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 algérienne Suite algérienne "Suite algérienne" in C major, Op. 60 is a composition by Camille Saint-Saëns in four movements. The composer had a lifetime love for Algeria. In 1873, he visited it for the first time. The theme of the third movement of the suite came to him during that visit. He composed a single-movement "Rêverie orientale", which was performed in Paris on 7 June 1879 at a charity concert under composer's direction. His publisher Auguste Durand asked him to write more pieces like this one. So in the summer 1880, which he spent in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Saint-Saëns composed three other movements: