28 FAURÉ ∙ NOCTURNES A trait of humour and humility that was typical of his personality. But it was also his way of saying that his music is not evocative, unlike Debussy’s . . . In that respect, it’s comparable to J. S. Bach: it is pure music. Like Bach’s polyphony, it is intended to be read as much as to be played. Nor is it designed for big, brightly lit concert halls. Bach means ‘brook’ in German. In Fauré’s music, as in Bach’s, you get that idea of flow, of musical continuity. It contains few silences, yet it calls out so insistently for silence! With its rivers of semiquavers, its lines and its counterpoint, it is conceived horizontally. Its harmonic oddities often arise from chance encounters between melodic lines. Unexpected colours then emerge, crystallising its highly individual harmony.
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