 (subscription required)

14.

^ Nectoux, p. 615.^ Henderson, A. M. "Memories of Some Distinguished French Organists Faur" (http://www.jstor.org/stable/922657), The Musical Times, September 1937, pp. 817819 (subscription required)

16.

^ Jones, p. 1617.^ Faur in 1922, quoted in Nectoux (1984), pp. 1218.^ Nectoux (1984), p. 219.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 502; and Jones, p. 2020.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 1221.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 50822.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 1523.^ a b Jones, p. 2124.^ Duchen, p. 2825.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 50326.^ a b c Duchen, p. 3127.


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^ a b Jones, p. 2728.^ a b Duchen, p. 3229.^ Nectoux, p. 1830.^ Vallas, p. 13531.^ Jones, p. 28 and Grove32.^ a b Jones, p. 2833.^ Jones, p. 2934.^ See, for example, Henderson, A. M. "Memories of Some Distinguished French Organists Faur"(http://www.jstor.org/stable/922657), The Musical Times, September 1937, pp. 817819 (subscription required)and Orrey, Leslie. "Gabriel Faur, 18451924" (http://www.jstor.org/stable/935506), The Musical Times,May 1945, pp. 137139 (subscription required)

35.

^ Henderson, A. M. "Memories of Some Distinguished French Organists Faur" (http://www.jstor.org/stable/922657), The Musical Times, September 1937, pp. 817819 (subscription required)

36.

^ a b Nectoux (1991), p. 4137.^ Duchen, p. 1738.^ a b c d Jones, p. 3339.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 8040.^ a b Jones, p. 5041.^ a b Jones, p. 5142.^ Wagstaff, John and Andrew Lamb. "Messager, Andr" (http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/18492), Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, accessed 14 August 2010(subscription required)

43.

^ Nectoux (1991), p. 3944.^ Duchen, p. 5845.^ a b Jones, p. 5246.^ Duchen, p. 6647.^ Willmer, E. N. "Emmanuel Faur-Fremiet, 18831971" (http://www.jstor.org/stable/769659), BiographicalMemoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 18 (November 1972), pp. 187221 (subscription required)

48.

^ "Philippe Faur-Fremiet" (http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=Philippe+Faure-Fremiet&wcsbtn2w=Search), WorldCat, accessed 2 April 2012

49.

^ Duchen, p. 6350.^ Duchen, Jessica. "A still, small voice", The Guardian, 24 November 1995, p. A1251.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 18152.^ Orledge, pp. 161753.^ Nectoux (1991), pp. 28228554.^ Duchen, p. 6955.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 2656.^ Oliver, pp. 21521757.^ Duchen, p. 8058.^ Jones, p. 3159.^ Duchen, pp. 959760.^ Orledge, p. 1461.^ Orledge, p. 15; and Duchen, pp. 989962.^ Duchen, p. 10563.^ Duchen, p. 105; Johnson, p. 253; Jones, p. 68; Nectoux, p. 185; and Orledge, p. 1564.^ Nectoux, p. 181; and Duchen, p. 10865.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 22466.^ a b Orledge, p. 1567.^ Jones, p. 6568.^ Jones, p. 7869.^ Nectoux (1984), pp. 22422570.^ Orledge, p. 1671.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 24672.


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^ Nectoux (1991), p. 30773.^ Nichols, p. 10374.^ Prunires, Henry, quoted in Copland. (Copland spells the given name as "Henri" and uses the older Englishterm "receipts" for "recipes".)

75.

^ Nectoux (1991), p. 37076.^ Orledge, p. 2177.^ Nectoux, p. 26778.^ Woldu, Gail Hilson. "Gabriel Faur, directeur du Conservatoire: les rformes de 1905"(http://www.jstor.org/stable/928428), Revue de Musicologie, T. 70e, No. 2e (1984), pp. 199228, SocitFranaise de Musicologie. French text. (subscription required)

79.

^ a b Nectoux (1991), p. 26980.^ Jones, p. 11081.^ a b Nectoux (1991), p. 27082.^ a b Jones, p. 13383.^ Near, p. vi84.^ a b c Landormy, Paul and M. D. Herter. "Gabriel Faur (18451924)" (http://www.jstor.org/stable/739035),The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 3 (July 1931), pp. 293301 (subscription required)

85.

^ Nectoux (1991), p. 27886.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 28387.^ Moore, p. 54788.^ a b Anderson, p. 15689.^ Anderson, Robert. "Review: Insights" (http://www.jstor.org/stable/963471), The Musical Times, February1985, pp. 9394 (subscription required)

90.

