Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life

by Jean-Michel Nectoux, Roger Nichols

Overview

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 In the process of writing this definitive study, he read more than 5000 previously unpublished letters and unearthed more than 120 musical manuscripts.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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521616959
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/16/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	676
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.42(d)

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

'J.-M. Nectoux's [book] on Fauré is as much literary as theoretical and, in spite of the enormous fund of information it contains, is more reflective than didactic. It is a superb demonstration of the possibilities of creative criticism.' L'Avant-Scène Opéra

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

From the Publisher