Fauré at the Conservatoire: Critical Assessments of the Years 1896–1920

Fauré’s appointments at the Conservatoire national de musique et de déclamation span 24 years, from 1896–1920. As a professor of composition, Fauré influenced a generation of composers and counted among his students Maurice Ravel, Nadia Boulanger, Florent Schmitt, Charles Koechlin, and Jean Roger-Ducasse. As the director of the Conservatoire from 1905 through 1920, Fauré effected bold reforms in the institution’s administration and curriculum, some of which resulted in faculty revolts and resignations. While many of the curricular reforms were inspired by initiatives already in place at the Schola Cantorum, they were unprecedented at the Conservatoire, and constituted a radical departure from the way in which musical education was conceived there in the early 1900s. ¹