La bonne chanson

Composed between 1892 and 1894 and receiving its first public performance in Paris in April 1895, La bonne chanson is one of Fauré’s most fervently passionate works. It was inspired by the composer’s infatuation for the singer Emma Bardac, who subsequently became Debussy’s second wife. Fauré selected nine texts from an 1870 publication by Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine to form a song cycle that traces a narrative of burgeoning love set against the imagery of dawn, sunset, the changing seasons and varied landscapes. The work achieves musical cohesion and unity through a sequence of easily identifiable thematic ideas that reappear throughout the cycle, most notably the piquant opening harmonies in the piano part and the direct quotation from the composer’s earlier song Lydia. In 1898, Fauré made a new arrangement of the accompaniment, adding parts for a string quintet. But it was only performed once in this version during his lifetime, as the composer expressed his strong preference for the original.