Gabriel Fauré: Salve Regina (Hail, Holy Queen)

"Our life, our sweetness, and our hope"

May is Mary’s month in the Catholic Church. Fauré’s setting of the Marian anthem Salve Regina is sweet, with a simple, fluid melody. It is reminiscent of both Fauré’s Requiem and Franck’s Panis Angelicus. Though Fauré originally wrote this piece for choir (and both recordings linked below are choral performances), I think it would work just as effectively as a solo, so in keeping with the theme of this blog, that’s the score that appears below.

• Video (Maîtrise de Chartres à l’Eglise de Serville) – dailymotion.com
• Audio (Ensemble Vocal Jean Sourisse) – Rhapsody
• Text & Translation – preces-latinae.org
• Score – IMSLP

Gabriel Fauré: En prière (In Prayer)

"Do not abandon me. Give me the needed gentleness to ease suffering"

On this Passion Sunday, Mark’s Gospel shows Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane while the disciples wait, or rather, sleep. Though the text of this prayer is Bourdèse’s, the image of Jesus desiring Calvary in order to ease suffering seems so organic and so appropriate for today.

• Video (Sonia Theodoridou) – YouTube
• Text (Stéphan Bordèse) & Translation – recmusic.org
• Score – WIMA