Notes for: July 19, 2016
Gabriel Fauré was the most influential figure, both composer and teacher, in the renaissance of French music that followed France’s defeat in 1871 in the Franco-Prussian War. Even before the war, French composers had become increasingly restive under the century-old German domination of European music. Now, the sight of Prussian soldiers marching down the Champs Elysées spurred their search for a French musical style to replace what they considered crushing German formalism. The primary sponsor of this French musical renaissance was the Société Nationale de Musique, founded by Camille Saint-Saëns in February 1871, a few days before the German occupation of Paris. With the motto “Ars Gallica,” the Society nurtured a new generation of “Gallic” composers — notably, Vincent D’Indy, Eduard Lalo, Henri Duparc, Emanuel Chabrier and Fauré. These men developed a new French idiom with an emphasis on finesse, delicacy and nuance, and thus laid the groundwork for the musical impressionism of Debussy and Ravel.
A strongly patriotic Frenchman, Fauré had enlisted in the light infantry during the war and had taken part in the unsuccessful effort to prevent the German siege of Paris. On his discharge in March 1871, he found in the Société a ready sponsor for his own quest for originality, and in 1874 he became the Société’s secretary. In that capacity, he arranged performances of his own music as well as that of several other young composers. Meanwhile, Fauré’s own reputation as a composer of both instrumental and vocal music was growing. In 1896 he succeeded Jules Massenet as professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory, where his most controversial pupil was Maurice Ravel. In 1905 he was appointed Conservatory director, a position he held for 15 years.
Over a period of 47 years, Fauré wrote a series of chamber works – two violin sonatas, two piano quartets, two piano quintets, two cello sonatas, a piano trio and a number of shorter pieces. These works all shared, to a greater or lesser degree, a highly personalized style featuring three elements: using piano arpeggios and other broken figures to create a fluid texture on which the music seems to float; endless resourcefulness in harmony based not on dissonant chords but on unexpected progressions and key changes within the bounds of traditional tonality; and subtle sinuous melodies that seem to grow out of the harmonic scheme.
Further, the Second Piano Quartet, composed in 1885-86, reflects the “cyclic” principle advanced by Fauré’s colleague César Franck – namely, tying together a multi-movement work by repeating one or more themes in more than one movement. However, while Franck repeated his cyclical themes without much change, Fauré subjected them to subtle variations in harmony and instrumentation. In this case, the main theme of the first movement is recalled in the second and fourth movements.
The quartet opens with the impassioned main theme that, in one form or another, dominates the first movement. The viola presents a tender and graceful second theme, but it is really another aspect of the opening theme, which soon returns. At the start of the development, there is a third theme, more peaceful, which alternates with the main theme, thereby changing the mood.
The scherzo is in perpetual motion. Against arpeggios in the piano left hand and string pizzicato figures, the piano right hand states the main theme with a swift rush of eighth notes, including some syncopation as this rushing motive persists. There is no contrasting trio, but two themes from the first movement appear again. First, the gentle third theme is heard, changed from duple to triple rhythm in a more vigorous style, followed by the strong main theme of the first movement changed into a serene and expressive melody.
The slow movement is the high point of the quartet. At first, a mysterious carillon on the piano alternates with a meditative song played by the viola. The piano’s repeated pattern of rocking fifths sounds intermittently throughout the movement. They were meant, according to Fauré, to resemble the evening bells in a village near his childhood home. The theme, elusive at first, eventually takes shape, expanding and mounting in tension. The carillon reappears, heralding the second theme, a long melody that resembles the first.
The mood is broken by the outburst of triplets that opens the finale. This is followed by a warmer melody, flowing in graceful curves, but with the triplets trying to break through. There is a more powerful and demanding second theme, again punctuated by the triplets, which is actually a variant of the first movement’s third theme. Then, the third theme refers back to the main theme of the first movement. This movement ends with a merging of these various themes, with the triplets always present.