Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Urbain Fauré was born on 12 May 1845 into a cultured but not especially musical family. At nine he was sent to the École Niedermeyer in Paris, trained for the church organ, taught by Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend. After graduating in 1865 he scraped by as organist and teacher, composing in the margins. Middle age brought status - organist of the Église de la Madeleine, director of the Paris Conservatoire - but still no time; he wrote in summer retreats to the countryside. His Pavane, Requiem, nocturnes, "Après un rêve" came early and accessible. The late works - composed as deafness closed in over his last twenty years - grew harmonically and melodically complex, sometimes withdrawn, sometimes impassioned, influencing the harmonic teaching of the next generation. France recognised him as its leading composer before he died on 4 November 1924; the rest of the world, except Britain, took decades to catch up.