The Man

Gabriel Faure was born on May 12th, 1845 in Pamiers, France. In 1854, at the age of nine, he was sent to Paris to study music at the Ecole de Musique Reigieuse et Classique. While at this school, Faure studied composition with the then eminent composer, Camille Saint-Saens. In 1865, he won a first prize from the institution with his Cantique de Jean Racine, opus 11.

After leaving school that same year, Faure moved from job to job, occupying various organ positions. Sometime between 1865 and 1871, he established the Socie nationale de Musique, whose goal was to perform works by young French composers.

In 1896, Faure was appointed to the Paris Conservatory as composition instructor. In 1905 he was promoted to the position of director of the Conservatory where he remained until 1920, at which time he was forced to resign as director due to hearing problems. He died on November 4th, 1924.

The Music

Faure’s Requiem was written shortly after the death of his father in 1885. By the time the piece was finished, his mother had died as well. The Requiem was not written for them, however and was written for a parishioner at Madeleine Church named M. Le Soufache. In many ways this requiem was not meant to be taken seriously or to be added to the religious cannon. Faure spoke of his requiem as a joke in a letter to a friend saying that:

“My Requiem was composed for nothing…for fun, if I may be permitted to say so! It was first performed at La Madeleine for the funeral of some parishioner or other around 1890. That’s all I can tell you.”

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