Gabriel Fauré

Nocturne No. 13 in B minor, Op. 119

There are immediately noticeable differences between this nocturne and the nocturnes of Chopin or Field. The first difference is that of accompaniment. This nocturne begins in a manner that is neither arpeggiated nor chordal. The accompaniment is, in fact, almost entirely built on scales, where the only leaps that occur are those that enable another scale to commence on a separate scale degree. In addition the harmony here is certainly not in strict accord with the overtone series as we saw in the nocturnes of Chopin. The harmonic structure seems to be based on a scrambled assembly of major, minor, and chromatic scales. The Allegro section presents us with arpeggios; however, these are not used in the same fashion as Chopin or Field. Faure uses the arpeggios to provide swift and sweeping harmonic changes to a thinly laid melody in octaves. The key areas constantly shift, giving the music the feeling that this night song must be occurring during a storm. The last page is presented in a manner that is the most similar to Chopin’s compositional style. The arpeggios are slowed and the harmonic shifts become slower as well. The piece eventually settles in the key of G major, symbolizing that if there was a storm it has apparently subsided.

Barcarolle No. 5 in F-sharp minor, Op. 66

My initial thoughts on this piece are that Fauré must have either been setting his Barcarolle on unstable waters, or he must be loosely interpreting the genre. The harmonies here are significantly more stable than the nocturne, though they still contain those odd sounds known to Fauré. Though I am aware that being French does not automatically enable a connection between Faure and Debussy, however, there are some clear similarities between these composers use of swiftly changing accompanimental figures. One would typically associate a barcarolle with supplying a flowing, sometimes slightly “bouncy”, bass line, on which a coloristic display of harmony would be set in support of a lyrical melody. This barcarolle has difficulty settling on whether the bass is comprised of octaves, chords, of arpeggios. It becomes quite difficult to follow the voice parts, seeing as how they seem to evolve into a canonic flow where each part receives a certain figuration after the others have left theirs. Overall I enjoy the piece, though I would never be capable of labeling it a barcarolle if the title was not present.