Après Un Rêve

Gabriel Fauré's 'Après Un Rêve' (After a Dream) is a classic example of the French mélodie, a genre akin to the German Lied, which is a setting of poetry to classical music for voice and piano. The song is a musical interpretation of a poem that speaks to the ethereal nature of dreams and the longing for a reality as sweet as the illusions created in sleep. The lyrics describe a dream in which the singer experiences an intense happiness, a mirage of love and beauty, with tender eyes and a clear, sonorous voice calling to them, shining like a dawn-lit sky.

The second stanza of the song describes an ascent to the heavens, led by the beckoning of the dream figure, towards the light and through the parting clouds into a realm of unknown splendor and glimpses of divine light. This imagery suggests a transcendence of earthly bounds, a flight towards an idealized and pure love. However, the dream is fleeting, and the awakening is harsh. The final stanza expresses a deep yearning to return to the dream state, calling out to the night to return the sweet deceptions, the radiant and mysterious visions that the dream provided.

Fauré's composition captures the intensity of the dream and the subsequent despair of waking. The music ebbs and flows with a sense of longing and melancholy, mirroring the emotional journey of the lyrics. The song is a poignant reflection on the beauty of dreams and the pain of their impermanence, a theme that resonates with anyone who has ever wished to escape reality for a world of dreams.