FAURÉ, GABRIEL URBAIN

Precursor of 20th-century music; b. Pamiers (Ariège), France, May 12, 1845; d. Paris, Nov. 4, 1924. Fauré, sixth child of a nonmusical family, was educated at École Niedermeyer, Paris, an institute dedicated to the betterment of church music. He was both maître de chapelle and organist at the Madeleine, as well as professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory, and from 1905, its director. Among his students were Nadia Boulanger, Ravel, and Florent Schmitt. His dramatic compositions are unremarkable, and his work for organ and orchestra is negligible; but his songs, piano works, and chamber music innovated a daring individuality of style whose elements, such as the modality, inventive extensions of harmonic relations, independence in use of dissonance, and preoccupation with rhythm and texture, grew more austere and inventive with his creative maturity. The Requiem (1887–88), the climax of some uninspired sacred writings comprising a Messe Basse and a few short works, embodied his religious faith and hope for eternal rest. Thus he omitted the Sequence (Dies Irae ) except for the last line, "Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem," which replaced the Benedictus. The work, supported by organ, incorporates his somewhat romanticist early style. It reflects little of the Gregorian tradition, though there is some modal coloring and occasional polyphony. This Mass is a gentle prayer that foretells in its simplicity Fauré's later style and the emotional restraint of the next generation.

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[v. raad]