ECU Libraries Catalog

Gabriel Fauré : the songs and their poets / Graham Johnson, with translations of the song texts by Richard Stokes.

Author/creator Johnson, Graham, 1950-
Other author/creatorStokes, Richard, 1945-
Other author/creatorGuildhall School of Music and Drama (London, England)
Format Book and Print
Publication InfoFarnham, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate ; London : Guildhall School of Music & Drama, 2009.
Descriptionxxvii, 460 pages : illustrations, music ; 25 cm.
Subject(s)
Series Guildhall School of Music & Drama research studies ; 7
Research studies (Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London, England)) ; 7. ^A611001
Contents Songs through a life : an overview -- An indifference to success -- Second empire and first songs. Victor Hugo: Le papillon et la fleur 1861 ; Mai 1862? ; Puisque j'ai mis ma lèvre 1862 ; Rêve d'amour 1864 ; Tristesse d'Olympio c. 1865 ; Dans les ruines d'une abbaye c. 1865 ; L'Aurore c. 1870 -- War and peace on Parnassus. Théophile Gautier, Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle, Charles Baudelaire: Les Matelots (Gautier) c. 1870 ; Lydia (Leconte de Lisle) c. 1870 ; Hymne (Baudelaire) c. 1870 ; Seule! (Gautier) 1871 ; L'Absent (Hugo) 1871 ; La Rançon (Baudelaire) 1871? ; Chant d'automne (Baudelaire) 1871? ; Chanson du pêcheur (Lamento) (Gautier) 1872? -- Cez Mme P. Viardot-Garcia: Louis Pomey, Marc Monnier, Sully Prudhomme, Romain Bussine. Aubade (Pomey) c. 1873 ; Tristesse (Gautier) c. 1873 ; Barcarolle (Monnier) 1873 ; Puisqu'ici-bas toute âme (Hugo) c. 1863-73 ; Tarentelle (Monnier) 1873 ; Ici-bas! (Sully Prudhomme) 1874? ; Au bord de l'eau (Sully Prudhomme) 1875 ; Après un rêve (Bussine) 1877 -- 1878, A transitional year of song. Paul de Choudens, Charles Grandmougin: Sérénade toscane (Bussine) 1878? ; Sylvie (Choudens) 1878 ; Poëme d'un jour (Grandmougin) 1878. Rencontre ; Toujours ; Adieu -- Nell (Leconte de Lisle) 1878 ; Le Voyageur (Silvestre) 1878? ; Automne (Slivestre) 1878 -- Bachelor and husband - the Silvestre years. Armand Silvestre, Victor Wilder: Les Berceaux (Sully Prudhomme) 1879 ; Notre amour (Silvestre) c. 1879 ; Le Secret (Silvestre) 1881 ; Le Ruisseau (anon.) 1881? ; Chanson d'amour (Silvestre) 1882 ; La Fée aux chansons (Silvestre) 1882 ; Madrigal (Silvestre) 1883 ; Aurore (Silvestre) 1884 ; Fleur jetée (Silvestre) 1884 ; Le Pays des Rêves (Silvestre) 1884 ; Les Roses d'Ispahan (Leconte de Lisle) 1884 ; Noël (Wilder) 1885 -- Crisis and Decadence. Auguste Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Jean Richepin, Edmond Haraucourt, Stéphan Bordèse: Nocturne (Villiers de L'Isle-Adam) 1886 ; Les Présents (Villiers de L'Isle-Adam) 1887 ; Au cimetière (Richepin) 1888 ; Larmes (Richepin) 1888 ; Shylock (Haraucourt) 1889. Chanson ; Madrigal -- La Rose (Ode anacréontique) (Leconte de Lisle) 1890 ; En prière (Bordése) 1890 -- Fauré and Paul Verlaine (I). Clair de lune (Menuet) (Verlaine) 1887 ; Spleen (Verlaine) 1888 ; Cinq mélodies 'de Vénise' (Verlaine) 1891. Mandoline ; En sourdine ; Green ; À Clymène ; C'est l'extase -- Fauré and Paul Verlaine (II). La Bonne chanson (Verlaine) 1892-94: Une Sainte en son auréole ; Puisque l'aube grandit ; La Lune blance ; J'allais par des chemins perfides ; J'ai presque peur, en vérité ; Avant que tu ne t'en ailes ; Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d'été ; N'est-ces pas? ; L'Hiver a cessé -- Priosn (Verlaine) 1894 -- Crossing the divide - towards the late style. Molière, Albert