Gabriel Fauré - Barcarolle 모음

Gabriel Fauré

 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, nocturnes for piano and the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune". Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style.

- Barcarolles Nos. 1-6, Vol. I (1880-96)  

Barcarolles Nos. 1-6

1. Barcarolle No.1 in A minor, Op.26 (1880)
Dedication: Mme Montigny-Rémaury
2. Barcarolle No.2 in G major, Op.41 (1885) (4:42)
Dedication: Marie Poitevin
3. Barcarolle No.3 in G♭ major, Op.42 (1885) (11:14)
Dedication: Henriette Roger-Jourdain
4. Barcarolle No.4 in A♭ major, Op.44 (1886) (18:38)
Dedication: Madame Ernest Chausson
5. Barcarolle No.5 in F♯ minor, Op.66 (1893) (22:27)
Dedication: Mme la Baronne V. d'Indy
6. Barcarolle No.6 in E♭ major, Op.70 (1896) (28:28)


Jean-Philippe Collard, piano

Barcarolles were originally folk songs sung by Venetian gondoliers. In Morrison's phrase, Fauré's use of the term was more convenient than precise. Fauré was not attracted by fanciful titles for musical pieces, and maintained that he would not use even such generic titles as "barcarolle" if his publishers did not insist. His son Philippe recalled, "he would far rather have given his Nocturnes, Impromptus, and even his Barcarolles the simple title Piano Piece no. so-and-so." Nevertheless, following the precedents of Chopin and most conspicuously Mendelssohn, Fauré made extensive use of the barcarolle, in what his biographer Jessica Duchen calls "an evocation of the rhythmic rocking and lapping of water around appropriately lyrical melodies."

Fauré's ambidexterity is reflected in the layout of many of his piano works, notably in the barcarolles, where the main melodic line is often in the middle register, with the accompaniments in the high treble part of the keyboard as well as in the bass. Duchen likens the effect of this in the barcarolles to that of a reflection shining up through the water.

Like the nocturnes, the barcarolles span nearly the whole of Fauré's composing career, and they similarly display the evolution of his style from the uncomplicated charm of the early pieces to the withdrawn and enigmatic quality of the late works. All are written with compound time signatures (6/8 or 9/8), except number 7, which is in 6/4.

Barcarolles Nos. 7-13

1. Barcarolle No.7 in D minor, Op.90 (1905)
2. Barcarolle No.8 in D♭ major, Op.96 (1906) (3:08)
Dedication: Suzanne Alfred-Bruneau
3. Barcarolle No.9 in A minor, Op.101 (1909) (6:29)
4. Barcarolle No.10 in A minor, Op.104 No.2 (1913) (10:31)
Dedication: Madame Léon Blum
5. Barcarolle No.11 in G minor, Op.105 (1913) (13:28)
Dedication: Laura Albéniz.
6. Barcarolle No.12 in E♭ major, Op.106 (1915) (17:25)
Dedication: Louis Diémer,
7. Barcarolle No.13 in C major, Op.116 (1921) (20:29)
Dedication: Magda Gumaelius

Jean-Philippe Collard, piano