Fauré - The Art of Song

Gabriel Fauré: Après un Rêve, 'After a Dream'

Listen to this beautiful song by Gabriel Fauré, sung by Véronique Gens, accompanied by Roger Vignoles: 

Gabriel Fauré - French composer

Fauré wrote more than 100 songs, including ‘Apres un Reve’. Within his lifetime he saw the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war and in 1879, he volunteered for military service. After France’s defeat by Prussia, there was a brief, bloody conflict within Paris, but Fauré escaped to Rambouillet where one of his brothers lived. He then travelled to Switzerland where he took up a teaching post. Fauré’s compositions from this period did not overtly reflect the turmoil and bloodshed (unlike the elegies of Saint-Saens, Gounod and Franck).

Fauré was a founding member of the Société Nationale de Musique, other members including Bizet and Massenet. Fauré’s first violin sonata was performed at the society concert with great success and marked a turning point in his composing career at the age of 31. In July of that year, Fauré was engaged to Marianne Viardot, with whom he was deeply in love, but to his deep sadness, she broke off the engagement in November 1877, for reasons that are not clear.

In 1883, Fauré married Marie Fremiet. The marriage was affectionate, but Marie became resentful of Fauré’s frequent absences and love affairs. From his thirties, Fauré suffered bouts of depression, possibly first caused by his broken engagement and his lack of real success as a composer. In 1890, a prestigious commission to write an opera fell through by the poet, Paul Verlaine’s drunken inability to deliver a libretto. Fauré was plunged into a depression so deep, that his friends were seriously concerned about his health.

During the 1890’s, Fauré’s fortunes improved when Ernest Guiraud, professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire died and Saint-Saens encouraged Fauré to apply for the post. Eventually, Fauré ended up being the successor to Dubois as chief organist, with Dubois taking over as the head of the Conservatoire. However, on the 6th of May, Massenet (professor of composition at the Conservatoire) had expected to become appointed as Head, but overplayed his hand by insisting he be appointed for life. He was turned down and when Dubois was appointed instead, Massenet resigned his professorship in fury. Fauré was eventually appointed in his place.

In the early 1900s, Fauré developed serious problems with his hearing - not only did he start to go deaf, but sounds became distorted, so that high and low frequencies sounded painfully out of tune to him. The outbreak of the First World War almost stranded Fauré in Germany, but he managed to return to France, where he remained for the duration of the war. In 1920, at the age of 75, Fauré retired from the Conservatoire due to his increasing deafness and frailty. In 1922, there was a National hommage concert to Fauré and yet the composer, sitting at the concert of his own works, was barely able to hear a single note. In spite of this, he sat there, gazing, grateful and content. Fauré died in Paris from pneumonia on the 4th of November 1924 at the age of 79.

National hommage to Fauré, 1922. Fauré and President Miller and are in the box between the statues.

Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia