MHST 558 Faure, Debussy, and Ravel
This course considers the music of Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel, three of the most important figures in French music. We look at their work in the context of French cultural politics at the fin-de-siècle and early decades of the twentieth century to discern extramusical events that informed the composers’ most significant compositions. We will read essays and letters contained in primary and secondary sources, and we will learn about the composers’ lives through biographies written contemporaneously as well as more recently. Among the works we will consider are: Fauré’s song cycles La bonne chanson, L’horizon chimérique, and Mirages, as well as his well-known Requiem and several chamber works; Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, the string quartet, and several works for solo piano; and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Ma Mère l’Oye, the string quartet, and works for piano.