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“Gabriel Faure is regarded as the master of the French art song, or melodie. His works ranged from Classical, when in his early years he emulated the style of Haydn and Mendelssohn, to Romantic, and finally to an ascetic 20th century aesthetic” (“Gabriel Faure”). Gabriel Urbain Faure was born in 1845 in a town called Pamiers. It has been said that even at an early age, his potentials as a musician were already evident and noticeable.
It was not given much attention by his parents, because at that time, they were in the belief that sending Faure to school to receive formal learning was of more importance.
In fact, it was Faure’s teacher that noted his talents in music. Consequently, this teacher suggested to Faure’s parents that their child be sent to Paris to study in Niedermeyer, a religious music school. From the age of nine, Faure studied music at the Ecole Niedermeyer, the ‘Ecole de musique religieuse et classique’, where Saint-Saens was a member of staff.
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Saint-Saens had been lifelong friends with Faure and later said that he owed everything to him, introducing him not only to traditional music and composers such as Mozart and Bach but also to controversial composers such as Wagner whom he admired, but was one of few composers of his generation not to come under his influence and also Lizst. Saint-Saens encouraged and helped him to get his music published. From then on, he was able to meet and encounter different individuals who played major roles in the life of Faure.
He served as an organist in one of the churches in Rennes.
Then, in 1870, “the Franco-Prussian War broke out and Faure was enlisted into the First Regiment of the Imperial Light Infantry as a messenger” (Martin, “Gabriel Faure”). After the war, Faure was once again an organist, but in another church this time. When Saint-Saens retired in 1877 Faure took over his post as choirmaster. Faure would remain at the Madeleine for almost 20 years. He also taught composition at the Paris Conservatoire, becoming director in 1905, and his pupils included Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger. Gabriel Faure’s Music
A perusal of different accounts concerning the life and music of Gabriel Faure would show that he always strived to be different. For instance, in the field of music, regardless of how popular a type of music was, Faure will come in and try to change it, in order for the same to reflect his views and emotions; he wanted to be unique and different from the usual. The subtlety of Faure’s music, and his concentration on the small-scale, led many to criticise him for lacking depth, a judgement based on the mistaken premise that the bigger and bolder a composer’s music the more worthwhile it must be (Bawden J.
“Gabriel Faure). As to what Faure found himself interested in in the field of music, it has been said that The majority of Faure's piano music up to 1871 had mainly been romantic songs. Poems by Hugo, Gautier, and Baudelaire, had been recommended to him by his teachers. His early songs hint at his developing originality but were written in the strict classical style he had learned in school. It was characteristic of Faure, however, to constantly renew himself in his compositions.
He always wanted to try something new, something different that no one else had done; and he never followed the fads of his day, prefering instead to follow his heart. Thus his songs show a continuous personal and unique evolution (Martin, “Gabriel Faure”). It is this courage of his to change things, however, that made him face certain setbacks in his career when he joined the Madeleine as its choirmaster. There are individuals in his field who were not in favor of the changes that Gabriel Faure was introducing into the system.
As a choirmaster, Faure would always find himself in disagreement with members of the clergy. “The clergy were only concerned with keeping the congregation happy; and so their musical preferences were for popular, operatic-styled church music that was all the rage, rather than for enlightening religious music” (Martin, “Gabriel Faure”). Hence, it was quite difficult for Faure to introduce the changes that he wanted. As will be discussed further, Gabriel Faure’s most popular work which depicts his love for uniqueness is his Requiem Mass, which totally differs from the traditional Requiem.
In fact, In Armand Vivet's book on French sacred music he wrote of the first performance, "Immediately the ceremony was over. The vicar called Faure into the sacristy and questioned him as follows: "What was that mass for the dead you've just conducted? " "It was a requiem of my own composition. " "Monsieur Faure, we don't need all these novelties; the Madeleine's repertoire is quite rich enough, just content yourself with that. "" Family and Marriage Gabriel Faure was once engaged to Marianne Viadot. In 1877, Faure asked for Marianne’s hand in marriage.
It took quite a while, but eventually, the lady gave a positive response to the proposal posted by the bachelor. The problem was Marianne kept on postponing the date of their wedding, and “this continued delay was more than Faure could handle and he complained vehemently. Marianne used his outburst of frustration as an excuse to break off their engagement for good” (Martin, “Gabriel Faure”). True, the failed engagement to Marianne Viardot made Gabriel Faure sad and depressed, but later on, he would find himself recovering from this hurdle and agreeing to his friend, Marguerite Baugnies’ suggestion of being in an arranged marriage.
Mme. Baugnies found three possible young ladies who belonged to the artistic world: the daughters of Octave Feuillet and George Feydeau who were both writers; and the daughter of Emmanuel Fremiet, a well-known sculptor of the day. Unable to make up his mind, Faure hastily wrote the names down on slips of paper, placed them in a hat, and randomly picked Marie Fremiet, daughter of the sculptor. After a brief engagement, the wedding took place on March 27th, 1883 in Paris. (Martin, “Gabriel Faure”). In 1883 Faure married Marie Fremiet, with whom he had two sons.
In order to support his family Faure spent most of his time in organising daily services at the Eglise de la Madeleine and teaching piano and harmony lessons. He only had time to compose during the summers. He earned almost no money from his compositions because his publisher bought them, copyright and all, for 50 francs each. During this period Gabriel Faure wrote several large scale works, in addition to many piano pieces and songs, but he destroyed many of them after a few performances, only retaining a few movements in order to re-use motives(“Gabriel Faure”).
