Faure - Apres un Reve

Context

• The piece is a Melodie
• A voice and accompaniment
• Based on an anonymous Italian poem
• Text adapted by Romain Bussine
• Written in France 1877
• The music is word painted
• Describes waking from a dream with a loved one

Style

• Typical of a Melodie
  - Word Painting
  - Lyrical connection with literature
  - Expressive (Helas)
• Typical of Romantic era
  - Chromatic chords
  - Fluid rhythm
  - Piano accompaniment
  - Highest note at most dramatic point (3rd verse Helas)
  - Long lyrical phrases (1-3)
  - Unprepared modulations (verse 3)
  - Chromatic and dissonant

Instrumentation

• Mezzo Soprano
• Piano
• Each part is fairly simple meaning the piece could have been sung by amateurs

Structure

• Modified strophic form
• The music for verse 1 is almost identical to that for verse 2
• Verse 3 has different music all together

Texture

• Homophonic through-out
• Melody and accompaniment

Tonality

• C minor (1 - 14)
• Eb major (14 - 15)
• C minor (16 - 29)
• F minor (30)
• Bb minor (31 - 32)
• C minor

Rhythm

• Triplets in the vocals
• Continuous quaver rhythm in the piano
• Cross rhythm when the above points occur at the same time
• Motor rhythms in the left hand piano

Melody

• Melody line is sung by the vocals
• Long lyrical phrases (as in bar 1-3)
• Legato
• Leaps (Minor 6th, Octave)
• Arch shaped melodies (ascending and descending)
• Syllabic and melismatic
• Total range of an 11th (middleC - topF)
• Highest note is used in the most dramatic moment
• Chromatic notes

Harmony

• Chromatic harmonies (D half diminished at bar 6)
• Extended dominant chords (F9 at bar 3)
• Augmented chords
• Cycle of fifths
• False relation (B against Bb in bar bar 7)
• 4-3 suspension at the end