Fauré, Gabriel

International Music Score Library Project [IMSLP] entry: Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Fauré [1845-1924] was a prolific French composer, best known nowadays for his Requiem, but also for his songs and piano music. He influenced many other French composers, over a long life linking Romanticism to Modernism.

Piece	MP3	Midi	Genre
Dolly Suite, Op. 56		MIDI
	Dolly is a suite of six pieces for piano duet. The eponymous Dolly [real name Hélène] was the daughter of his friend Emma Bardac, wife of a banker [and later to marry Debussy]. Dolly was born in 1892, and Fauré wrote or revised these pieces in 1893-96 to mark birthdays and other events in Dolly's life. Sequenced originally in 1998 from the IMSLP version, revised in 2023 by comparing with a United Music Publishers edition in my collection, with introductory notes by Felix Aprahamian. The six separate pieces are:
Dolly Suite, Op. 56, No. 1. Berceuse		MIDI	classical duet
	Berceuse [Lullaby] is marked Allegretto Moderato. It is well-known in the UK through its use as the closing music to the mid-20thC childrens' radio programme Listen With Mother.
Dolly Suite, Op. 56, No. 2. Mi-a-ou		MIDI
	Mi-a-ou is marked Allegro vivo, with a metronome marking of 96 dotted minims to the minute. This is too fast for Midi! So it is sequenced in half-notes at half the speed. Mi-a-ou is not a French cat, but Fauré's attempt to describe Dolly's pronunciation of her elder brother's name: Raoul.
Dolly Suite, Op. 56, No. 3. Le Jardin de Dolly		MIDI
	Le jardin de Dolly [Dolly's garden] is marked Andantino, with a metronome marking MM = 69.
Dolly Suite, Op. 56, No. 4. Kitty-Valses		MIDI
	Kitty-Valse is [perhaps unhelpfully?] marked Tempo di Valse, with a metronome marking of 66 dotted minims to the minute. Kitty is also not a French cat, but a mistranscription of the name of Raoul's pet puppy, Ketty.
Dolly Suite, Op. 56, No. 5. Tendresse		MIDI
	Tendresse [tenderness] is marked Andante, with a metronome marking MM = 72. The middle section is a canon [one part following the other] with uncompromising harmonies. Aprahamian describes the piece as warmly glowing.
Dolly Suite, Op. 56, No. 6. Le Pas Espagnol		MIDI	classical duet
	Le Pas Espagnol [The Spanish Step] is a boléro, marked Allegro at 92 dotted crotchets to the minute. A rousing finale!

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Andy Walker, anw [at] cuboid4.me.uk [remove digit to construct address]