Reg Hall
Ashgate
Hardback
416
The career of Gabriel Faur? as a composer of songs for voice and piano traverses six decades (1862-1921), almost the whole history of French m?lodie is contained within these parameters. In the 1860s Faur?, the lifelong prot?g? of Camille Saint-Sa?ns, was a suavely precocious student, he was part of Pauline Viardot?»s circle in the 70s and he nearly married her daughter. Pointed in the direction of symbolist poetry by Robert de Montesquiou in 1886 and admired by Proust, Faur? was the favoured composer of the Princesse de Polignac by the early 1890s. In 1905 he became Director of the Paris Conservatoire and he composed his most profound music in old age. The distinguished accompanist and song scholar Graham Johnson places the vocal music within twin contexts: Faur??»s own life story, and the parallel lives of his many poets. Each of Faur??»s 109 songs receives a separate commentary. Additional chapters for the student singer and serious music-lover discuss interpretation and performance in both aesthetical and practical terms. Richard Stokes provides parallel English translations of the original French texts.
Ashgate
Hardback
416
The career of Gabriel Faur? as a composer of songs for voice and piano traverses six decades (1862-1921), almost the whole history of French m?lodie is contained within these parameters. In the 1860s Faur?, the lifelong prot?g? of Camille Saint-Sa?ns, was a suavely precocious student, he was part of Pauline Viardot?»s circle in the 70s and he nearly married her daughter. Pointed in the direction of symbolist poetry by Robert de Montesquiou in 1886 and admired by Proust, Faur? was the favoured composer of the Princesse de Polignac by the early 1890s. In 1905 he became Director of the Paris Conservatoire and he composed his most profound music in old age. The distinguished accompanist and song scholar Graham Johnson places the vocal music within twin contexts: Faur??»s own life story, and the parallel lives of his many poets. Each of Faur??»s 109 songs receives a separate commentary. Additional chapters for the student singer and serious music-lover discuss interpretation and performance in both aesthetical and practical terms. Richard Stokes provides parallel English translations of the original French texts.