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.
When Gabriel Fauré was a boy, Berlioz had just written
La damnation de Faust and Henry David Thoreau was
writing Walden. By the time of his death, Stravinsky
had written The Rite of Spring and World War I had
ended in the devastation of Europe. In this dramatic
period in history, Fauré strove to bring together the
best of traditional and progressive music and, in the
process, created some of the most exquisite works in
the French repertoire. He was one of the most advanced
figures in French musical circles and influenced a
generation of composers world-wide.
Both the songs in this opus are to poems by Armand
Silvestre, whom Faure drew upon frequently. The first,
Chanson d'amour, is generally restrained in its
expression; Faure marked the first two occurrences of
the line "ou mes baisers s'epuiseront" senza rigore,
where otherwise they might have been shaped more
dramatically, allowing a crescendo only on the
penultimate repetition, the last being marked piano.
Similarly, the line "mon enfer et mon paradis," "my
hell and my heaven" is set in the middle of a
crescendo, but without any particular emphasis. The
accompaniment is equally delicate, largely consisting
of light rising phrases in the treble over single half
and whole notes in the bass, becoming slightly only
slightly more involved in the relatively long piano
interludes. The song is kept from triteness, however,
by the occasional subtle unpredictability of the
rhythms or melody, despite the repetition of the main
vocal theme.
Much the same holds for the second song, "La fee aux
chansons," which is even lighter in tone. The
repetitions in the first two verses, with their
descriptively quick tempo and rustling in both vocal
and piano lines, carefully set up the expectations that
the third verse, with its suddenly slower tempo and
change of melody, uses to emphasize the change in the
woods from spring and summer to fall, when all the
birds have left. Faure's setting of the last line of
text, with the forte exclamation of "pour le prochain
printemps," gives extra emotional weight to the picture
of the fairy creating new songs in anticipation, though
the postlude returns to the earlier, lighter theme. It
would be exaggerating to say that he elevates her
patient waiting to the level of Penelope, whose wait
for her husband he set in his opera, but there is
something of a parallel.
Source: AllMusic
(https://www.allmusic.com/composition/songs-2-for-voice
-piano-op-27-mc0002437813).
Although originally written for Voice (Mezzo-Soprano)
and Piano, I created this Interpretation of the "Les
Matelots" (The Sailors) from "Two Songs" (Op. 2 No. 2)
for Flute & Concert (Pedal) Harp.
SHEET MUSIC