Samain, Maurice Maeterlinck, Catulle Mendès: Sérénade du Bourgeois gentilhomme (Moliére) 1893 ; Soir (Samain) 1894 ; Pleurs d'or (Samain) 1896 ; Le Parfum impérissable (Leconte de Lisle) 1897 ; Arpège (Samain) 1897 ; Mélisande's song (Maeterlinck) 1898 ; Accompagnement (Samain) 1902 ; La Fleur qui va sur l'eau (Mendés) 1902 ; Dans la forêt de septembre (Mendés) 1902 ; Le Plus doux chemin (Madrigal) (Silvestre) 1904 ; Le Ramier (Madrigal) (Silvestre) 1904 -- Interlude: the silent gift. Jean Dominique, Henri de Régnier: Le Don silencieux (Dominique) 1906 ; Chanson (Régnier) 1906 ; Vocalise-étude 1906 -- Fauré and Charles Van Lerberghe (I). La Chanson d'Ève (Van Lerberghe) 1906-10. Paradis ; Prima verba ; Roses ardentes ; Comme Dieu rayonne ; L'Aube blanche ; Eau vivante ; Veilles-tu, ma senteur de soleil? ; Dans un parfum de roses blanches ; Crépuscule ; Ô mort, poussiére d'étoiles -- Fauré and Charles Van Lerberghe (II). Le Jardin clos (Van Lerberghe) 1914. Exaucement ; Quand tu plonges tes yeux ; La Messagère ; Je me poserai sur ton coeur ; Dans la nymphée ; Dans la pénombre ; Il m'est cher, Amour, le bandeau ; Inscription sur le sable -- Mirages and horizons. Renée de Brimont, Georgette Debladis, Jean de La Ville de Mirmont: Mirages (Brimont) 1919. Cynge sur l'eau ; Reflets dans l'eau ; Jardin nocturne ; Danseuse -- C'est la paix (Debladis) 1919 ; L'Horizon chimérique (La Ville de Mirmont) 1921. La Mer est infinie ; Je me suis embarqué ; Diane, Séléné ; Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés en pure perte -- Some notes on the performances of Fauré's songs. The practical musician ; Capabilities, negative and otherwise ; Role-play ; The actor-in-music ; The battle of the books ; Deconstuction and context ; Unknown ancestry ; L'École française ; Amateur versus professional ; Lied versus mélodie ; Sentiment, sentimentality and 'the voice' ; Seeing the woods, not the trees ; The composer is always right ; The pitiless beat -- The pianist's workshop (wherein singers are always welcome). Fauré as a pianist ; The conductor and the accompanist ; A modest metronome disclaimer ; A word about discography ; The songs: rehearsal notes and metronome markings -- Appendix 1. The songs of Fauré in their opus number groupings -- Appendix 2. The tonalities of Fauré's mélodies.
Abstract Each song receives a separate commentary.
Abstract The career of Gabriel Fauré as a composer of songs for voice and piano traverses six decades (1862-1921); almost the whole history of French mélodie is contained within these parameters. In the 1860s Fauré, the lifelong protégé of Camille Saint-Saens, 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, Fauré was 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 the author places the vocal music within twin contexts: Fauré's 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 Fauré's 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 Fauré's 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. Fauré is no longer merely a 'Master of Charms' circumscribed by the belle époque. His status as a great composer of timeless.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and indexes.
LanguageText in English with some French.
LCCN 2008039246
ISBN9780754659600 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
ISBN0754659607 (pbk. ; alk. paper)
Standard identifier# 100513801

Available Items

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Music Stacks ML410.F27 J64 2009 ✔ Available Place Hold