Pavane, Op. 50
by Gabriel Fauré
arr. by Michèle Sharik

In a letter to his wife, French composer Gabriel Fauré talks about the creative process involved in writing Pavane:

While I was thinking about a thousand different things of no importance whatsoever, a kind of rhythmical theme in the style of a Spanish dance took form in my brain.... This theme developed by itself, became harmonized in different ways, changed and modulated; in effect, it germinated by itself.

Written during the summer of 1887, it received its first performance in Paris a year later. Dedicated to Countess Greffulhe, a patron of Parisian society of the time, it was originally written for orchestra alone, but chorus parts were added to a rather trivial text written by the Countess' cousin. It is not clear how happy Fauré was at the addition of the chorus; despite praising it in a letter to his patron, his politeness may have been over-riding his musical judgment! In any case, it is rarely performed with the chorus nowadays.

Pavane means "peacock's strut" and was a popular dance of the Renaissance — a processional in which the dancers strutted around the dance floor in a stately and elegant manner.

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