The songs of Gabriel Fauré: New critical edition

The songs of Gabriel Fauré (over 100 in total) form a major body of work that crucially shaped the French art song tradition and today form a staple of song recitals and study. However, no comprehensive critical edition of them is available, and the piecemeal nature of their original publications has left some of them in obscurity. The present aim is to produce a complete critical edition. These volumes have been commissioned by London Peters Edition as a core item of their Fauré critical editions by Roy Howat. The project submitted here comprises all but the four late cycles, in three volumes (each to be published for high and low voice), plus Fauré's chamber ensemble version of the cycle 'La bonne chanson' and a volume of 45 Vocalises composed by Fauré for exam purposes while Director of the Paris Conservatoire.

A major work of documentary and musical scholarship, the edition will be a vital resource for scholars and performers. Its development and research will be supported and communicated by engagement with students, teachers, professionals and the wider community, through a wide-ranging programme of performance and research events. Related outcomes will include scholarly articles dealing with the specialised challenges and discoveries, along with articles for singers' journals.

The large volume of data involved demands a comprehensive understanding of Fauré's life, work and musical practices. Roy Howat's extensive experience of Fauré editing has made him more familiar than anyone with these issues, including the composer's sometimes idiosyncratic treatment of his own texts. Ambiguities of tempo indication, phrasing, dynamics and articulation are inherent in Fauré sources (and thus generate performing issues), and often call for a judicious blend of editorial delicacy and boldness. The editorial norm of giving priority to the composer's final readings will be taken as a general basis but treated with flexibility to allow the resolution of some intractable source problems. This will match the principles established in Dr Howat's highly regarded editions of Fauré piano and chamber music.

Roy Howat's career has been devoted to integrating scholarly research with active performance. His editions are internationally regarded as having set new standards in that regard, and in having positively influenced performance practice through blending scholarly integrity with musical and practical insight. The new edition will develop his commitment to interactive performance and scholarship. The edition will crucially (and authentically) reflect the composer's own declared practice of basing editions directly on performing experience.

The programmes and principles of the Royal Academy of Music in particular will be central to this research. The Academy's research environment, in which Dr Howat has been a core participant for six years, offer open events and presentations based on interactive workshops, concerts and seminars, providing a perfect forum for exploration and experimentation in performance with students, teachers and scholars. Through Dr Howat's international profile as the Royal Academy of Music's Keyboard Research Fellow, and his strong links with many other musical and academic institutions, these activities can be shared worldwide.

The compelling motivation of this project is one of accessibility. As such, it will:
Adopt a communicative and consultative approach to the development of the edition, involving students, teachers, performers and the listening public

Make widely available songs and vocalises available that have been unpublished, out of print or difficult to access

Publish the songs in a comprehensive edition, issued by a leading international publishing house, on sale worldwide at a moderate and very competitive price

Disseminate the findings and the benefits of the research to the wider community through performance, seminars, lectures, recordings, broadcast and published articles.

The new edition will present Fauré's songs for the first time in a comprehensive, authoritative text, in a clear, elegant and accessible format, and at a competitive price. This will directly benefit:

1) Singing students at all levels, in schools, conservatoires and universities worldwide. Fauré's songs are core repertoire and a major focus for undergraduate study. Students are all levels will also benefit from the edition of Fauré's vocalises: the only collection of vocal technique exercises by a major French composer, they provide perfect technical preparation for French art song and for Fauré's songs in particular. In particular, they develop sight-singing technique, breath control, purity of tone and acuity of intonation and rhythm;

2) Students of musicology and musical editing, who will benefit from the edition's thorough historical and critical documentation and clear definitions of editing practice;

3) Singing teachers and vocal coaches worldwide, who have long lamented the lack of an authoritative text of this vital repertoire, and for whom Fauré's vocalises will be a valuable and exciting new resource;

4) Professional singers, for the same reasons; they will also find a considerable amount of new or unfamiliar repertoire in the comprehensive new edition;

5) The concert-going public, who will benefit from fresh and convincing performances and be introduced to stimulating new repertoire.

The preparation of the edition will entail many public events including seminars, workshops, masterclasses, concert performances, lectures, lecture-recitals and radio broadcasts. This will ensure that the findings of the research and the editions themselves are widely disseminated.
Many of these events will be developed through the research environment at the Royal Academy of Music. As such, they will directly impact upon the undergraduate and postgraduate communities at the RAM, the research and teaching staff, and the many members of the public who regularly attend open events.
Similar public events will be presented in the course of Roy Howat's regular concert, and teaching engagements which regularly take him to continental Europe, North America and Australasia, as well as to UK centres. The preparation of the edition will thus engage and benefit students, teachers, professionals and the interested general public internationally.

The impact of the new editions will also be realised in:
Masterclasses and coaching sessions in conservatoires and universities. These will ensure that the findings of the new edition are communicated directly and practically to young musicians, and that the latter's concerns reciprocally feed into the edition's presentation
Scholarly articles exploring the findings of the research. These will be a key element in disseminating the benefits of the new edition through the scholarly community. Equally vital, practice-based articles for singing and professional journals will present the new edition in terms of its documentary and musical basis. Such high-circulation journals will communicate the impact of the new edition most directly to the worldwide community of singers and interested professionals.