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Gabriel Fauré: The Songs and their Poets (Guildhall Research Studies) 1st Edition

by Graham Johnson (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 11 ratings
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The career of Gabriel Fauré as a composer of songs for voice and piano traverses six decades (1862-1921); almost the whole history of French mélodie is contained within these parameters. In the 1860s Fauré, the lifelong protégé of Camille Saint-Saëns, was a suavely precocious student; he was part of Pauline Viardot's circle in the 1870s and he nearly married her daughter. Pointed in the direction of symbolist poetry by Robert de Montesquiou in 1886, Fauré was the favoured composer from the early 1890s of Winnarretta Singer, later Princesse de Polignac, and his songs were revered by Marcel Proust. In 1905 he became director of the Paris Conservatoire, and he composed his most profound music in old age. His existence, steadily productive and outwardly imperturbable, was undermined by self-doubt, an unhappy marriage and a tragic loss of hearing. In this detailed study Graham Johnson places the vocal music within twin contexts: Fauré's own life story, and the parallel lives of his many poets. We encounter such giants as Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine, the patrician Leconte de Lisle, the forgotten Armand Silvestre and the Belgian symbolist Charles Van Lerberghe. The chronological range of the narrative encompasses Fauré's first poet, Victor Hugo, who railed against Napoleon III in the 1850s, and the last, Jean de La Ville de Mirmont, killed in action in the First World War. In this comprehensive and richly illustrated study each of Fauré's 109 songs receives a separate commentary. Additional chapters for the student singer and serious music lover discuss interpretation and performance in both aesthetical and practical terms. Richard Stokes provides parallel English translations of the original French texts. In the twenty-first century musical modernity is evaluated differently from the way it was assessed thirty years ago. Fauré is no longer merely a 'Master of Charms' circumscribed by the belle époque. His status as a great composer of timeless
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  1. ISBN-10
    0754659607
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0754659600
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Routledge
  5. Publication date
    October 20, 2009
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.75 x 1.5 x 10 inches
  8. Print length
    488 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

'There aren't enough superlatives in my vocabulary for the task at hand; we'd need a francophile Shakespeare to do this book justice. At last, Fauré receives the kind of thoroughgoing advocacy he has long deserved - and it could only come both from a musician who knows this oeuvre inside out from years of playing and teaching it, and a scholar who has absorbed all of the literature on and autour de Fauré. What Johnson uniquely does is to ground all that Fauré-ness in a detailed, practical, feet-on-the-ground examination of the songs, contextualized and explained in exquisite detail. To cap it all off, I gulped down this book as if it were a particularly entrancing novel because it is written to the hilt. What I find most compelling is the very serious intensity of Johnson's mission: to inform music-lovers about everything - the historical context, the poets, the events of Fauré's life, his composer's opinions on a wide variety of matters, his unique tonal language - pertaining to these very great, and little-understood, songs. This book is crammed to the gills with information, all of it valuable. All lovers of French music will wonder what they ever did before this book became available.' -Susan Youens, J.W. Van Gorkom Professor of Music, University of Notre Dame, USA ’No better guide ... could be found than Graham Johnson, one of our leading accompanists and someone whose knowledge of the entire song repertoire would be hard to match. As a performer who has spent a lifetime interpreting this music ... Johnson knows it inside out. But he also possesses a deep understanding of each song’s position within Fauré’s own life, and indeed within the wider French cultural environment as a whol e... Richard Stokes’s translations of the texts aligned with the originals are an added bonus ... an ideal guide to one of the most important figures in the song repertoire, valuable to performers and listeners alike.’ BBC Music Magazine ’... an excellent survey co

About the Author

Graham Johnson’s career as a distinguished concert accompanist has always encompassed his activities as a scholar of song and planner of recital programmes. Founder of the Songmakers’ Almanac, he has written the notes for his recordings of the complete songs of Schubert and Schumann. Author of A French Song Companion and Britten: Voice and Piano (the latter for Ashgate) he has masterminded Hyperion Record’s French Song Edition, including the complete Chabrier and Fauré songs. He was appointed OBE in 1994 and Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres in 2002. He is Senior Professor of accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (October 20, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 488 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0754659607
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0754659600
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.73 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.75 x 1.5 x 10 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 11 ratings

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
11 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Claudia Hommel
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and inspiring
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2016
Verified Purchase
For those who love poetry and song, who have the opportunity to listen to various recordings of the Fauré songs, this is a fabulous book. It is insightful, intriguing, and inspiring. I wish I'd known of it before launching my own Jazz Fauré Project. As I continue to explore the songs, I return to Johnson's book again and again. Beautifully prepared with illustrations, glossaries.
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Byron Adams
5.0 out of 5 stars Fauré
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2021
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A most enjoyable and valuable survey.
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C. Orde
5.0 out of 5 stars A reference guide to cherish
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2010
Don't let the term "Research Studies" put you off. This is anything but a dry academic textbook. Although it is a scholarly work, packed with all kinds of information -- musical, cultural and historical -- the information is always presented in a very readable, approachable and personal way, which makes it as much a book to dip into for pleasure as one to consult for reference. The text is informative without being overly didactic. It is humorous and at times witty but not exaggeratedly so. Johnson often voices his personal opinions but is never opinionated or patronising. His sympathy with Fauré and love of his songs shine through. What adds value to this book is that it is written from the perspective of someone with a lifetime's performing experience of the works discussed, rather than from that of a musicologist who's good on theory but has never ventured onto a concert platform to play or sing them. It is a happy bonus that Johnson's writing style is so elegant. The book takes the reader on a journey through Fauré's life via his songs, pretty much in chronological sequence. Johnson divides up the life and songs in fourteen chapters. A couple more chapters deal with general considerations relating to style and performance. There are rehearsal notes for each song with information on metronome markings and suggested tempi. Of particular interest are the insights on Fauré's own tastes and performance practice, and some fascinating observations from some of the singers with whom the composer worked, as well as those of contemporary composers and literary figures of the period. One Appendix deals with opus number groupings and another discusses tonalities. A general index is followed by an index of poets and settings and a further index of song titles. Richard Stokes' translations are excellent, striking a nice balance between the literal and the literary.

The physical book itself is a joy to handle. The paper is thick and smooth (a good choice for optimum reproduction of the many photographs), the typefaces are crisp and clear and there are illustrations (all black and white) on almost every other page. My only quibble is that the back is glued not sewn. The illustrations consist mainly of contemporary photos and portraits, reproductions of the covers of first editions and musical examples or extracts. The illustrations are generally no larger than quarter-page in size, so there is no sense of being cheated of text. Far from it, the 427 pages of text before you get to Appendixes and Indexes will keep any devotee of Fauré happy for a long while. It seems that Johnson has covered every aspect. The amount of research that has gone into this expensive book makes it worth the price to any singer or pianist. It's not just a book one ought to own, it's a book that is a rare treat to have, to hold and to cherish.
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Dring Fan
5.0 out of 5 stars THE Faure Song guide
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2020
Johnson has done it again! His dedication to song literature is unsurpassed and this book is a must have for voice teachers and lovers of great song literature. I recommend anything he has written or recorded ever!
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Top reviews from other countries

LuMW
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book - full of information about Faure
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2015
Verified Purchase
An excellent book - full of information about Faure, his associates, poets, contemporaries as well as his songs. If you are looking for information on singing his songs, this book is invaluable.
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