This book traces Fauré's life and the rich cultural milieu in which he lived and worked.

The career of Gabriel Faur‘s a composer of songs for voice and piano traverses six decades (1862-1921); almost the whole history of French m die is contained within these parameters. In the 1860s Faur the lifelong prot of Camille Saint-Sa was a suavely precocious student; he was part of Pauline Viardot's circle in the 1870s and he nearly married her daughter. Pointed in the direction of symbolist poetry by Robert de Montesquiou in 1886, Faur as the favoured composer from the early 1890s of Winnarretta Singer, later Princesse de Polignac, and his songs were revered by Marcel Proust. In 1905 he became director of the Paris Conservatoire, and he composed his most profound music in old age. His existence, steadily productive and outwardly imperturbable, was undermined by self-doubt, an unhappy marriage and a tragic loss of hearing. In this detailed study Graham Johnson places the vocal music within twin contexts: Faur own life story, and the parallel lives of his many poets. We encounter such giants as Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine, the patrician Leconte de Lisle, the forgotten Armand Silvestre and the Belgian symbolist Charles Van Lerberghe. The chronological range of the narrative encompasses Faur first poet, Victor Hugo, who railed against Napoleon III in the 1850s, and the last, Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, killed in action in the First World War. In this comprehensive and richly illustrated study each of Faur 109 songs receives a separate commentary. Additional chapters for the student singer and serious music lover discuss interpretation and performance in both aesthetical and practical terms. Richard Stokes provides parallel English translations of the original French texts. In the twenty-first century musical modernity is evaluated differently from the way it was assessed thirty years ago. Faur‘s no longer merely a 'Master of Charms' circumscribed by the belleque. His status as a great composer of timeless

A comprehensive overview of the life and career of French composer.

First published in 2011, this research study includes a biography section as well as the works of Gabriel Urbain Fauré born on 12 May 1845. Much of Fauré’s music, especially the late pieces, remain little played and little known—as a result, his reputation as a salon composer of pleasant music continues even among educated musicians. The author suggests that it is more likely that the difficulty of much of Fauré’s music for the listener and the demands it places upon him or her are the principal reasons for its omission from concert programs and for a misunderstanding of Fauré’s place in the history of French music

This reference book contains the complete literal translation and IPA transcription of Faure's Melodies, plus interpretation suggestions for each. Phonetic Alphabet for the language.

French composer, teacher and pianist Gabriel Fauré is remembered for the beauty and elegance of his music as well as for his harmonic and melodic innovations. This critical edition addresses sources, discrepancies and performance issues (tempi, pedaling, fingering, style, interpretation and technique). The preface also includes historical, cultural, and social background.