2 Songs

This early set of two songs dates roughly from the period 1871-72. “Chanson du pêcheur” (“Fisherman’s Song”), which has the alternative title of “Lamento”, sets a text by the fashionable Théophile Gautier—a leading member of the Parnassian movement which sought inspiration in the ancient world. In his text, the singer mourns a dead beloved and despairs of returning to the sea without any love in his life. Several other composers—including Berlioz and Gounod—set the same poem. The song was dedicated to the celebrated mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot, to whose daughter Marianne the composer was later briefly engaged. Fauré subsequently made an orchestral version of the harp-like accompaniment that underlies a poignant melodic line; towards the end, there is a repeated, discordant note in the accompaniment that has the quality of a bell tolling. The better-known “Lydia” sets a poem by Leconte de Lisle from a volume entitled Poèmes antiques, published in 1852. The text is a love poem, hymning the beauty of the beloved as a goddess. Fauré sets it as a wide-ranging melodic line, its slightly odd flavour derived from Fauré’s punningly writing it in the Lydian mode, supported by simple chords. Leading collaborative pianist Graham Johnson believes that this particular song “opened a new stylistic door as far as the mélodie (French art song) is concerned”. It is said that when Fauré’s composer colleague Jules Massenet first heard the song, he exclaimed, “I wish I had written that!”