- Date: 1878
- Composer: Gabriel Fauré
- Period: Romantic (1820-1869)
Review
There is something exaggerated in the combination of the cycle's title, "Poem of a day," and the depiction of an entire cycle of a disappointed love -- delirious idealization, romantic despair as the ideal is shattered, and finally cool indifference -- events that typically require more than 24 hours' evolution. Fauré's setting captures this exaggerated sensibility, but without the sentimentality that, for example, his compatriot Massenet lavished on his opera of obsessive sensibility, Werther.The first song, "Rencontre," begins in a kind of rapt wonder, with arpeggios swooping upwards in the accompaniment and the vocal line marked dolce. The two verses are close to identical, climaxing in an ecstatic mezzo forte high note expanding to forte before the concluding phrase. The quick tempo and fast motion in the accompaniment give the song the same rushing sense that the poem conveys, the instant infatuation before even knowing the beloved one.
The second, the only song in the cycle in a minor key, is much faster, allegro con fuoco, and even violent in the passionate phrasing. Typically Fauré's songs are sung piano, with occasional mezzo fortes or fortes, but here he wrote the opposite, with most of the vocal lines in a raging forte, complete, of course, with lavish high notes and octave leaps. There are relatively few rests in the relatively long vocal lines, further enhancing the impression of a near-breathless outburst. Again, the two verses are more or less similar.
The last song returns to the major key. This is almost a précis of the emotional journey of the cycle. The tone of this song is more or less dispassionate, with both voice and accompaniment moving in more or less scalar steps until the word "fumee," with the upward fourth and the following piano arpeggio suggesting smoke blowing away, followed by the key change. But even in the brief section before the repeat of the first theme, while there are wider intervals and even a mezzo forte on "fleurs," and a slightly more restless accompaniment, after the change back to the original key and vocal theme, the accompaniment even takes on a lightly accented syncopation, adding to the effect of near-carelessness. ~ All Music Guide
