Gabriel Fauré (1845 – 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher, and one of the foremost French composers of his generation. His musical style influenced many 20th-c composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, nocturnes for piano and the songs “Après un rêve” and “Clair de lune”. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a harmonically and melodicallymuch more complex style.
Fauré wrote these three “songs without words” while still a student at the Ecole Niedermeyer, in about 1863. They were not published until 1880, but they then became some of his most popular works.