Après un rêve (Op. 7 No. 1)

Gabriel Fauré · Level 5 (Advanced) · Romantic · Piano

Fauré’s most famous song, to a poem by Romain Bussine: a dream of love from which one wakes with regret. The voice floats above repeated eighth-note chords, like a heartbeat. A song (voice and piano) arranged for solo piano: the right hand plays the vocal line, with the accompaniment notes that lie below it; the left hand plays the piano part as written. C minor, 3/4, 48 bars (about 3 minutes), complete score.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• Keep the repeated chords very soft and even, almost flat; the melody carries the emotion. Change the pedal with each harmony. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment. Triplets and other tuplets must be perfectly even: count them aloud with the metronome. For chords, shape the hand in the air before landing, all notes together.

More pieces by Gabriel Fauré

• Les roses d’Ispahan (Op. 39 No. 4)
• Lydia (Op. 4 No. 2)

Source : Arrangement Note after Note d’après la saisie CC0 du corpus OpenScore Lieder · CC0 1.0