Title / Series: BÄRENREITER URTEXT

Editor: Sobaskie, James William

Language: English, French, German

Pages: 30

Publisher: Barenreiter

Gabriel Fauré's only string quartet, composed in 1923-24, is the composer's last work and was written at the suggestion of his publisher Jacques Durand. Until then, Fauré had continually postponed writing a string quartet, apparently due to the influential shadow of Beethoven.

When Fauré composed the quartet, he was already very ill. He added dynamics and slurs only to certain parts of the exposition of the first movement and then asked his former student Jean Roger-Ducasse to complete the work. However, Roger-Ducasse's additions were very extensive; he even altered and supplemented some of Fauré's own markings in the exposition.

Bärenreiter's first-ever scholarly critical edition of the quartet uses all sources, including the composer's letters that provide valuable information about the origin of the composition.