Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845 – 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,
Requiem, Sicilienne, nocturnes for piano and the songs
"Après un rêve" and "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...(+)
Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845 – 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,
Requiem, Sicilienne, nocturnes for piano and the songs
"Après un rêve" and "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 harmonically and 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 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 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
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
Romanticism with the 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 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.
The poem "Le Secret" comes from Silvestre’s
collection entitled Le pays des roses (1882) where its
title is Mystère. Once again the dating of the song
suggests that the composer set the poem from a
handwritten copy, or from an early publication in a
magazine. Here is the Fauré–Silvestre collaboration
at its best. If the gently flowing Nell personifies one
kind of Fauré song, Le secret is among the best of
another genre. This is music that encompasses religious
awe or devotion (the composer of the Requiem can be
identified, and the accompaniment often suggests the
organ), that is almost always in tempi so slow that it
approaches a kind of immobility. This achieves a
transcendental effect with minimalist means – in
short, a mystery worthy of the poem’s original title.
The vocal line, a memorable melody, wistful and
heartfelt, is preceded by four crotchet chords; the
second of these, on the third degree of the scale,
introduces a Gregorian flavour to the music that
Jankélévitch compares to the Franciscan fervour to be
found in some of Liszt’s piano and vocal music. The
same writer finds that the delicacy of the two-bar
interludes between Silvestre’s strophes is like
‘the breath of the beloved’. Like Schubert, Fauré
has the ability to use the major key to write music
that is tinged with melancholy; this silent worship
expects, and receives, no reciprocation. Fauré always
doubted his own worth and the worth of his work but the
following incident, recounted by the composer to Henri
Malherbe is revealing: ‘I’d recently finished a
song called Le secret. I played it to Henri Duparc who
began to tremble with emotion. The composer of La vie
antérieure began to punch me with his fists shouting
“Savage! Brute!” I realized then that Le secret was
something good.’
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Faur%C3%A9)
Although originally composed for Voice (Soprano) and
Piano, I created this Interpretation of the "Le Secret"
from "3 Songs" (Op. 23 No. 3) for Winds (Flute, Oboe,
French Horn & Bassoon) and Strings (2 Violins, Viola &
Cello).
PARTITION