Gabriel Faure composed music so subtle that audiences often missed how radical it was. His harmonies drifted between keys in ways that anticipated Debussy and Ravel, yet he was dismissed by some contemporaries as merely pleasant. He went almost completely deaf in his final years and kept composing, producing some of his most adventurous work in silence.

This episode traces Faure from his years at the Ecole Niedermeyer through his tenure as director of the Paris Conservatoire, his Requiem, and the late chamber works that revealed the full scope of his harmonic daring.

• His Requiem stripped away the terror and drama typical of the form, creating what he called a lullaby of death
• He served as director of the Paris Conservatoire from 1905 to 1920, reshaping French musical education
• He went progressively deaf in his final years but continued composing some of his most experimental music
• His harmonic innovations directly influenced Debussy, Ravel, and the entire trajectory of French music