845 – BIRTH AND EARLY MUSICAL SPARKGabriel Urbain Fauré is born in Pamiers, southwest France, the youngest of six. Raised by a foster-nurse until age four. Moves to Foix, where his father becomes director of an École Normale. Recalls a quiet childhood and a fascination with the harmonium in the school chapel: “I played atrociously. But I do remember that I was happy.”

1854 – ‘ATROCIOUS’ TURNS PRECOCIOUSAt nine, travels with his father to Paris as a trainee organist/choirmaster at the new École Niedermeyer. Studies plainsong, counterpoint, fugue, and early church music. In 1861, 25-year-old Saint-Saëns joins the faculty, expanding his musical horizons with works of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, and Wagner.

1865 – GRADUATION AND FIRST COMPOSITIONS
Graduates with top prizes in fugue, counterpoint, and composition for the serene Cantique de Jean Racine, 
Op. 11. Saint-Saëns helps him land a post as organist in Rennes in rural Brittany. Composition becomes largely a summer pursuit for several decades, taking a back seat to earning a living as an organist and teacher. 

1871 – PARIS CHURCHES AND SALONSServes in the Franco-Prussian War. Returns to Paris as assistant organist at St. Sulpice. Moves easily through the salons of Saint-Saëns and Pauline Viardot, befriending leading artists, writers and potential patrons. Falls hopelessly for Viardot’s daughter. Helps Saint-Saens co-found the Société Nationale de Musique along with Chabrier, Duparc, Lalo, and d’Indy, to champion new French music.

1876 – GROWING RECOGNITION
First Violin Sonata earns long-overdue acclaim, praised for its seamless lyricism, harmonic subtlety, and formal grace. Other early highlights include the First Piano Quartet, Ballade for piano, and many songs, including Après un rêve. After years deputizing for Saint-Saëns, appointed choirmaster, then principal organist at La Madeleine in Paris. His liturgical experience shapes his choral writing. Travels to Weimar and German centers, meets Liszt, and sees Wagner productions—including the full Ring in London—though Wagner leaves little mark on his music.

1883 – MARRIAGE, BUT NO ROYALTIES
Marries Marie Fremiet, daughter of a renowned sculptor. They have two sons. Despite lasting affection, finds her difficult and withdrawn—she calls herself “the zero of the family” in a 1904 card to Saint-Saëns. Continues the grind of private teaching to support the family. Unlike Chopin, Fauré’s pupils do not arrive in carriages, and he lacks Chopin’s savvy with publishers, selling chansons for 50 francs with no royalties.

1888 – REQUIEM AND NEW DIRECTIONS
In the wake of his parents’ deaths, composes the Requiem, first heard at the Madeleine funeral of a parishioner. Sees death as a “happy deliverance...rather than a painful experience.” Spends 25 years refining a full-orchestra version. Abandons attempts at symphonies and a Violin Concerto. Writes orchestral incidental music for Caligula, Op. 52, and Shylock, Op. 57, calling it the only form “suited to my meagre talents.”

1891 – SUMMER COMPOSER, NEW PATRONAGEConfined to composing in summer months, away from work and an unrewarding marriage. Has several discreet affairs. Depression—or what he calls ‘spleen’—sets in. The wealthy Princesse de Polignac invites him to Venice and becomes a patron. 
In 1892, trades teaching for travel, appointed Inspector of national conservatories across France.

1894 – EMMA BARDAC
A happy six-year liaison with Emma Bardac (later Debussy’s second wife) inspires the passionate song cycle La bonne chanson and other, often passionate songs. He dedicates the charming Dolly Suite (1894–96) to her daughter Hélène (‘Dolly’), widely believed to be his own child.

1896 – CONSERVATOIRE APPOINTMENTBecomes head organist at the Madeleine (June) and teacher of composition at the Conservatoire (October). Students include Ravel, Enescu, Schmitt, Koechlin, and Boulanger, who admire his refined harmonic language and economy of means.

1905 – DIRECTOR OF THE PARIS CONSERVATOIRE
Named Director of the Conservatoire, he reforms the curriculum, modernizes the institution, and champions contemporary French music. A late-career creative surge follows, including the opera Pénélope, piano nocturnes and barcarolles, song cycles and chamber music. His style becomes more harmonically complex and introspective. Still, his works continue to be heard in the grand salons of Paris and during annual visits to London, where he also finds patrons, leading to incidental music for Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande. 

1910 – INCREASING DEAFNESS AND CREATIVE FOCUS
Continued hearing loss, severe by 1910, distorts his perception of sound. Yet he continues composing, refining textures and paring materials to essentials. The war years prove intensely productive, yielding lean, powerful works like the Second Violin Sonata, First Cello Sonata, the Fantaisie for piano and orchestra, and the song cycle Le jardin clos.

1920 – RETIREMENT, OFFICIAL HONORS, AND A CONTINUING ‘INDIAN SUMMER’

Retires from the Conservatoire and receives the Grand Cross of the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest honor. At 75, he produces chamber masterpieces: the Second Cello Sonata, Nocturne No. 13, L’horizon chimérique, the forward-looking Piano Quintet No. 2, and the spare, introspective Piano Trio and String Quartet—his final, deeply inward-looking works.

1924 – DEATH AND LEGACY
Dies in Paris on November 4, 1924, at 79, honored with a state funeral at La Madeleine. Though less celebrated than Debussy or Ravel, Fauré helped shape the shift from Romanticism to modernism. His refined forms, harmonic daring, and emotional restraint became hallmarks of 20th century French style. Through his teaching, he shaped a generation. Through his music, he voiced a French sensibility—lucid, interior, and timeless.