Editing Gabriel Fauré (section)

===Early years===
Fauré was born in [[Pamiers]], [[Ariège (department)|Ariège]], in the south of France, the fifth son and youngest of six children of Toussaint-Honoré Fauré (1810–85) and Marie-Antoinette-Hélène Lalène-Laprade (1809–87).<ref name=d3>Duchen, p. 13</ref> According to the biographer [[Jean-Michel Nectoux]], the Fauré family dates to the 13th century in that part of France.<ref name=n3>Nectoux (1991), p. 3</ref> The family had at one time been substantial landowners, but by the 19th century its means had become reduced. The composer's paternal grandfather, Gabriel, was a butcher whose son became a schoolmaster.<ref>Duchen, p. 12</ref> In 1829 Fauré's parents married. His mother was the daughter of a minor member of the nobility. He was the only one of the six children to display musical talent; his four brothers pursued careers in journalism, politics, the army and the civil service, and his sister had a traditional life as the wife of a public servant.<ref name=d3/>

The young Fauré was sent to live with a foster mother until he was four years old.<ref name=n4>Nectoux (1991), p. 4</ref> When his father was appointed director of the École Normale d'Instituteurs, a teacher training college, at Montgauzy, near [[Foix]], in 1849, Fauré returned to live with his family.<ref>Duchen, p. 2</ref> There was a chapel attached to the school, which Fauré recalled in the last year of his life:
{{blockquote|I grew up, a rather quiet well-behaved child, in an area of great beauty.&nbsp;... But the only thing I remember really clearly is the [[Pump organ|harmonium]] in that little chapel. Every time I could get away I ran there&nbsp;– and I regaled myself.&nbsp;... I played atrociously&nbsp;... no method at all, quite without technique, but I do remember that I was happy; and if that is what it means to have a vocation, then it is a very pleasant thing.<ref>Fauré in 1924, ''quoted'' in Duchen, p. 14</ref>|}}

[[File:Gabriel Fauré en uniforme de l'Ecole Niedermeyer.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=young man in elaborate scholastic uniform with frock coat|Fauré as a student, 1864]]
An old blind woman, who came to listen and give the boy advice, told his father of Fauré's gift for music.<ref name=n4/> In 1853 Simon-Lucien Dufaur de Saubiac, of the [[National Assembly of France|National Assembly]],{{refn|Sources differ on Dufaur de Saubiac's position at the Assembly. Jones identifies him as "the parliamentary deputy for the ''département'',<ref name=j15>Jones, p. 15</ref> as does Johnson;<ref>Johnson, p. 27</ref> Orledge similarly identifies him as "the member of the Assembly for Ariège";<ref>Orledge, pp. 5–6</ref> Nectoux describes him as "a senior civil servant in the Chamber of Deputies (or ''Palais législatif'' as it was known in the Second Empire)";<ref name="n4"/> Duchen does not mention the Assembly, referring to Dufaur de Saubiac as "a local man who worked as an archivist in Paris".<ref>Duchen, p. 15</ref>|group= n}} heard Fauré play and advised Toussaint-Honoré to send him to the [[École Niedermeyer de Paris]], which [[Louis Niedermeyer]] was setting up in Paris.<ref name=n5>Nectoux (1991), p. 5</ref> After reflecting for a year, Fauré's father agreed and took the nine-year-old boy to Paris in October 1854.<ref name=grove>Nectoux, Jean-Michel. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/09366 "Fauré, Gabriel (Urbain)"], ''Grove Online'', Oxford Music Online, accessed 21 August 2010 {{subscription}}</ref>

Helped by a scholarship from the bishop of his home diocese, Fauré boarded at the school for 11 years.<ref name=n6>Nectoux, p. 6</ref> The régime was austere, the rooms gloomy, the food mediocre, and the required uniform elaborate.<ref name=j15/>{{refn|A later writer describes "a photo of Fauré as a boy wearing the school uniform and looking not unlike [[Arthur Sullivan]] as one of the children of the [[Chapel Royal]]".<ref>Henderson, A. M. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/922657 "Memories of Some Distinguished French Organists&nbsp;– Fauré"], ''[[The Musical Times]]'', September 1937, pp. 817–819 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} The musical tuition, however, was excellent.<ref name=j15/> Niedermeyer, whose goal was to produce qualified organists and choirmasters, focused on church music. Fauré's tutors were [[Clément Loret]] for organ, [[Pierre-Louis Dietsch|Louis Dietsch]] for harmony, Xavier Wackenthaler for [[counterpoint]] and [[fugue]], and Niedermeyer for piano, [[plainsong]] and composition.<ref name=grove/>

When Niedermeyer died in March 1861, [[Camille Saint-Saëns]] took charge of piano studies and introduced contemporary music, including that of [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]], [[Franz Liszt|Liszt]] and [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]].<ref>Jones, p. 16</ref> Fauré recalled in old age, "After allowing the lessons to run over, he would go to the piano and reveal to us those works of the masters from which the rigorous classical nature of our programme of study kept us at a distance and who, moreover, in those far-off years, were scarcely known.&nbsp;... At the time I was 15 or 16, and from this time dates the almost filial attachment&nbsp;... the immense admiration, the unceasing gratitude I [have] had for him, throughout my life."<ref>Fauré in 1922, ''quoted'' in Nectoux (1984), pp. 1–2</ref>

Saint-Saëns took great pleasure in his pupil's progress, which he helped whenever he could; Nectoux comments that at each step in Fauré's career "Saint-Saëns's shadow can effectively be taken for granted."<ref>Nectoux (1984), p. 2</ref> The close friendship between them lasted until Saint-Saëns died sixty years later.<ref name=copland>Copland, Aaron. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/738475 "Gabriel Fauré, a Neglected Master"], ''The Musical Quarterly'', October 1924, pp. 573–586 {{subscription}}</ref>

Fauré won many prizes while at the school, including a ''premier prix'' in composition for the ''[[Cantique de Jean Racine (Fauré)|Cantique de Jean Racine]]'', Op. 11, the earliest of his choral works to enter the regular repertory.<ref name=grove/> He left the school in July 1865, as a ''Laureat'' in organ, piano, harmony and composition, with a ''[[Maître de chapelle]]'' diploma.<ref name=nectoux502>Nectoux (1991), p. 502; and Jones, p. 20</ref>