One of Faure's most beautiful and atmospheric songs transcribes beautifully for the good intermediate bassist. Using more than a two octave range, it is suitable for Grade 7/8 level players with some effective music throughout the 'working range' of the instrument. Useful as both educational and recital repertoire, this could be used to develop cantabile bowing skills alongside a strong sonorous tone, and there are musical and technical challenges in equal measure.

Also available for double bass and piano [RM111].

This edition is for double bass in ORCHESTRAL TUNING (A minor) and includes a score and parts (Solo/4/4/3/3/2).

Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845 – 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher and was one of the foremost French composers of his generation. His musical style influenced many 20th-century composers and among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Nocturnes, Après un rêve and Clair de lune, alongside a wealth of instrumental and vocal music. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a harmonically and melodically much more complex style.

Among his teachers was Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend, and after graduating in 1865, Fauré earned a modest living as an organist and teacher, leaving him little time for composition. He subsequently was appointed to the important posts of organist of the Église de la Madeleine and director of the Paris Conservatoire.

Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death, jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes him as the most advanced composer of his generation in France and noted that his harmonic and melodic innovations influenced the teaching of harmony for later generations.

Performance Level: 8