Fauré and Ravel

Music by Fauré and Ravel
  • ( 1 ) Cantique de Jean Racine — Gabriel Fauré
  • ( 2 ) Pavane — Gabriel Fauré
  • ( 3 ) Pavane pour une infante défunte — Maurice Ravel

( 1 ) Cantique de Jean Racine — By Gabriel Fauré

Composed by Gabriel Fauré when he was nineteen years old.
Lyrics by Jean-Baptiste Racine.
Performed by the Choir of New College, Oxford.


( 2 ) Pavane — By Gabriel Fauré

Fauré dedicated this piece to his patron Elisabeth comtesse Greffulhe — an inspiration for the Duchesse de Guermantes in Marcel Proust’s novel À la recherche du temps perdu.

The lyrics were written by Robert de Montesquiou — the inspiration for the Baron de Charlus in the same novel.


( 3 ) Pavane pour une enfante defunte — By Maurice Ravel

Pavane pour une enfante defunte is often translated as Pavane for a Dead Princess. A more poetic translation would be — Dance for a Princess in a time long ago.

A pavane in the Renaissance was an elegant processional dance performed at the opening of a court ball. While the pavane became popular in the Spanish and English courts, it likely originated in Italy, Danza Padovana meaning dance of Padua.

Above: Ravel at the piano, in 1922, playing his composition Pavane pour une infante défunte. It was imprinted onto a piano roll and, many years later, recorded for phonograph.