Pavane (Fauré)
Encyclopedia
The Pavane in F-sharp minor, Op.
50, is a composition by the French composer Gabriel Fauré
, written in 1887
. It was originally a piano piece, but is better known in Fauré's version for orchestra and optional chorus. Obtaining its rhythm from the slow processional Spanish court dance
of the same name, the Pavane ebbs and flows from a series of harmonic and melodic
climaxes, conjuring a cool, somewhat haunting, Belle Époque
elegance. The piece is scored for only modest orchestral forces consisting of strings
and one pair each of flute
s, oboe
s, clarinet
s, bassoon
s, and horns
. A typical performance lasts about six minutes.
heard Fauré play the piano version several times and noted that he took it at a tempo no slower than crochet=100. Boult commented that the composer's sprightly tempo emphasised that the Pavane was not a piece of German romanticism, and that the text later added was "clearly a piece of light-hearted chaffing between the dancers".
Fauré composed the orchestral version at Le Vésinet
in the summer of 1887. He envisaged a purely orchestral composition, using modest forces, to be played at a series of light summer concerts conducted by Jules Danbé
. After Fauré opted to dedicate the work to his patron, Elisabeth, comtesse Greffulhe
, he felt compelled to stage a grander affair and at her recommendation he added an invisible chorus to accompany the orchestra (with additional allowance for dancers). The choral lyrics were based on some inconsequential verses, à la Verlaine
, on the romantic helplessness of man, which had been contributed by the Countess's cousin, Robert de Montesquiou
.
The orchestral version was first performed at a Concert Lamoureux under the baton of Charles Lamoureux
on November 25, 1888. Three days later, the choral version was premiered at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique
. In 1891, the Countess finally helped Fauré produce the version with both dancers and chorus, in a "choreographic spectacle" designed to grace one of her garden parties in the Bois de Boulogne
.
From the outset, the Pavane has enjoyed immense popularity, whether with or without chorus. With choreography by Léonide Massine a ballet version entered the repertoire of Sergei Diaghilev
's Ballets Russes
in 1917, where it was alternatively billed as Las Mininas or Les Jardins d'Aranjuez. For Massine, the music had "haunting echoes of Spain's Golden Age" parallelling the formality and underlying sadness he found in the paintings of Velásquez. Some critics found the ballet pallid, but Diaghilev retained a fondness for the piece, and kept it in the company's repertoire until the end of his life.
Fauré's example was imitated by his juniors, who went on to write pavanes of their own: Debussy
's Passepied in his Suite bergamasque
and Ravel
's Pavane pour une infante défunte
, and "Pavane de la belle au bois dormant" in Ma mère l'oye
.
, a 2008 film about Giulio Andreotti
. Lexi skates to Pavane at her first competition in the 2010 version of the film Ice Castles
. At the time of the association football World Cup in 1998, the Wimbledon Choral Society's recording of the Pavane reached No. 20 in the UK Singles Chart for one week in July 1998. Other recordings appear in the following albums: This is Love by Lee Ritenour
and Dave Grusin
, featuring Joshua Bell
and Renée Fleming
; The Jethro Tull Christmas Album
; Bill Evans Trio with Symphony Orchestra
; Classical Barbra
by Barbra Streisand
; and Á la Française by The King's Singers. Other adaptations include: "Isabel" (song) by Il Divo
; "Memories" by Young Maestro Ft. The Firm & Ozmosis; "Natural
" by S Club 7
; "Paparazzi" by Xzibit
; "Human Sacrifice" by Sweetbox
; "Fauré's Pavane" by Tinnitus Project; "Pavanorama" by Deviations Project
from the album Ivory Bow; the adventure computer game Return to Zork
; "Mr. Nobody (film)
" a 2009 film; "Dream a Dream (Elysium)" (song) by Charlotte Church
and Billy Gilman
in 2000 (later also covered by Liriel Domiciano
and Priscila Caprit in 2007).
