Regarding Fauré
Edited and translated by Dr. Tom Gordon
Gabriel
Fauré (1845-1924) was the most advanced French composer of
his generation, one of the great masters of French song and a director
of the Paris Conservatoire. Trouble is, many people have never heard
of him. And sadly, many scholars tend to gloss over his contributions.
Tom Gordon, director of Memorial’s School of Music, is out to
change that. In 1995 he organized a conference at Bishop’s University
in Quebec to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Fauré’s
birth. He then compiled several of the papers delivered at the conference
to create Regarding Fauré, a collection of 14 essays
on the little known figure.
“Fauré is a composer who has always been in the shadow
of other composers,” Dr. Gordon laments, “because he had
the misfortune of living around the same time of Debussy and Ravel
and because he was also a generation older.”
As a result, history has tended to peg this “elder statesman
of music” as “the old conservative,” an unfair assessment
in Dr. Gordon’s view. The 14 essays that comprise Regarding
Fauré create a much richer portrayal of the maligned master
as a decidedly avant garde composer with great historical and
scholarly significance.
The essays are grouped into four sections — Context and Criticism,
Mentor and Métier, Analytic Approaches and Les mélodies
— and tackle Fauré from many different points of view.
There are scientific analyses of his repertoire; there are assessments
of the importance of text in his music; and there are attempts to
connect his work to the socio-cultural landscape of the time.
Dr.
Tom Gordon
What emerges is an indispensable study
of the composer Dr. Gordon calls “the performers’ favourite,”
one whose works are performed much more often than his better-known
contemporaries.
“Although Fauré remains obscure to a lot of listeners
who know Beethoven, Bach, Brahms or Debussy, he actually was a composer
that generated a lot of interest from performers,” Dr. Gordon
noted.
“And he probably deserves to be looked at a little more than
he is.”
Regarding Fauré is the 19th volume in Musicology: A
Book Series, published by Gordon and Breach, Amsterdam.
Regarding Fauré
Edited and translated by Dr. Tom Gordon
Gabriel
Fauré (1845-1924) was the most advanced French composer of
his generation, one of the great masters of French song and a director
of the Paris Conservatoire. Trouble is, many people have never heard
of him. And sadly, many scholars tend to gloss over his contributions.
Tom Gordon, director of Memorial’s School of Music, is out to
change that. In 1995 he organized a conference at Bishop’s University
in Quebec to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Fauré’s
birth. He then compiled several of the papers delivered at the conference
to create Regarding Fauré, a collection of 14 essays
on the little known figure.
“Fauré is a composer who has always been in the shadow
of other composers,” Dr. Gordon laments, “because he had
the misfortune of living around the same time of Debussy and Ravel
and because he was also a generation older.”
As a result, history has tended to peg this “elder statesman
of music” as “the old conservative,” an unfair assessment
in Dr. Gordon’s view. The 14 essays that comprise Regarding
Fauré create a much richer portrayal of the maligned master
as a decidedly avant garde composer with great historical and
scholarly significance.
The essays are grouped into four sections — Context and Criticism,
Mentor and Métier, Analytic Approaches and Les mélodies
— and tackle Fauré from many different points of view.
There are scientific analyses of his repertoire; there are assessments
of the importance of text in his music; and there are attempts to
connect his work to the socio-cultural landscape of the time.
Dr.
Tom Gordon
What emerges is an indispensable study
of the composer Dr. Gordon calls “the performers’ favourite,”
one whose works are performed much more often than his better-known
contemporaries.
“Although Fauré remains obscure to a lot of listeners
who know Beethoven, Bach, Brahms or Debussy, he actually was a composer
that generated a lot of interest from performers,” Dr. Gordon
noted.
“And he probably deserves to be looked at a little more than
he is.”
Regarding Fauré is the 19th volume in Musicology: A
Book Series, published by Gordon and Breach, Amsterdam.
