Analysis Worksheet—Fauré Elegy
Information from analysis How this affects/informs performance
Composer/ Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) pianist and
Composition organist, studied with Saint-Saëns,
and became friends with him (S-S
only 10 years older)
Elegy a poem or song composed as a
lament for a deceased person/Greek
root elegos = a mournful song
Stylistic period
French impressionist
Background
information (why The Elegy was composed in 1879,
piece was written,
when Fauré was 34, devastated and
original instru-
grieving over his broken engagement
mentation, etc)
to his long-time love.
Genre (sonata, Originally composed for cello and
concerto, solo piano—set with Orchestra later. The
suite, etc) orchestration requires 2 flutes, 2
oboes, 2 clarinets, four horns and
strings.
Form
Ternary form, sections within sections
Aa b a c c trans d A c1 c1
Skill, Knowledge, Expression?
Student grasps concept that the music
wasn’t just always there. Also creates
connection for Fauré’s affinity for cello
music (through Saint-Saëns, who wrote a
KNOWLEDGE
number of cello works)
Knowing what an Elegy is sets the context
for the work and the performance.
Understanding stylistic period—more
ambiguous boundaries between sections,
less adherence to classical form, more KNOWLEDGE
“color” in harmonies
written by a person who had strong
KNOWLEDGE and
feelings of sadness and loss, and was trying
EXPRESSION
to express them in his music
Student can listen to recording of
orchestrated version and draw on qualities KNOWLEDGE
of sounds of other instruments--
understanding compositional form, shape and
KNOWLEDGE Understanding
unifying elements—restating a theme in a
Ternary form
different mood, transitioning into new idea,
EXPRESSION: performance
returning to a recurring theme, and a
rearranged version of the c theme with understanding of whole
Tonality/Tonal
centers
C minor
Ab major
Whole tone scales/tritones
Tritones, fully diminished chords,
augmented chords with associated scales.
Melodic First theme is based on a descending
characteristics line, descending stepwise quarters
and four eighths in a four-bar phrase.
Second theme is more fluid (but also
more ambiguous) in rhythm and
direction. The upward sweeps of the
melody make this section more
hopeful than the first theme.
It becomes increasingly angular,
however, as tritones and whole tone
scales transition into the D section,
where all semblance of melody
virtually disappears into the storm of
fast notes.
Could also be analyzed as harmonies
moving from chordal to quartal to
tri-tones
The return second theme in final
section is in C Minor, and is an
inversion of the first statement.
Helps change mood
Accuracy of pitch important SKILL: 3 scales
Whole tone scales and tritones have no
tonal center KNOWLEDGE: Understanding
Functional root movement, with occasional relationship of whole tone
exceptions and/or altered tones within the scale, tritones, Diminished
chords to create tension and/or changing chords
moods.
The first theme feels emotionally burdened,
sinking feeling KNOWLEDGE and SKILL=
Understanding/playing whole
Second theme sounds nostalgic and tone scales and tritones
hopeful, sweeps upward melodically.
Tritones and whole tone scales signal losing
one’s way, no center, off-balance, perhaps a KNOWLEDGE= composers
bit crazed. craft
→ gradual descent into chaos. EXPRESSION
Inverted second theme is “the flip side” of
hope, using that once uplifting feeling to
causing the theme to descend to the depths
(of despair or death) at the end of the piece.
Rhythmic elements The first section primarily uses a repeated SKILL—counting: need to be
and motifs two quarters/four eighths motif in the able to fully integrate rhythm
melody, with pulsing, almost dirge-like in 2nd section
eighth notes in the accompaniment.
The second theme in the C section is Contrast between 1st and 2nd thematic
syncopated and constantly changing
rhythm helps create dramatic change
from duples to triplets, over a more fluid
between the sections—one hard hitting, SKILL—play section in
accompaniment figure.
The D section is based primarily on
almost pounding, and definitive, the other appropriate legato style while
sextuplet, faster and rhythms that flexible, “flighty” hard to pin down maintaining accuracy of
heighten the agitation of this section, and (nostalgic, dreamy, not “in sync”) rhythm
the return of the first theme is made
stormy from the continuation of the
sextuplets in the accompaniment.

Harmony The nostalgic, dreamy feel of this section is

Begins in C minor, with almost constant
(harmonic style, enhanced by the use of the Neapolitan chord.
chromatic passing tones in the triadic
chord voicing, EXPRESSION
accompaniment. Use of the VI chord at
distinctive Exploring how harmonies give color to melody,
cadences for unsettled feel.
harmonies or offer reason to not always play with the same
The b section tonality is based on G
progressions, etc) sound
without actually modulating away from
C minor.
Modes
C section which begins with the second
theme is in A Major. Neapolitan (bII) KNOWLEDGE
Understanding use of dissonance—minor
chord.
seconds make the music “hurt”—important to
Chords without 3rd give “empty” feel
feel dissonances, rather than hurrying past like
Third section is based on whole-tone
it might be a “wrong” note
scale and tritones, and combined with
fast-moving notes this section is the
Could possibly be interpreted as a “war within
“Sturm und Drang” section of the piece,
the mind”. The cello hangs onto cm while the EXPRESSION
culminating in the crying return of the
piano plays the Ab theme—possibly one side of
first theme in C minor. Reiterated Db’s
the mind is trying to lift the other out of
against the C pedal gives the closing
despair. Then the cello takes the Ab theme and
section Phrygian feel.
the piano lapses back into cm. In the end both
Could also be seen as polytonality: Ab
cello and piano resign themselves to the despair
Major against c minor.
of c.
Special “Elegie” (see above)
terminology Other terminology used for
analyzing/describing piece: ternary
form, motif, tritone, mode
Expression
(Dynamics, other Wide dynamic ranges combined with
factors contributing harmony changes, texture changes,
to expressive and register changes
aspects)
Compositional The melodic motive of the four eighth
devices notes of the first theme (melody) are
shadowed in the bass line, and is also
used as the primary accompaniment
motive throughout the piece. As the
piece approaches the stormy area, the
eighth note figure is given angular
intervals rather than the gentle rise
and fall of the original notes.
Texture Fauré uses both spare and densely
textured sections, including the
homophonic texture at the beginning
with both closely spaced and open
chords, the fluid polyphonic second
theme, and the thick clouds of triplet
thirty-second notes in the
accompaniment over the slow moving
melody of the cello.
Timbre
Full range of cello
Alters piano registration, particularly
noticeable in repeated melodic
themes—undercurrent always
changing, even if melody is the same
Performance with understanding KNOWLEDGE
EXPRESSION—creating not
Every section, whether a repeat of an idea
just different decibels but new
or a new one, has a new and distinctive set
moods to reflect changes in
of dynamics, ranging from  to 
dynamics, tonality, etc
Undercurrent of this motif creates unity of
the whole composition , as well as a
thematic undercurrent of this unwanted
reality that won’t go away. Cellist needs to
KNOWLEDGE
realize the context within which s/he plays
the accompaniment—not just a stray bunch
of notes…needs seamless handover from
piano and back…
The feel of repeated melodic sections are
altered by the changes of texture in the
EXPRESSION
piano part, and can be responded to by the
cellist.
Expressive middle register, high register for SKILL (ability to play in upper
intensity, low register for depth, darkness register—with vibrato)
and despair KNOWLEDGE (recognize
qualitative difference in
registration changes)