Gabriel Fauré was equally distinguished and respected as a composer and a teacher. Here's a profile of his life, career and music.

Fauré is one of the greatest French Romantic composers, his works characterized by the prominence of refined melody. Considered his best-known works are Messe de requiem (Requiem Mass), songs "After a Dream," and "Clair de Lune" (Moonlight), Pavanne, for orchestra, Pelleas et Melisande, and opera Penelope.

He became a distinguished professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, and later, also a director. He only retired as a teacher four years before his death. With other colleagues, Fauré and Saint-Saëns founded the Societé Nationale de Musique to support young composers in France. He was also principal organist at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris for many years.

Early Life

Gabriel Urbain Fauré was born in Pamiers, Southern France, on 12th May 1845, a son of a school professor. At nine years old, he entered Ecole Niedermeyer, a music school in Paris where he was taught by Saint-Saëns. They became friends.

He married Marie Fremiet in 1883, a daughter of a sculptor, with whom he had two sons. This marriage was unhappy, and he found solace from other women, some of them he wrote for and dedicated some of his best works.

His Style and Compositions

Fauré’s stylistic development can be traced from the melancholy song settings of his youth to the forceful late instrumental works.

His early works, song cycle La bonne chanson (The Good Song), first violin sonata and first piano quartet, were lyrical and contemplative. Then he adopted a more rigorous but far more polished style at the turn of the century as demonstrated with his piano music, orchestral suite, two song-cycles Le Jardin clos (The Enclosed Garden) and L’Horizon chimerique (The Elusive Horizon), and songs. He also composed operas, sacred and secular music, chamber music, piano pieces (chiefly nocturnes, barcarolles and impromptus), and choral works.

Legacy as a Composer and Music Teacher

Aside from his numerous musical masterpieces described as elegant, introspective and intimate, Fauré made an enormous mark on his younger contemporaries as an influential teacher and mentor. One of his students, Nadia Boulanger, herself known arguably as the greatest classical music teacher of all-time, is an achievement enough. Among other distinguished composition students are Ravel, Koechlin and Enescu.

List of Major Works by Fauré

Song, Après un reve (After a Dream), 1865

First violin sonata, 1876

Ballade, for piano and orchestra, 1881

Pavane, for orchestra, 1887

Song, Claire de lune (Moonlight), 1887

Orchestral Suite, Shylock, 1889

Orchestral Suite, Pelleas and Melisande, 1892

Song-cycle, La Bonne Chanson (The Good Song), 1893

Dolly suite, for piano duet, 1897

Opera, Pelleas et Melisande, 1898

Requiem Mass, 1900

Opera, Penelope, 1913

Song-cycle, Le Jardin clos (The Enclosed Garden), 1915

Orchestral Suite, Masques et Beramasques, 1919

Song-Cycle, L'Horizon chimerique (The Elusive Horizon)

Sources:

Classical Music, edited by John Burrows, Dorking Kindersley (2005)

Opera. András Batta, Editor-in-Chief. Könemann (2000, for English Version)

The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition, edited by Stanley Sadie (2000)

The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Press Ltd. (1994)