A Comparative Analysis of Reynaldo Hahn’s and Gabriel Fauré’s Settings of Paul Verlaine’s “La Lune Blanche Luit Dans Les Bois”

Jacob Giancaterino

doi:10.21061/ph.250

Abstract

This paper compares Reynaldo Hahn’s and Gabriel Fauré’s musical settings of Paul Verlaine’s poem, “La lune blanche luit dans les bois.” Composing at the end of the 19th century, Hahn and Fauré were prominent figures in French musical culture—performing in the salons of the Parisian intelligentsia—and made significant contributions to the development of French art song. Despite having shared influences, their respective approaches to Verlaine’s poem are highly individual. I begin by introducing Verlaine and the poem through the broader lens of the symbolist movement, followed by an original interpretation of the poem. Through my analysis, I provide insight into Fauré’s and Hahn’s harmonic languages, with an emphasis on their use of chromatic harmony, while highlighting unique characteristics of each setting and how they convey an individualized interpretation of the poem. I conclude by inviting additional exploration of Hahn’s and Fauré’s output to gain a further understanding of their musical languages, and by framing their works within the broader context of 19th century France.

Highlights

This paper compares Reynaldo Hahn’s and Gabriel Fauré’s musical settings of Paul Verlaine’s poem, “La lune blanche luit dans les bois.” Composing at the end of the 19th century, Hahn and Fauré were prominent figures in French musical culture—performing in the salons of the Parisian intelligentsia—and made significant contributions to the development of French art song
In the latter half of the 19th century, two composers emerged as prominent writers of mélodie: Gabriel Fauré and Reynaldo Hahn
Though the songs were composed within a close span of time, the composers approached the text in stylistically contrasting manners, with Fauré’s harmonically explorative version of the poem serving as a foil to Hahn’s relatively traditional setting