ABSTRACT
Some would say that there is little point in discussing the interpretation of Fauré’s music with performers unless they are already on their professional way. 2 It used to annoy Fauré no end that ignoramuses said of his songs that one did not need a voice to sing them. The truth is that one needs both a good voice and a good brain. The child musician is almost certainly bound to be bewildered by much (though not all) of Fauré’s music, and the cultivated well-to-do amateur singer (of whom the composer spoke with such affection) an influential part of musical life in the twenty-first century. The imaginary singer targeted here is an adult, relatively free of technical problems; control of intonation and breath are taken for granted, as is an evenness of vocal production with equality between the registers. An ability to sing loudly or softly at will, in all parts of the voice, is assumed, as is clarity of diction. Beauty of vocal timbre – that unaccountable gift that has been given to only a few, and maddeningly without a trace of fairness in its bestowal – is another theoretical given. Added to this, we must assume that the words will be pronounced in the correct way by someone who has worked to acquire a command of the French language, even if only for reasons of singing.
