Gabriel Fauré

Cantique de Jean Racine op. 11

An original and beautiful new guitar transcription by Fauré here for guitar duo by Jan Hron. The Grove Dictionary describes Fauré as the most advanced composer of his generation in France and notes that his harmonic and melodic innovations affected the teaching of harmony for later generations. He shunned virtuosity in favour of the Classical lucidity of the French masters of the hapsichord; the precisely articulated melodic line of his songs is in the finest tradition of French vocal music. His great Requiem and his Élégie for Cello and Piano have entered the general repertoire. The 'Cantique de Jean Racine' op.11 was originally written for mixed choir and piano (or organ) and dedicated to César Franck, it was composed in 1864-5.