Download Fauré, Pavane, op. 50 - Kindred Spirits Orchestra

Fauré, Pavane, op. 50
Fauré, Pavane, Op. 50
Gabriel Fauré was born on May 12, 1845 in
Pamiers, Ariège and is the fifth son and sixth
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
child of Toussaint-Honoré Fauré (1810–85)
and Marie-Antoinette-Hélène Lalène-Laprade
First hydroelectric First skyscraper
Mark Twain
First gasoline
Canadian Pacific
(1809–87). He was sent to live with a wet
plant by Edison
(10 stories), Chicago “Huckleberry Finn” engine by Benz railway completed
nurse until he was four years old. In 1849
Inspiration
Keywords
Toussaint-Honoré was appointed director of
haunting
the École Normale at Montgauzy, near Foix,
elegant
light-hearted
where was a chapel attached to the school,
romantic
and the young Fauré spent hours playing the
Marie Fremiet
Spain
Elizabeth Greffulhe
harmonium there. Fauré remained at boarder
at the school for 11 years, during which he was helped by a scholarship from the bishop of his home diocese.
Under Niedermeyer, the curriculum concentrated on church music, with the aim of producing qualified
organists and choirmasters. Fauré's tutors were Clément Loret for the organ, Louis Dietsch for harmony,
Xavier Wackenthaler for counterpoint and fugue, and Niedermeyer for the piano, plainsong and composition.
On leaving the École Niedermeyer, Fauré was appointed chief organist at the Church of Saint-Sauveur, at
Rennes in Brittany. During his four years there he supplemented his income by taking private pupils, giving
"countless piano lessons". Almost immediately he secured the post of assistant organist at the church of
Notre-Dame de Clignancourt, in the north of Paris. He remained there for only a few months; on the
outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. In 1874, Fauré moved from Saint-Sulpice to the Église de la
Madeleine, deputizing for the principal organist, Saint-Saëns, during the latter's many absences on tour. 1877
was a significant year for Fauré, both professionally and personally. In January his violin sonata was
performed at a Société Nationale concert with great success, marking a turning-point in his composing career,
and in March, Saint-Saëns retired from the Madeleine, succeeded as organist by Théodore Dubois, his
choirmaster, to which subordinate post Fauré was now appointed. In 1883, Fauré married Marie Fremiet, the
daughter of a leading sculptor Emmanuel Fremiet. The marriage was affectionate, but Marie became
resentful of Fauré's frequent absences, his "horreur du domicile", and his love affairs, while she remained at
home. Fauré's works of the last years of the century include incidental music for the English premiere of
Maurice Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande (1898), and Prométhée, a lyric tragedy composed for the
amphitheatre at Béziers. In 1905, Fauré’s new position of running the conservatoire meant that he was
financially better off, and he also became much more widely known as a composer. His works from this
period include his lyric opera, Pénélope, and some of his most characteristic later songs (e.g., the cycle La
chanson d'Ève, Op. 95) and piano pieces (Nocturnes Nos. 9–11; Barcarolles Nos. 7–11). In 1920, at the age of
75, Fauré retired from the Conservatoire because of his increasing deafness and frailty. In that year, he
received the Grand-Croix of the Légion d'honneur, an honour rare for a musician. In his last years, Fauré
suffered from poor health, partly brought on by heavy smoking. Fauré died in Paris from pneumonia on 4
November 1924 at the age of 79.
“Music exists to elevate us as far as possible above everyday life.” (Fauré)
Pavane, op. 50 was written in 1887. It was originally a piano piece, but is better known in Fauré's version for
orchestra and optional chorus. The piece is scored for only modest orchestral forces consisting of strings and
one pair each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns. The original version of the Pavane was written
for piano in the late 1880s. The composer described it as "elegant, but not otherwise important." From the
outset, the Pavane has enjoyed immense popularity, whether with or without chorus. With choreography by
Léonide Massine a ballet version entered the repertoire of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1917, where it
was alternatively billed as Las Mininas or Les Jardins d'Aranjuez. Fauré's example was imitated by his juniors,
who went on to write pavanes of their own.
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