La Bonne Chanson, Op. 61, by Gabriel Fauré, is a song cycle of nine mélodies for voice and piano. He composed it during 1892–94; in 1898 he created a version for voice, piano and string quintet.[1] The cycle is based on nine of the poems from the collection of the same name by Paul Verlaine.[2] According to Fauré himself, the song cycle contains a number of musical themes which recur from song to song. He had devised this technique for the 1891 song cycle Cinq mélodies "de Venise",[3] which was also based on Verlaine's poetry.[4]
Much of the cycle was composed in the summers of 1892 and 1893 while Fauré was staying in Bougival,[5] as the guest of the banker Sigismond Bardac and his wife, the soprano Emma Bardac.[6] Fauré was in love with her (although she later married Claude Debussy).[2] Fauré wrote later that the cycle was his most spontaneous creation, with Bardac singing the newly composed material for him each day.[5] The final song, "L'hiver a cessé", was completed in February 1894,[7] and the cycle was published by Hamelle that year, with a dedication to Emma Bardac.[1]
In a 1902 interview conducted by Louis Aguettant for Le Courrier musical,[8] Fauré enumerated five main musical themes which recur throughout the cycle until they appear together in the final song, "L'hiver a cessé". One of these themes was taken from his earlier mélodie "Lydia",[9] Op. 4, No. 2 (c. 1870);[10] Fauré stated that he associated this theme with a singer, possibly meaning Emma Bardac.[11]
Fauré's settings are as follows:[1]
Fauré's ordering of the settings does not correspond to that of their appearances within Verlaine's collection of 21 poems.[7]
La Bonne Chanson had a private premiere at the residence of the Countess de Saussine on 25 April 1894, sung by Maurice Bagès.[8] Its first public performance was at the Société Nationale de Musique on 20 April 1895, sung by Jeanne Remacle. Fauré was the pianist.[1] The work was not well received by the musically conservative audience.[12] Camille Saint-Saëns declared that Fauré had gone mad.[13] In contrast, Marcel Proust, who was at the private premiere in 1894, wrote that he adored it.[12]
The string quintet version was premiered in London,[14] on 1 April 1898 at the house of Frank Schuster, with Bagès and Fauré performing.[1]
In 1918 Fauré adapted and extended a brief section from "Une sainte en son auréole" to produce Une châtelaine en sa tour, Op. 110,[15] a work for solo harp dedicated to the harpist Micheline Kahn. She premiered the work at the Société Nationale de Musique on 30 November 1918.[16]