It could be his unique way of choosing his bride that led to an unhappy marriage. Later on, he would find out that he didn’t really share much in common with his wife. They talked less and grew apart despite being gifted with two children. In an account by Martin, she said that the couple would write each other letters to communicate even both of them were in one and the same city. The Latter Part of Faure’s Life “The last two decades of Gabriel Faure's life were marked by his steady rise to fame, his increasing health problems, and the new love in his life.
After serving as choirmaster for nineteen years, he became organist at the Madeleine in 1896. In the same year he also became Professor of Composition at the Paris Conservatoire” (Martin, “Gabriel Faure”). After his stint as organist, he joined the Paris Conservatoire as its director. It could be said that his success would have continued further, if not for the health problems that Faure had been experiencing. In 1902, Faure was having problems with is hearing.
Martin would say that this problem was hereditary as Faure’s brother also had the same problem. His hearing problem, however, was not an obstacle to his finding another chance to love again. The output of Faure had greatly reduced because of his responsibilities at the conservatoire combined with his loss of hearing . during the World War I, he remained in France and retired from the Conservatoire at the age of 75. in the same year he received the Grand-Croix of the Legion d’Honneur, an honor rare for a musician.
“In 1900 at the premiere of Promethee, Faure met and fell in love with Marguerite Hasselmans. She was born in 1876 and even though Faure was the same age as her father, nevertheless, they stayed together until the end of his life in 1924” (Martin, “Gabriel Faure”). Gabriel Faure died in Paris from pneumonia in 1924. He was given a state funeral at the Eglise de la Madeleine and is buried in the Cimetiere de Passy in Paris (“Gabriel Faure”). Legacy as a Composer and Music Teacher
Aside from his numerous musical masterpieces described as elegant, introspective and intimate, Faure 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 (“Gabriel Faure”). “Although he wrote several works involving a full orchestra, his particular talent lay within the more intimate musical forms – songs, piano music and chamber music.
His somewhat austere style and highly individual, impressionistic harmonic language contrasts markedly with the music of the Austro-German tradition which dominated European music from the time of Beethoven until well into the twentieth century”(Bawden, “Requiem”). “Gabriel Faure served as inspiration for crafting flexibility into their works. As performers, teachers, talented administrators, and church musicians they understood the fine art of composing pearls with limited forces which could then be jeweled for the concert hall” (McCauley M. , “Requiem”). The Requiem Mass of Faure
“The Requiem flourished during the Renaissance period, despite during the 14th century when the Roman church limited the amount of times the Requiem was performed and of what chants it consisted” (Green, “The Requiem Mass”). As earlier pointed out, Faure’s love for trying out new things is best mirrored in his Requiem Mass. His Requiem Mass is different from the traditional Requiem being played in the chapels and churches and that time. “By the time of the first performance, on January 16 1888, there were five movements: an Introit and Kyrie, the Sanctus, Pie Jesu, Agnus Dei, and In Paradisum.
To perform the work, Faure called for a mixed choir with divided tenors and basses, a soprano soloist, an orchestra of low strings (violas, cellos, and double basses), harp, timpani, and organ, with a violin solo in the Sanctus. He added an Offertoire in 1889, and added a setting of the Libera Me that he had written for baritone and organ some twelve years earlier. He added horns, trumpets, and trombones to the orchestra, and a baritone soloist, and this version was first performed at the Madeleine in January of 1893” (“Chorale Music Notes”).
Compared to the Missa pro defunctis, Faure changed portions of the text in his setting of the Requiem Mass. In the Libera me and Offertory for example, he left out certain words or repeated others so that the movement became more musically balanced and the words more clearly heard. The Libera me and In Paradisum actually don't belong to the Missa pro defunctis but to the Office for the Dead. Libera me is the prayer for absolution which follows the Requiem Mass; and the In Paradisum is spoken outside the church at the moment of burial.
The use of this last text in particular shows how much Faure wanted to break from tradition (Martin, “Gabriel Faure”). The most important feature of the Requiem mass is the reflection of the emotions and views of Faure towards the idea of death. Faure was recorded to have said "My Requiem... has been said to express no fear of death; it has been called a lullaby of death. But that is how I feel about death; a happy deliverance, a reaching for a happy deliverance, rather than a mournful passing... Perhaps I have sought to depart from what is conventional because for so long I was organist at services of interment.
I'm fed up with that. I wanted to do something different" (“Requiem-Gabriel Faure”). This kind of view made his Requiem lack the vibe of sadness and terror. In fact, some writers would say that there is a certain tone of sweetness in Faure’s Requiem, something that one cannot normally expect from any form of music associated with death. As confirmed by Bawden, ”the prevailing mood is one of peacefulness and serenity, and the work has often been described, quite justly, as a Requiem without the Last Judgement” (“Requiem”).
Faure originally designed this work to be functional for church services with appropriately conservative accompaniment: the organ supplemented by harp, tympani and strings generally omitting violins except in the Sanctus. The technique of backing off the violins for a more somber effect may have been an idea borrowed from Brahms (McCauley, “Requiem”). Besides numerous motets and a mass written for liturgical use, there's no question that Gabriel Faure's best known choral work is the Messe de Requiem.
Written between 1887 and 1890, the Requiem was written not for the death of his father, but as another experiment in Faure's endless quest to write music that was new and different (“Requiem”). Despite the discouraging start, Faure's Requiem did become popular during his lifetime and was played throughout Europe. Today it is still very popular and has been recorded more than any of his other works.
Gabriel Faure: Master of French Art Song. (2016, Dec 13). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/gabriel-faure-essay
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