Fauré's early masterpiece | Après un rêve, op. 7, no. 1 (Score + Analysis)

Details

Description

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was a French composer of the late Romantic period.

Trois mélodies is an early set of songs (mélodies, French art songs) written by the composer for voice and piano. The first song, "Après un rêve" (After a dream) was written by the singer and poet Romain Bussine, freely adapted from an anonymous Italian poem. Composed in the 1870's, the song has since become one of Fauré's most popular vocal pieces and has been transcribed to a variety of musical instruments, famously for Cello.

In my harmonic and melodic analysis, I aspire to highlight Fauré's restrained approach to writing for voice and piano. One may notice that he avoids extremes - in singing range, in harmonic pull between V and I, and in texture. At a glance, it would seem that Fauré prefers simplicity over complexity, but he complements that thought by ingenious subtleties and nuances. He maintains great balance between the voice part and the piano accompaniment and paints a sweeping emotional picture through calculated dissonance and shifts in melodic patterns and harmonic rhythms.

Performance:
Voice: Véronique Gens
Piano: Roger Vignoles