In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Gabriel Fauré.
Gabriel Fauré
1845-1924
As one of the leading French composers of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries, Gabriel Fauré played an integral role in the development of French music. Outside of his work as a composer, Fauré served as organist and choirmaster for several churches, including the Madeleine in Paris. Fauré was also an active member of the musical community as a regular visitor at the salons of Saint-Saëns and Pauline Viardot. He taught for many years at the Conservatoire de Paris and served as the director of the school from 1905 to 1921, where his most well-known pupils included Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger. Fauré lived in a period of rapid development in the world of French music, and the evolution of his own compositional style reflects this development. Through all of his works, however, Fauré maintains key stylistic elements, including the masterful creation of a sense of line and an individual approach to harmony. Today, his most known choral work is his Requiem, though he produced a significant body of other sacred and secular works for choir as well.
Suggested choral pieces:
- Cantique de Jean Racine
- Agnus Dei (from Requiem) (Oxford University Press 9780193361034)
- Pavane (Oxford University Press 9780193418189)