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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withdrawn incharacter, and at other times turbulent and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
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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
Gabriel Faur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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)
Problems playing these files? See media help.
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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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Faur
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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.
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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
Gabriel Faur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Faur
20 of 21 3/19/14 7:29 AM
-
"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:
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