"Clair de lune", ("Moonlight") Op. 46 No 2, is a song by

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain 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 ...

, composed in 1887 to words by

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' in international and ...

History

Fauré's 1887 setting of the poem was for voice and piano; but in 1888, at the instigation of the

Princesse de Polignac Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac (8 January 186526 November 1943) was an American-born heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune. She used this to fund a wide range of causes, notably a musical salon where her protégés includ ...

, he made a version for voice and orchestra, first performed at the

Société Nationale de Musique Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...

in April of that year, with the

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

Maurice Bàges as soloist.Nectoux, p. 338 In its orchestral form the song was included in Fauré's incidental music '' Masques et bergamasques'' in 1919. The original published version (Hamelle, Paris, 1888) is in B-flat minor. The song is dedicated to Fauré's friend the painter Emmanuel Jadin, who was a talented amateur pianist.Nectoux, pp. 67 and 540 The pianist Graham Johnson notes that it closes Fauré's second period and opens the doors into his third. Johnson notes that it is "for many people the quintessential French mélodie".Johnson, Graham (2005). Liner notes to Hyperion CD CDA 67334

Lyric

The lyric is from

's early collection ''Fêtes galantes'' (1869). It inspired not only Fauré but

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

, who set it in 1881 and wrote a well known piano piece inspired by it in 1891.

Notes references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clair de lune (Faure) Compositions by Gabriel Fauré Mélodies 1887 compositions Musical settings of poems by Paul Verlaine