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
50, is a composition by the French composer Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré 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...
, written in 1887
1887 in music
-Events:25 May - A fire during the 745th performance there of Mignon largely destroys the second Salle Favart, home of the Opéra-Comique in Paris; 84 people are recorded dead.-Published popular music:* "Angels Without Wings" w.m. George Dance...
. It was originally a piano piece, but is better known in Fauré's version for orchestra and optional chorus. Obtaining its rhythm from the slow processional Spanish court dance
Pavane
The pavane, pavan, paven, pavin, pavian, pavine, or pavyn is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century .A pavane is a slow piece of music which is danced to in pairs....
of the same name, the Pavane ebbs and flows from a series of harmonic and melodic
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
climaxes, conjuring a cool, somewhat haunting, Belle Époque
Belle Époque
The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I. Occurring during the era of the French Third Republic and the German Empire, it was a period characterised by optimism and new technological and medical...
elegance. The piece is scored for only modest orchestral forces consisting of strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
and one pair each of flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
s, oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s, clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
s, bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
s, and horns
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
. A typical performance lasts about six minutes.
History
The original version of the Pavane was written for piano in the late 1880s. The composer described it as "elegant, but not otherwise important." Fauré intended it to be played more briskly than it has generally come to be performed in its more familiar orchestral guise. The conductor Sir Adrian BoultAdrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
heard Fauré play the piano version several times and noted that he took it at a tempo no slower than crochet=100. Boult commented that the composer's sprightly tempo emphasised that the Pavane was not a piece of German romanticism, and that the text later added was "clearly a piece of light-hearted chaffing between the dancers".
Fauré composed the orchestral version at Le Vésinet
Le Vésinet
Le Vésinet is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the center....
in the summer of 1887. He envisaged a purely orchestral composition, using modest forces, to be played at a series of light summer concerts conducted by Jules Danbé
Jules Danbé
Jules Danbé was a French conductor, mainly of opera, born in Caen on 16 November 1840, and died 30 October 1905. Trained as a violinist, he was a pupil of Girard and Savard, in 1859 winning a first prize for violin...
. After Fauré opted to dedicate the work to his patron, Elisabeth, comtesse Greffulhe
Elisabeth, comtesse Greffulhe
Marie Anatole Louise Élisabeth, Countess Greffulhe , was a renowned beauty, and queen of the salons of the Faubourg Saint-Germain in Paris....
, he felt compelled to stage a grander affair and at her recommendation he added an invisible chorus to accompany the orchestra (with additional allowance for dancers). The choral lyrics were based on some inconsequential verses, à la Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
, on the romantic helplessness of man, which had been contributed by the Countess's cousin, Robert de Montesquiou
Robert de Montesquiou
Marie Joseph Robert Anatole, comte de Montesquiou-Fézensac , was a French aesthete, Symbolist poet, art collector and dandy....
.
The orchestral version was first performed at a Concert Lamoureux under the baton of Charles Lamoureux
Charles Lamoureux
Charles Lamoureux was a French conductor and violinist.He was born in Bordeaux, where his father owned a café. He studied the violin with Narcisse Girard at the Paris Conservatoire, taking a premier prix in 1854. He was subsequently engaged as a violinist at the Opéra and later joined the Société...
on November 25, 1888. Three days later, the choral version was premiered at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique
Société Nationale de Musique
The Société Nationale de Musique was founded on February 25, 1871 to promote French music and to allow young composers to present their music in public...
. In 1891, the Countess finally helped Fauré produce the version with both dancers and chorus, in a "choreographic spectacle" designed to grace one of her garden parties in the Bois de Boulogne
Bois de Boulogne
The Bois de Boulogne is a park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine...
.
From the outset, the Pavane has enjoyed immense popularity, whether with or without chorus. With choreography by Léonide Massine a ballet version entered the repertoire of Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev , usually referred to outside of Russia as Serge, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise.-Early life and career:...
's Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...
in 1917, where it was alternatively billed as Las Mininas or Les Jardins d'Aranjuez. For Massine, the music had "haunting echoes of Spain's Golden Age" parallelling the formality and underlying sadness he found in the paintings of Velásquez. Some critics found the ballet pallid, but Diaghilev retained a fondness for the piece, and kept it in the company's repertoire until the end of his life.
Fauré's example was imitated by his juniors, who went on to write pavanes of their own: Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
's Passepied in his Suite bergamasque
Suite bergamasque
The Suite bergamasque is one of the most famous piano suites by Claude Debussy. Debussy commenced the suite in 1890 at age 28, but he did not finish or publish it until 1905.-History:...
and Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
's Pavane pour une infante défunte
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Pavane pour une infante défunte is a well-known piece written for solo piano by the French composer Maurice Ravel in 1899 when he was studying composition at the Conservatoire de Paris under Gabriel Fauré. Ravel also published an orchestrated version of the Pavane in 1910...
, and "Pavane de la belle au bois dormant" in Ma mère l'oye
Ma Mère l'Oye
Ma mère l'oye is a musical work by French composer Maurice Ravel.-Piano versions:Ravel originally wrote Ma mère l'oye as a piano duet for the Godebski children, Mimi and Jean, ages 6 and 7. Ravel dedicated this work for four hands to the children...
.
In popular culture
The Pavane features in Il DivoIl Divo (film)
Il Divo is a 2008 Italian biographical drama film directed by Paolo Sorrentino. It is based on the figure of former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. It competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, where it was awarded the Jury Prize...
, a 2008 film about Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti is an Italian politician of the now dissolved centrist Christian Democracy party. He served as the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1972 to 1973, from 1976 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1992. He also served as Minister of the Interior , Defense Minister and Foreign Minister and he...
. Lexi skates to Pavane at her first competition in the 2010 version of the film Ice Castles
Ice Castles
Ice Castles is a 1978 American romantic drama, starring Lynn-Holly Johnson and Robby Benson.It is the story of Alexis, a young figure skater, and her rise and fall from super stardom. Tragedy strikes when, following a freak accident, Lexie loses her sight, leaving her to hide away in the privacy of...
. At the time of the association football World Cup in 1998, the Wimbledon Choral Society's recording of the Pavane reached No. 20 in the UK Singles Chart for one week in July 1998. Other recordings appear in the following albums: This is Love by Lee Ritenour
Lee Ritenour
Lee Mack Ritenour is an American jazz guitarist who has recorded over 42 albums, appeared on over 3000 sessions, and has charted over 30 instrumental and vocal contemporary jazz hits since 1976. One of his most popular songs was the smash hit, “Is It You” in 1981. Ritenour is considered to be a...
and Dave Grusin
Dave Grusin
David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys...
, featuring Joshua Bell
Joshua Bell
Joshua David Bell is an American Grammy Award-winning violinist.-Childhood:Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, the son of a psychologist and a therapist. Bell's father is the late Alan P...
and Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming is an American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also...
; The Jethro Tull Christmas Album
The Jethro Tull Christmas Album
The Jethro Tull Christmas Album is the 21st studio album released by Jethro Tull, on September 30, 2003 . The songs are a mix of new material, re-recordings of Tull's own suitably themed material and arrangements of traditional Christmas music...
; Bill Evans Trio with Symphony Orchestra
Bill Evans Trio with Symphony Orchestra
Bill Evans Trio with Symphony Orchestra is an album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans and his Trio, released in 1965. The Evans trio is accompanied by a symphony orchestra conducted and arranged by Claus Ogerman.- Reception :...
