"Le Plus doux chemin" ("The Sweetest Path"), Op. 87, No. 1, is a song by Gabriel Fauré, composed in 1904. It was originally for voice and piano accompaniment, and was later arranged by the composer for voice and full

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

Composition

In this song Fauré set words by the poet

Paul Armand Silvestre Paul Armand Silvestre (18 April 1837 – 19 February 1901) was a 19th-century French poet and ''conteur'' born in Paris. He studied at the École polytechnique with the intention of entering the army, but in 1870 he entered the department ...

. It was composed in 1904 for the amateur singer Emilie Girette after her marriage to the pianist

Édouard Risler Joseph-Édouard Risler (23 February 1873 – 22 July 1929) was a French pianist. Biography Risler was born in Baden-Baden (Germany) of a German mother and an Alsatian father. He studied under Louis Diémer, Théodore Dubois and Émile Decomb ...

. Originally for voice and piano, it was later orchestrated by Fauré as part of his incidental music for '' Masques et bergamasques'' (1919). Fauré composed the song in the key of F minor, but it was first published (Hamelle, Paris, 1907) in E minor.Johnson, p. 28 When Fauré orchestrated the song for ''Masques et bergamasques'' he wrote to his wife that it was not at all well known: "for just as pianists play the same eight or ten of my pieces, so singers all sing the same songs".Jones, p. 179 The pianist Graham Johnson calls it an "enchantingly mournful serenade of a persistent, if unsuccessful lover … Fauré distilled to the essentials". Both Johnson and

Vladimir Jankélévitch Vladimir Jankélévitch (; 31 August 1903 – 6 June 1985) was a French philosopher and musicologist. Biography Jankélévitch was the son of Russian Jewish parents, who had emigrated to France. In 1922 he started studying philosophy at the Éco ...

find an autumnal quality in the song, despite the reference to "la saison nouvelle". The Fauré expert

Jean-Michel Nectoux Jean-Michel Nectoux (born 20 November 1946) is a French musicologist, particularly noted as an expert on the life and music of Gabriel Fauré. He has published many books on Fauré and other French composers, and has been responsible for major exh ...

rates it among the composer's most inspired songs, and groups it with "Le Ramier", Op. 87, No. 2 and "Chanson", Op. 94 as "a kind of homogeneous triptych … a cheerful but nostalgic farewell, the last sparks of the galant madrigal which Fauré had practised for so long".Nectoux, p. 302 Analysing the song, Johnson describes it as a madrigal with an accompaniment evoking "the gentle plucking of a lute, although the strength of the bass line, almost a counter-melody in itself, depends on the legato tone of a piano to make its effect."

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* * * {{portal bar, classical music, France Compositions by Gabriel Fauré 1904 compositions