Among his friends, Fauré was sometimes known affectionately as ‘L’Archange’. When he was appointed Director of the Paris Conservatoire, in June 1905, many interviews and articles stressed his geniality, as well as his liberal aesthetic and his lack of dogmatism. Not himself a Conservatoire graduate (this in itself represented a major break from tradition), he was hailed as a practitioner rather than a theorist, untethered to any particular ‘method’ or ‘school’. However, from the first weeks of his tenure as Director, Fauré instituted a sweeping programme of administrative and curriculum reform, his amendments so radical that they prompted a near-rebellion among the professoriate, and earned him a new nickname: ‘Robespierre’.

Nowhere were Fauré's reforms more carefully considered, more substantive, and more far-reaching than to the teaching of singing. This chapter considers how he sought to shape a public narrative for the Conservatoire, one that was primarily communicated through singing and song. Alongside the much-publicised restructuring of the vocal school, Fauré's interventions in the core subject of solfège illuminate both the practical and philosophical bases for his reforms. Finally, the chapter considers the multi-composer series of Vocalises-Études instigated by one of the Conservatoire's vocal professors in 1907, an enterprise that deliberately fused vocal technique with artistry, and through which we can pursue both public and institutional dialogues about voice, vocality, and the nature of song.

The Revolution on the Rue Bergère

In the summer of 1905 the vocal school of the Conservatoire was mired in mediocrity.