^ Jones, p. 1091.^ Jones, pp. 12412592.^ Jones, pp. 16016193.^ Jones, pp. 16216594.^ Nectoux (1984), p. 10895.^ Caballero, Carlo. "Review: Gabriel Faur: A Musical Life" (http://www.jstor.org/stable/746624),19th-Century Music, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Summer, 1992), pp. 8592 (subscription required)

96.

^ Nectoux (1991), p. 27797.^ Nectoux, p. 43498.^ Jones, p. 20299.^ Perreau, p. 3100.^ Jones, p. 192101.^ Nectoux, p. 292102.^ Duchen, p. 212103.^ a b Nectoux (1991), p. 469104.^ Nichols, Roger. "Henri Rabaud" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/7e4c5b76-d2e7-48f4-a46e-65d62c35288a), BBC Music, accessed 1 April 2012

105.

^ Orrey, Leslie."Gabriel Faur, 18451924" (http://www.jstor.org/stable/935506), The Musical Times, May1945, pp. 137139 (subscription required)

106.

^ Orledge, p. 59; and Nectoux (1991), p. 48107.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 415108.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 401109.^ Duchen, p. 6110.^ Sackville-West, pp. 263264111.^ a b c Slonimsky, Nicholas. "Faur, Gabriel (-Urbain)" (http://bakr.alexanderstreet.com/View/665229/Highlight/faure#faure1), Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Schirmer Reference, New York2001, accessed 8 September 2010 (subscription required)

112.

^ Dubins, Jerry. "Review", Fanfare, May 2006, pp. 245246113.^ Sackville-West, p. 264114.^ Ravel, p. 23115.


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^ "Gabriel Faur", The Manchester Guardian, 5 November 1924, p. 16116.^ Howat, Roy and Emily Kilpatrick. "Editorial Challenges in the Early Songs of Gabriel Faur", Notes Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, December 2011, pp. 239283

117.

^ Orledge, pp. 7881118.^ Payne, Anthony, "Sweet lullaby of death" (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/sweet-lullaby-of-death-1265213.html), The Independent, 5 April 1997

119.

^ Rosen, pp. 6074120.^ Orledge, Robert "Faur Revised" (http://www.jstor.org/stable/963753), The Musical Times, May 1980, p.327 (subscription required)

121.

^ Duchen, p. 197122.^ Murray, p. 120123.^ Heyworth, Peter. "Neglected Penelope", The Observer, 29 November 1970, p. 78124.^ Fox, Ian. "Opera in Review", Opera Canada, January 2006, pp. 4547125.^ Duchen, pp. 222224126.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 49127.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 43128.^ Morrison, p. 7129.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 379130.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 259131.^ a b Duchen, p. 132132.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 258133.^ Duchen, p. 196134.^ Duchen, p. 226135.^ a b Sackville-West, p. 265136.^ Nichols, Roger. "Faur and Ravel", Gramophone, August 2000, p. 69137.^ Cowan, Rob. "Debussy, Faur, Ravel", Gramophone, December 2008, p. 97138.^ Nectoux (1991), p. 45139.^ Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/discography/search/page(3);jsessionid=27803555EFC93E15A626A15C419F9F75.balancer5#), accessed 3 May 2012

140.

^ "Vocalion", The Gramophone, April 1925, p. 63141.^ "Ninon Vallin", The Gramophone, November 1929, p. 19142.^ "Georges Thill", The Gramophone, December 1937, p. 18143.^ "Review", The Gramophone, July 1932, p. 11; and "Chamber Music", The Gramophone, December 1932,p. 19

144.

^ Anderson, W R. "Second Reviews", The Gramophone, July 1938, p. 24145.^ Culshaw, John. "The Return of Faur", The Gramophone, December 1945, p. 15146.^ Sackville-West, pp. 265268147.^ EMI Records, catalogue number 5 86564-2148.^ Chandos Records, catalogue number Chan 9412149.^ March, pp. 450453150.^ Hyperion Records, catalogue number DA 66911/4151.^ CRD Records, catalogue number 5006152.^ EMI Records, catalogue number 5 85261-2153.^ Decca Records, catalogue number 425 60640154.^ Decca Records, catalogue number 470 2462155.^ Hyperion Records, catalogue numbers CDA67333-CDA67336156.^ March, pp. 455456157.^ Discoreale Records, catalogue number DR 10012-4; and Erato Records, catalogue number STU71386158.^ Aristocrat Records, catalogue number 7466 lE5531159.^ Orledge, Robert. "Faur, Gabriel (Urbain)" (http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e2442), The Oxford Companion to Music, Oxford Music Online, accessed 26 September 2010 (subscriptionrequired)

160.


