Gabriel Fauré
A Musical Life

This book traces Fauré's life and the rich cultural milieu in which he lived and worked.

Jean-Michel Nectoux (Author), Roger Nichols (Translated by)

9780521616959, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 16 December 2004

676 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 3.6 cm, 0.94 kg

'… marks a new stage in the understanding and “discovery” of this body of work.' Monde de la Musique

Jean-Michel Nectoux's important biography of Gabriel Fauré is the most comprehensive study yet of this central figure of fin de siecle France. It traces the composer's life and the rich cultural milieu in which he lived and worked: the world also of Saint-Saens, Flaubert, Verlaine, Ravel, Debussy and Proust. A large part of the book considers Fauré's music, with particular emphasis on his adjustment to the musical language of the twentieth century and the formation of his late style. Works in all genres are discussed in detail. The book is the fruit of over twenty years' research by Nectoux, the foremost authority on Gabriel Fauré. In the process of writing this definitive study, he read more than 5000 previously unpublished letters and unearthed more than 120 musical manuscripts. The book includes several rare photographs from Fauré's lifetime and contains an extended chronology of the composer's life, a complete chronological listing of all his own works and a detailed bibliography.

List of illustrations
Prelude
Acknowledgements
1. Gradus ad Parnassum
2. Scenes from provincial life
3. Friends and lovers
4. Fauré as pianist and organist
5. Roses for Des Esseintes: from the romance to the mélodie
6. Sotto voce: chamber music I
7. Choral music
8. The theatre I: operatic projects and incidental music
9. The Verlaine years: song cycles and further operatic projects
10. The theatre II: Prométhée
11. Works and days
12. Pomp and circumstance
13. Towards the twentieth century
14. The theatre III: Pénélope, Masques et Bergamasques
15. Words and music: the van Lerberghe years
16. The late piano works
17. Light and shade: chamber music II
18. Fauré 'modern style'
19. Ultima verba
20. Inner voices
Chronology
Chronological catalogue of Fauré's works
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH]