COLLOQUE / COLLOQUIUM : Gabriel Fauré

Entrée libre - inscription non requise / Free admission - Registration not required

Cet événement sera en anglais / This event will be in English

Réeentendre Fauré par l’hommage
Christopher Moore

En 1922, la Revue musicale a publié un numéro spécial en hommage à Gabriel Fauré, qui se termine par une collection de sept courtes pièces écrites par ses anciens élèves et basées sur le nom du compositeur. Cette collection diverse, tant dans ses ambitions techniques qu’esthétiques, offre un exemple intéressant de la manière dont l’héritage musical de Fauré a été honoré et réinterprété vers la fin de sa vie. Je suggère que l’éthique de l’indépendance créative de Fauré trouve un fort écho dans la collection, où l’expression de la liberté et les conventions de l’hommage sont maintenues en tension créative.

La réception créative de Fauré se manifeste dans d’autres œuvres composées après sa mort. Dans la dernière partie de cette communication, je me limiterai à quelques exemples, composés par Ricardo Viñes ou Brad Mehldau, pour montrer comment ces musiciens offrent une réactualisation de l’univers fauréen. Tout comme les pièces composées pour la Revue musicale, elles incarnent une tension entre hommage et indépendance, restant ainsi fidèles aux préceptes esthétiques qui ont guidé Fauré dans ses propres démarches compositionnelles.

Rehearing Gabriel Fauré through Tribute
Christopher Moore

In 1922, the Revue musicale published a special issue in tribute to Gabriel Fauré, which concludes with a collection of seven short pieces written by his former students and based on the composer’s name. This diverse collection, both in its technical and aesthetic ambitions, offers an interesting example of how Fauré’s musical legacy was honored and reinterpreted towards the end of his life. I suggest that Fauré’s ethic of creative independence finds a strong echo in the collection, where the expression of freedom and the conventions of tribute are maintained in creative tension.

The creative reception of Fauré is manifested in other works composed after his death. In the latter part of this communication, I will limit myself to a few examples, composed by Ricardo Viñes or Brad Mehldau, to show how these musicians offer a re-actualization of the Fauréan universe. Just like the pieces composed for the Revue musicale, they embody a tension between tribute and independence, thus remaining faithful to the aesthetic precepts that guided Fauré in his own compositional approaches.

The Geometry of Ambiguity: Voice Leading and Macroharmony in Late Fauré
Robert C. Rival

Fauré’s harmony adheres unreliably to any one system, whether functional tonality, modality, or free polyphony, shifting spontaneously from one to another, almost imperceptibly. Fauré routinely thwarts expectations, however subtly, suspending our ears in continual, though gentle, surprise. Analysts have probed Fauré’s mysterious harmony from a bewildering number of perspectives, often noting its ambiguity. Aided by voice leading graphs after Tymoczko, I argue that the mechanics of much of this ambiguity can be described more simply, and consistently, by efficient voice leading between chords and between scales, often interacting with sequences, and framed by functional-tonal syntax. My analyses of Preludes, Op. 103, Nos. 2, 6, and 9, suggest that movement within networks of nearby scales helps explain the music’s subtle harmonic fluctuations, and, moreover, is closely tied to formal design. This sheds new light on the inner workings of what Jankélévitch calls Fauré’s “circular modulations”.

NOTES BIOGRAPHIQUES / BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Christopher Moore
Christopher Moore est professeur agrégé de musicologie et directeur de l’École de Musique de l’Université d’Ottawa. Ses recherches portent sur la musique française du XXe siècle, un champ d’études qu’il examine principalement en rapport avec les thèmes de la critique musicale, du style musical, et des études de genre. En plus de ses nombreux articles et chapitres sur ces sujets, il a codirigé deux collectifs : Music Criticism in France 1918-1939: Authority, Advocacy, Legacy et Music & Camp.

Christopher Moore is Associate Professor of Musicology and Director of the School of Music at the University of Ottawa. His research focuses on 20th-century French music, a field he examines primarily in relation to themes of music criticism, musical style, and gender studies. In addition to his numerous articles and chapters on these subjects, he has co-edited two collections: Music Criticism in France 1918-1939: Authority, Advocacy, Legacy and Music & Camp.

Robert Rival
Robert Rival, composer and scholar, was the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s resident composer (2011–14). He co-edited Reflections on Malcolm Forsyth, the first book devoted to the late Canadian composer. Articles on Shostakovich, Nielsen, and Forsyth have appeared in Twentieth-Century Music, Carl Nielsen Studies, and Intersections. Current projects include a commission for the New Orford String Quartet and a book on music, gesture, and rhetoric. An invited speaker at conferences in the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Canada, he is an adjunct professor of theory and composition, and coordinator of the composition sector, at the University of Ottawa.