EXAMPLE 2.3. Modulation by Weitzmann regions in Fauré, “Toujours,” Poème d’un jour mm. 11–25.
EXAMPLE 2.3. (continued)
EXAMPLE 2.4. Weitzmann region in Fauré, Introït, Requiem, op. 48, mm. 50–61. Derived from Cohn, Audacious Euphony, 55.
This passage demonstrates the alternative diatonic syntax explored by neo-Riemannian theory in which chromatic voice-leading, rather than root progression, governs the movement between triads. Richard Cohn has located a similar passage in the Introït of Fauré’s Requiem, composed ten years after Poème d’un jour (see example 2.4).28 The augmented triad [A C♯ F], spelled in various ways, provides a pivot between F♯-minor, B♭-minor, F-major, and D-minor triads. All four triads belong to a single “Weitzmann region,” Cohn’s term for the six consonant triads that result from displacing the notes of an augmented triad by one semitone: lowering any note by a semitone yields a major triad, while raising any note produces a minor triad.29 Fauré exploited three of the four possible Weitzmann regions in “Toujours,” using three different augmented triads to modulate through the minor-third cycle. In the first two modulations, he reached the second triad in the rotation by lowering the fifth of the augmented chord (G♯ → G, B → B♭). He broke out of the pattern in the third modulation (mm. 22–24), raising the fifth of the augmented triad [A C♯ E♯] to lead back to F♯ minor (E♯ → F♯).
“Toujours” thus presses the harmonic dialectic of “Rencontre” to the breaking point, abandoning traditional tonality altogether. The first song had drifted into keys a major and minor third from the tonic; the second song uses these same intervals to construct an alternative harmonic system. The tonal structure becomes literally rootless, like the isolated poet. Located at the heart of Poème d’un jour, this astonishing passage threatens the disintegration of the musical language.
The final song, “Adieu,” must resolve these tensions and rebuild the harmonic structure on more solid foundations. Grandmougin’s poem is a paragon of Parnassian verse:
Comme tout meurt vite, la rose
Déclose,
Et les frais manteaux diaprés
Des prés;
Les longs soupirs, les bienaimées,
Fumées!
On voit dans ce monde léger
Changer,
Plus vite que les flots des grèves,
Nos rêves,
Plus vite que le givre en fleurs,
Nos cœurs!
À vous l’on se croyait fidèle,
Cruelle,
Mais hélas! les plus longs amours
Sont courts!
Et je dis en quittant vos charmes,
Sans larmes,
Presqu’au moment de mon aveu,
Adieu!
How quickly all dies, the rose
In bloom,
And the fresh iridescent mantles
Of the meadows;
The longs sighs, the beloveds,
Up in smoke!
One sees in this world how lightly
Change,
More quickly than the waves against the shores,
Our dreams,
More quickly than the frost on the flowers,
Our hearts!
One believed you to be faithful,
Cruel one,
But, alas! the longest loves
Are short!
And I say, as I leave your charms,
Without tears,
Almost at the moment of declaring myself,
Farewell!
The chiseled form and two-syllable lines recall Gautier’s “L’Art.” Grandmougin’s poem also abounds in rich rhymes—“diaprés”/“prés,” “grèves”/“rêves,” “charmes”/“larmes.” Form and content create an admirable unity: the short lines emphasize ephemeral images (bloom, smoke, change, dreams), creating a cadence into which the final “Adieu!” drops with fatalistic certainty. Line 16 even comments on the meter—“Sont courts!” says the two-syllable line, “They are short!” The confessional tone has vanished and the pronoun “je” occurs only once, replaced by the impersonal “on.” Emotion has receded into form; personal expression into detached reflection.
Fauré reached back to “Lydia” to set this Olympian poem (see example 2.5). The chorale texture, portato articulation, and steady quarter notes all recall the earlier song. The Lydian fourth, C♮, appears on cue in the third phrase, harmonized by the modal dominant, B♭ minor. James Kidd also noted the influence of Niedermeyer and d’Ortigue’s treatise on plainchant accompaniment in “Adieu,” both in the left hand’s parallel thirds and in the unusual iii-IV progression in m. 7.30 Fauré has purged all operatic vulgarity: the expression remains dolce (or even dolcissimo) throughout the song; the dynamics rarely swell above piano; and the one sustained high note is to be sung pianissimo. Critics have unfailingly singled out “Adieu” as the jewel of the cycle, perhaps because its reticence fits with an idealized vision of Fauré’s style—for Jankélévitch, “Adieu” possessed “more conviction” than the first two songs.31 Yet the song owes this conviction, or authenticity, to a deliberately archaic style that Fauré cultivated in response to the Parnassian poets. The neoclassical restraint of “Adieu,” no less than the theatricality of “Rencontre” and “Toujours,” plays its role within the poetic allegory of Poème d’un jour.
EXAMPLE 2.5. Fauré, “Adieu,” Poème d’un jour, mm. 1–12.
EXAMPLE 2.6. Hypothetical half cadence in Fauré, “Adieu,” Poème d’un jour, m. 8.
The old church modes allow “Adieu” to resolve the tonal issues that plagued the first two songs. The opening vocal phrase awakens obvious memories of “Rencontre”: as in the opening song, the melody descends from D♭ and then outlines a ii7 chord as it reascends. Of course, the first note plays a different tonal role in the outer songs, functioning as