Clair de lune (Fauré) Clair de lune (Fauré) "Clair de lune", ("Moonlight") Op. 46 No 2, is a song by Gabriel Fauré, composed in 1887 to words by Paul Verlaine. The pianist Graham Johnson writes that it closes Fauré's second period and opens the doors into his third. Johnson notes that it is "for many people the quintessential French mélodie". The lyric is from Verlaine's early collection "Fêtes galantes" (1869). It inspired not only Fauré but Claude Debussy, who set it in 1881 and wrote a well known piano piece inspired by it in 1891. Fauré's 1887 setting is for voice and piano; in
Suite bergamasque Throughout most of its duration, the piece is played with staccato arpeggios in the left hand. The "Suite bergamasque" has been orchestrated by many conductors, including André Caplet, Leopold Stokowski, and Lucien Cailliet. "Clair de lune" in particular has been arranged for a wide variety of instrumental combinations. One such is Dimitri Tiomkin's arrangement for organ in the score for the 1956 film "Giant". "Clair de lune" was originally set to be included as a fully orchestrated piece in Walt Disney's "Fantasia", but was not included in the final cut of the film due to running time issues, with the