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Gabriel Faure's "La Bonne Chanson", Opus 61 and "La Chanson d'Eve", Opus 95: Musical diversity versus thematic unity. Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Marsh, Stephanie. Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 23/09/2021 15:29:58 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/187187 INFORMATION TO USERS This maD1)script ,has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted Thus, some thesis and dissenation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from auy type of computer printer. TIle quality of tldl reprodactloa is depeadeat DpOa the quIlty of the COP1 ......tted. 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Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howelllnformalion Company 300 North 2eeb Road. Ann Arbor. MI481Q6-1346 USA 313!761-4700 8OO:S21-Q6()() GABRIEL FAURE'S LA BONNE CHANSON OPUS 61 AND LA CHANSON D 'EVE OPUS 95: MUSICAL DIVERSITY VERSUS THEMATIC UNITY by Stephanie Marsh A Document Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF MUSIC In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS WITH A MAJOR IN PERFORMANCE In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 1995 OMI Number: 9534692 OMI Microform 9534692 Copyright 1995, by OMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the document prepared by ____S_t_e~p_h_a_n_i_e_M_a_r_s_h ____________________ __ entitled GABRIEL FAURE'S LA BONNE CHANSON OPUS 61 AND LA CHANSON D'EVE OPUS 95: MUSICAL DIVERSITY VERSUS THEMATIC UNITY and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the requirements Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this document is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copy of the document to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this document prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the requirement. d~---- Director 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This document has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this document are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: / ~ Lid 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS UST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ................................ 5 UST OF TABLES ...................................... 6 ABSTRACT .......................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ....................................... 8 CHAPTER 1 - LA BONNE CHANSON . .. 12 Verlaine's Literary Themes as Unification Devices ............. 12 Five Musical Themes as Unification Devices . .. 16 CHAPTER 2 - TWO VERSIONS OF LA BONNE CHANSON . .. 20 Texture of Voice and String Quartet ...................... 20 Texture of Voice and Piano ........................... 25 CHAPTER 3 - LA CHANSON D 'EVE . 31 CHAPTER 4 - SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS .... .. 37 APPENDIX A - MUSICAL EXAMPLES ...................... 39 SOURCES .......................................... 61 REFERENCES ....................................... 63 5 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1, La Bonne chanson, Theme A ......................... 18 Figure 2, La Bonne chanson, Theme B ......................... 18 Figure 3, La Bonne chanson, Theme C ......................... 19 Figure 4, La Bonne chanson, Themes D and E .................... 19 Figure 5, La Chanson d'Eve, Themes A and B .................... 33 6 LIST OF TABLES Table I, La Bonne chanson ............................... 14 Table 2, La Chanson d'Eve . 33 7 ABSTRACT This document is a study of the musical and literary unity Gabriel Faure applied to the La Bonne chanson, Opus 61 and La Chanson d'Eve, Opus 95. This paper further is an in depth examination of the two versions of La Bonne chanson and how Faure uses the colorful string texture to specifically illustrate thematic material as well as textual themes. The original string quintet version will be analyzed in the voicing of string accompaniment illustrating just how Faure eliminates these unifying themes in each string color juxtaposed with thematic material in the piano accompaniment as well. In the second version, which is piano/vocal, these musical themes are far less distinct to the listener due to the complex thematic texture of the accompaniment. 8 Introduction "The art of imagination consists in trying to fonnulate all one's desires for the best, everything that goes beyond reality ... For me art, and music above all, consists in lifting us as far as possible above what is. "1 These words written by Gabriel Faure in a letter to his son Phillippe in 1908 are a reflection of the faith he held in the art of music, and in what he held as a standard in his composition of music. Faure had his own unique musical style or signature which developed out of his exposure to the musical masters of his time, and those who preceeded him. Faure was born in 1845, and his musical studies began at an early age. He entered the Ecole Niedenneyer in 1855 at the age of ten and remained there untiil 1865 where he studied composition with Prof. Camille Saint-Saens. Saint-Saens introduced the young Faure to the style and chromaticism of Lizst and Wagner. Faure was later organist at Saint­ Sulpice where he was assistant to the great organist Widor. He was later organist at the Church of the Madaleine in Paris. In 1896, Faure was appointed professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire where Ambroise Thomas was then director. In 1905 Faure himself became the Director of the Conservatoire, a post he held until 1920, when he was forced to resign due to loss of hearing. He retired with the "grand cordon" of the Legion of Honor. Faure arrived at his own musical language after emulating composers he admired: Lizst, Mendelssohn, Chopin and Schumann. Faure also had exposure to Wagner, and we know through his correspondence with Debussy that Wagner's innovations did not go 9 unnoticed by the two French composers. Faure frequently traveled to Bayreuth with Debussy where he attended Parsifal, Die Meistersinger von Nurenburg and Der Ring des Niebelungen. Faure and Debussy agreed that Wagner's innovations could not be disregarded. When contemplating Faure's musical achievements in attaining the mysterious uplifting force that lies at the heart of great art music, one can easily call to mind the sublime movements in his Requiem, the Pie Jesu, the Angus Dei, the Pavane, the Suite Masque et Bergamasque (op. 69), and the melodies lei-bas, Apres un Reve, and Clair de Lune to name but a few. The goal of the symbolist movement, of which he was a part and by which he was inspired, was to remove the listener from the perceived reality and experience the essence (symbol) of that art, be it literature, music or visual. Roughly half of his melodie are based on the settings of the symbolist poets Maeterlinck, Baudelaire, Verlaine and van Lerberghe. In studying the nine songs which comprise the symbolist cycle La Bonne chanson, op. 61, one is continually reminded of the goal Faure held before him: expressing the inexpressible. Faure himself said of the construction of La Bonne chanson: "There is really only one theme in the various songs of La Bonne chanson; it comes from my song 'Lydia' and refers to a singer" (possibly Madame Emma Bardac to whom La Bonne chanson is dedicated).2 Faure later admitted that other secondary themes also unify the cycle. In choosing the melodie of Lydia (1871) on which to base the song cycle of poems of love by Paul Verlaine, Faure achieves the Romantic symbolist character in the principle musical themes when the melody on which 10 Lydia (1871) is basedaltemates between a perfect fourth and an augmented fourth found in the Lydian mode. This interval of the augmented fourth gives the musical theme a moveable character and an ephemeral quality not dissimilar to Wagner's Tristan chord based on the tritone. Therefore, the melodic line of Lydia lends itself to an ephemeral, moveable, unreachable character. One can see Wagner's influence in the use of chromaticism within the modal framework of Faure's writing (Examples 1-3). This paper focuses primarily on two versions of La Bonne chanson (op.

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