Après un rêve, Op. 7 No. 1

About this piece

"Après un rêve" ('After a dream') is one of Fauré's most popular songs. He composed it around 1877 to Romain Bussine's free French adaptation of an anonymous Italian poem, in which a dreamer longs to return to the 'mysterious night' of a dream of flight with a lover. Choudens published it in 1878, and it later became the first of the Trois mélodies, Op. 7. Cellists have long played it, and this entry is Pablo Casals's transcription for cello and piano, published by International Music Company (Int. 540, 'Ed. Pablo Casals'). The cello takes over the long vocal line, whose flowing triplet groups give the song its floating rhythm. The original song and several free modern cello arrangements, including Jean-Pierre Coulon's, are on IMSLP; Schott also publishes an edition arranged by Susanne Richter. Recorded performances include Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Gautier Capuçon.

Technical overview

A single Andantino song of about three minutes. The cellist needs a sustained cantabile legato, even quarter-note and eighth-note triplets mixed with duple groupings, shifting across the upper strings, and long dynamic swells from pp to f.

Technical focus

• Legato
• Rhythm
• Shifting
• Dynamics
• Hairpin Dynamics