Gabriel Fauré: “Les berceaux“ (Cradles), Op. 23, No. 1 Souzay

Gabriel Faurés “Les berceaux,“ Op. 23/1 (1879), a setting of a poem by Sully-Prudhomme, uses a flowing melodic line in the vocal part and a characteristic accompaniment in the piano to evoke the movement of both ships and of cradles (berceaux), linking the two together in motion and emotion. The poem describes large ships rocked by the water and cradles rocked by women: “But the day of farewells will come, because women must weep, and curious men must dare the lure of the horizon.“ But though ships carry