Annotation for Jackson, Timothy L.
Gabriel Fauré's Expansions of Nonduple Hypermeter in La fleur qui va sur l'eau, Op. 85, No. 2
Annotation (by Bill Tilghman):
- Jackson's primary claim is that Fauré's song La Fleur
qui va sur l'eau, which might be thought to exhibit an
initial non-duple, five-bar hypermeter that later "resolves" to a
regular duple hypermeter, actually exhibits a five-bar hypermeter
throughout, and that the apparent six-bar hypermeasures in the
second half of the song actually represent expansions of
underlying five-bar hypermeasures. To support his claim, Jackson
examines Fauré's sketches for this song, which indicate
three separate one-measure interpolations, each of which, in
Jackson's view, can be explained by Fauré's concern with
projecting a consistent middleground five-bar hypermeter. The
first of these interpolated measures extends the second phrase
from four to five measures, helping to establish consistent five-bar
groups early in the song. The second interpolated measure
expands a phrase later in the song from five to six measures, but
this expansion, like another one several measures later, serves
to emphasize an important motivic feature: a single pitch (A-sharp/B-flat)
whose dual enharmonic interpretations seem to
provide an analogy for the principal image presented poetically
in the text. The third interpolated measure expands the short
piano coda from two to three measures, which, when "completed" by
the two-measure introduction, now forms a five-bar group.
- Keywords:
