ABSTRACT
In the time since Fauré’s death, his music has suffered much the same fate it did during his lifetime: the best-known of his pieces were not often his most significant works-these were appreciated by a small elite who were ready to make the necessary effort to understand a style that does not open itself to the listener easily and who were rewarded by a deeper understanding of elegant, refined works of art. Further, the neglect offered Fauré’s compositions by performers and audiences has been reflected in his dismissal by music historians as a creator of pleasant salon music which had little if any effect on the course of music history in France and certainly none in the wider realm of twentiethcentury music.
