Fauré, Gabriel (Urbain) (1845–1924)

French composer. He wrote songs, chamber music, and a choral Requiem (1887–89). He was a pupil of Saint-Saëns, became professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire in 1896, and was its director 1905–20.

Fauré studied at Louis Niedermeyer's school of music in Paris 1854–66, and became church organist at Rennes in the latter year. He returned to Paris in 1870, became organist first at Saint-Sulpice and then at Saint-Honoré, and choirmaster at the Madeleine in 1877, being appointed organist there in 1896, a post he held until 1905. He had many distinguished composition pupils, including Maurice Ravel, George Enescu, and Charles Koechlin.

His early music, notably the song cycle La Bonne Chanson (1892–93), 1st violin sonata, and 1st piano quartet, was lyrical and contemplative in nature. His best known work, the Requiem, also dates from this period. He adopted a terser, more rigorous style at the turn of the century, with the open-air lyric drama Prométhée (1900), and continued in this style with the piano quintets and cello sonatas.

Works Stage opera Pénélope (1913); incidental music Pelléas et Mélisande (Maeterlinck; 1898).

Orchestral Pavane (1887), suite Masques et bergamasques (1919).

Chamber two piano quintets (D minor, C minor, 1906, 1921), two piano quartets (C minor, G minor, 1879, 1886); string quartet (1924); piano trio (1923); two sonatas for violin and piano (A major, E minor, 1876, 1926), two sonatas for cello and piano; pieces for violin and piano, cello and piano, and flute and piano.

Vocal Requiem for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra (1887–89); Messe basse for female voices and organ; 11 miscellaneous religious vocal pieces.

Solo piano 34 Op. nos. of piano music, including five Impromptus, 13 Barcarolles, four Valses-caprices, eight Nocturnes, Theme and Variations, nine Preludes; Dolly, six pieces for piano duet (1893–96).

Solo vocal 96 songs including cycles Poème d'un jour, La Bonne Chanson (Verlaine; 1892–93), La Chanson d'Eve (Charles van Lerberghe, 1906–10), L'Horizon chimérique (1921).