What stylistic and expressive developments do they reflect? Fauré’s stylistic development is one of the most admirable I know of in the history of music. In their half-tones, the early nocturnes have the charm, the seduction, the suavity from which Fauré was later to detach himself, moving towards asceticism, purity and severity, but also towards the extreme density of the late nocturnes. Ten years elapsed between the Fifth Nocturne and the Sixth during which he wrote nothing for solo piano. The Sixth and Seventh Nocturnes mark a watershed, opening the way to other, more austere, darker prospects. What do you think explains this evolution? Chiefly the onset of his deafness, which began in 1902, the year he composed the Eighth Nocturne, and grew steadily worse, leaving him unable to hear the extreme frequencies properly. The opening of the Thirteenth Nocturne is written in a very narrow medium register, virtually contained within an octave. This restricted compass is similar to that of the String Quartet. While Fauré’s music, in its interiority, is evasive for reasons of discretion, and generally leaves an indefinable feeling hanging in the air, in the Ninth Nocturne despair gains the upper hand over the inexpressible, and that despair comes to the fore in the style of the Tenth, which loses lyricism and fluidity, developing slowly, sometimes amid a struggle. The context of the First World War also cast its shadow over the last three nocturnes. 23 THÉO FOUCHENNERET
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