Gabriel Fauré was drawn to music from an early age. As he recalled,
I grew up, a rather quiet, well-behaved child, in an area of great beauty. The only thing I clearly remember is the harmonium in that little chapel. Every time I could get away, I ran there, and I regaled myself. I played atrociously, no method at all, quite without technique, but I do remember that I was happy.
He studied music at the École Niedermeyer (also known as the École de musique classique et religieuse, or “School of Classical and Religious Music”) first with its founder, Louis Niedermeyer, and after Niedermeyer died in 1861, with Camille Saint-Saëns. Saint-Saëns was somewhat unconventional, introducing his pupils both to the music of Bach and Mozart and the works of controversial artists like Wagner and Liszt, and Fauré proved equally willing to follow his own path. He eschewed the Conservatoire de Paris that most of his peers attended and continued studying with Saint-Saëns, who helped him make connections and publish his works. Fauré eventually ended up at the Conservatoire as a professor of composition, serving as its director from 1905 to 1920. His students included Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger.
In 1865, Fauré’s final year at the École Niedermeyer, he won first prize in composition for Cantique de Jean Racine (Hymn of Jean Racine). A significant 17th-century French poet and playwright, Jean Racine made a 1688 French translation of several portions of the Roman Breviary (the psalms, readings, and hymns recited on specific days of the week at prescribed times). For Cantique de Jean Racine, Fauré chose Racine’s paraphrase of a hymn for Tuesday Matins, Consors paterni luminis (O Christ, who share the father’s light). Racine’s text is a plea to God for the “fire of his powerful grace,” the people’s only hope for redemption. While Fauré scored his 1865 version for choir and organ, in 1866, he rewrote it for string quartet and harmonium, a type of reed organ. Fauré revisited Cantique yet again in 1906, adding winds and horns. When it was published around 1875, Fauré dedicated Cantique de Jean Racine to César Franck. New orchestrations continue to be created today, including a famous version by John Rutter for choir, orchestra, and harp, published in 1997. Although the Cantique de Jean Racine is one of Fauré’s earliest pieces, it is often performed with and compared to his famous Requiem. Fauré counters the text’s dramatic imagery and invocations of fire and hell with remarkable beauty and serenity, creating a soundscape of the eternal peace for which the speakers in Racine’s text long.
© 2024 Jennifer More
