From
the age of nine Fauré studied music at the École Niedermeyer, the ‘École de
musique religieuse et classique’, where Saint-Saëns was a member of staff.
Saint-Saëns was regarded as a progressive teacher, introducing his pupils
not only to the music of Bach and Mozart but also to controversial composers
such as Wagner and Liszt. Unlike most major French composers, Fauré did not
attend the Paris Conservatoire but continued his studies with Saint-Saëns,
who greatly encouraged him by putting work his way and helping him to get
his music published. The two became lifelong friends and Fauré later said
that he owed everything to Saint-Saëns.
Fauré was a fine organist
and in 1896 was appointed to the prestigious Madeleine church in Paris. He
was also an excellent teacher, and perhaps because of his renowned expertise
as organist and teacher only slowly gained recognition as a composer. He
eventually became professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, and
its Director from 1905 to 1920. Although he wrote several works involving a
full orchestra, his particular talent lay within the more intimate musical
forms – songs, piano music and chamber music. His somewhat austere style and
highly individual, impressionistic harmonic language contrasts markedly with
the music of the Austro-German tradition which dominated European music from
the time of Beethoven until well into the twentieth century.
The subtlety of Fauré’s
music, and his concentration on the small-scale, led many to criticise him
for lacking depth, a judgement based on the mistaken premise that the bigger
and bolder a composer’s music the more worthwhile it must be. Fauré
deliberately avoided the grander kind of orchestral music that could easily
have brought him fame and fortune. He preferred instead to embrace an
elegant and subtle musical language that has won him increasing numbers of
admirers, particularly as a composer of songs, a genre in which he is now
recognised as a master.
The Requiem was
composed in 1888, when Fauré was in his forties, quite probably in response
to the recent death of his father. Shortly after its first performance,
Faure’s mother also died, giving the work an added poignancy. In 1900, under
some pressure from his publishers, he reluctantly agreed to the release of a
revised version containing additional instrumental parts designed to broaden
the work’s appeal. Nowadays it is such a firm favourite that it comes as a
surprise to learn that it did not gain widespread popularity until the
nineteen-fifties.
In its sequence of movements the Requiem departs significantly from
the standard liturgical text. Fauré included two new sections, the lyrical
Pie Jesu and the transcendent In Paradisum, with its soaring vocal line and
murmuring harp accompaniment. He also omitted the Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum -
for most composers an opportunity to exploit to the full the dramatic
possibilities of all the available choral and orchestral forces.
Consequently the prevailing mood is one of peacefulness and serenity, and
the work has often been described, quite justly, as a Requiem without the
Last Judgement.
Of the many settings of
the Requiem, this is probably the most widely loved. In comparison
with the large-scale masterpieces of Verdi, Brahms and Berlioz, Faure’s
setting seems gentle and unassuming, yet it is this very quality of
understatement which contributes so eloquently to the work’s universal
appeal. Whether the Requiem is performed in one of its orchestral
versions or simply with organ accompaniment, it is impossible not to be
moved by the ethereal beauty of this humble masterpiece.
