Pelléas and Mélisande by M. Maeterlinck in the Interpretation of Gabriel Fauré

Abstract

The first musical embodiment of Maurice Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande belongs to Gabriel Fauré, who has created the music for London performance in 1898. In this article incidental music serves as the subject of research. The main goal is to represent the history of composing of Fauré’s music, hereafter to analyze the structure of thematic material in connection with composition of Maeterlinck’s play, then to reveal melodic links between episodes of incidental music and compare them with symbolic ties of the writer. A separate subject of research is correspondence the incidental music with Fauré’s others works: a) citation of his own oeuvres (Sicilienne for cello and piano, and fragment of Fantasia for flute and piano), b) projection into the future of the Chanson de Mélisande, which defined the themes of the three numbers from the vocal cycle La chanson d’Ève on the verses of Ch. van Lerberghe.