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SourcesAnderson, Robert (1993). Elgar. London: J M Dent. ISBN 0-460-86054-2.Duchen, Jessica (2000). Gabriel Faur. London: Phaidon. ISBN 0-7148-3932-9.Johnson, Graham; Richard Stokes (2009). Gabriel Faur The Songs and their Poets. Farnham,Kent and Burlington Vt: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-5960-7.Jones, J Barrie (1989). Gabriel Faur A Life in Letters. London: B T Batsford.ISBN 0-7134-5468-7.March, Ivan (ed) (2007). The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2008. London: PenguinBooks. ISBN 0-14-103336-3.Moore, Jerrold Northrop (1987). Elgar A Creative Life. Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks.ISBN 0-19-284014-2.Murray, David (1997). "Faur, Gabriel". In Amanda Holden (ed). The Penguin Opera Guide.London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-051385-X.Morrison, Bryce (1995). Notes to The Complete Piano Music of Gabriel Faur. London:Hyperion Records. OCLC 224489565 (//www.worldcat.org/oclc/224489565).Nectoux, Jean-Michel; J A Underwood (trans) (1984). Gabriel Faur His Life Through Letters.London: Boyars. ISBN 0-7145-2768-8.Nectoux, Jean-Michel; Roger Nichols (trans) (1991). Gabriel Faur A Musical Life. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23524-3.Near, John R. Charles-Marie Widor Symphonie pour orgue et orchestre, opus 42 [bis].Middleton: A-R Editions. ISBN 0-89579-515-9.Nichols, Roger (1987). Ravel Remembered. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-14986-3.Oliver, Michael (1991). "Faur: Requiem". In Alan Blyth (ed). Choral Music on Record.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36309-8.Orledge, Robert (1979). Gabriel Faur. London: Eulenburg Books. ISBN 0-903873-40-0.Perreau, Stephan (2000). Notes to Ravel and Faur String Quartets. Hong Kong: Naxos Records.OCLC 189791192 (//www.worldcat.org/oclc/189791192).Ravel, Maurice (1922). "Les Mlodies de Gabriel Faur". In Henry Prunires (ed). Hommagemusical Faur (in French). Paris: La revue musicale. OCLC 26757829 (//www.worldcat.org/oclc/26757829).Rosen, David (1995). Verdi Requiem. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-39767-7.Sackville-West, Edward; Desmond Shawe-Taylor (1955). The Record Guide. London: Collins.OCLC 500373060 (//www.worldcat.org/oclc/500373060).Vallas, Lon; Hubert Foss (trans) (1951). Csar Franck. London: Harrap. OCLC 910827(//www.worldcat.org/oclc/910827).

External linksGabriel Faur MIDI files (http://www.kunstderfuge.com/faure.htm) Kunst der Fuge siteFree scores by Gabriel Faur at the International Music Score Library ProjectFree scores by Gabriel Faur in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)Free scores (http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?Composer=FaureG) at theMutopia Project


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"The Master of Charms" a series of short articles about Faur's music on AdventuresInMusic.biz(http://www.adventuresinmusic.biz/Archives/Music_Makers/Faure1.htm)Oeuvres compltes pour orgue / J.S. Bach : rvision par Gabriel Faur. (http://hdl.handle.net/1802/1718) From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores CollectionPiano Rolls (http://www.rprf.org/Rollography.html) (The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation(http://www.rprf.org/))Septuor pour trompette, deux violons, alto, violoncelle, contre-basse et piano, op. 65 par C. Saint-Sans, 4 mains par G. Faur. (http://hdl.handle.net/1802/1311) From Sibley Music LibraryDigital Scores CollectionGabriel Faur: A Research and Information Guide by Edward R. Phillips(http://books.google.com.mx/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)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gabriel_Faur&oldid=599360217"Categories: Gabriel Faur 1845 births 1924 deaths 19th-century classical composers20th-century classical composers Academics of the Conservatoire de ParisBurials at Passy Cemetery Classical composers of church music Deaf classical musiciansFrench agnostics French classical composers French classical organistsFrench military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War Grand Croix of the Lgion d'honneurOpera composers People from Pamiers Romantic composers

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