; Classical Barbra
Classical Barbra
Classical Barbra is a studio album by Barbra Streisand, released in February 1976 but recorded in 1973. The album consists of songs by classical European composers and includes tracks sung in English, French, Occitan, German, Italian and Latin. The music is performed by the Columbia Symphony...
by Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
; and Á la Française by The King's Singers. Other adaptations include: "Isabel" (song) by Il Divo
Il Divo
Il Divo is a multinational operatic pop vocal group created by music manager, executive, and reality TV star Simon Cowell. Formed in the United Kingdom, they are also signed to Cowell's record label, Syco Music...
; "Memories" by Young Maestro Ft. The Firm & Ozmosis; "Natural
Natural (S Club 7 song)
"Natural" by S Club 7, was released as a single on 11 September 2000. It is a slow R&B oriented ballad with Rachel Stevens singing lead vocals. The track was written by Cathy Dennis and A. Todd...
" by S Club 7
S Club 7
S Club, formerly known as S Club 7, were a pop group created by former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller, consisting of members Tina Barrett, Paul Cattermole, Jon Lee, Bradley McIntosh, de facto lead singer Jo O'Meara, Hannah Spearritt and Rachel Stevens. The group rose to fame by starring in their...
; "Paparazzi" by Xzibit
Xzibit
Alvin Nathaniel Joiner , better known by his stage name Xzibit , is an American rapper, actor, and television host. He is known as the host of the MTV show Pimp My Ride, which brought him mainstream success...
; "Human Sacrifice" by Sweetbox
Sweetbox
Sweetbox is a Los Angeles based pop music project formed in 1995 by executive producer Heiko Schmidt and music producer Roberto "Geo" Rosan.Throughout the years Sweetbox has had several leading women including Kimberly Kearney, Dacia Bridges, Tina Harris, Jade Villalon and most recently and...
; "Fauré's Pavane" by Tinnitus Project; "Pavanorama" by Deviations Project
Deviations Project
Deviations Project is a British electronic music group composed of producer Dave Williams and international violin virtuoso Oliver Lewis. The group blends elements of classical music with electronica; pieces such as Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake", Bizet's "Carmen" and Bach's "Sonata in Gm" are...
from the album Ivory Bow; the adventure computer game Return to Zork
Return to Zork
Return to Zork is a 1993 adventure game in the Zork series. It was developed by Activision and was the final Zork game to be published under the Infocom label.-Gameplay:...
; "Mr. Nobody (film)
Mr. Nobody
Mr. Nobody may refer to:*A nickname for Sywald Skeid, a Romanian-born man*Mr. Nobody , a fictional character from the DC Comics universe*Mr. Nobody , part of the Mr. Men series of books, by Roger Hargreaves...
" a 2009 film; "Dream a Dream (Elysium)" (song) by Charlotte Church
Charlotte Church
Charlotte Maria Church is a Welsh singer-songwriter, actress and television presenter. She rose to fame in childhood as a classical singer before branching into pop music in 2005. By 2007, she had sold more than 10 million records worldwide including over 5 million in the United States...
and Billy Gilman
Billy Gilman
William Wendell "Billy" Gilman III is an American country music artist. In 2000, at the age of 12, he debuted with the single "One Voice," a Top 20 hit on the Billboard country music charts and became the youngest singer to a Top 40 hit on the country music charts...
in 2000 (later also covered by Liriel Domiciano
Liriel Domiciano
Liriel Domiciano is a Brazilian pop star and classical singer. She was born in São Paulo. Along with Rinaldo Viana, she won the Raul Gil Amateur Show, the equivalent of the United States' American Idol. Their first CD, Romance, became the second-highest classical bestseller in Brazilian history...
and Priscila Caprit in 2007).
External links
- Public domain score with parts at the IMSLP
- Free scores of this work in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)Choral Public Domain LibraryThe Choral Public Domain Library is a sheet music archive which focuses on choral and vocal music in the public domain or otherwise freely available for printing and performing .-Description:...
- Program notes from a concert of the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus featuring Fauré's Pavane, including French choral text with English translation
- An ASCII-based text and translation of the Pavane from The Lied and Art Songs Text Page