Gabriel Faure was a refined and gentle composer whose work inspired the development of modern French music. Fauré's musical talents became noticeable from a young age. When Louis Niedermeyer, a Swiss composer, and teacher, heard the child, he instantly welcomed him as a student. Camille Saint-Saens, Fauré's piano teacher, exposed him to Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner's music. Fauré's first composition, Trois romances sans paroles, was written when he was still a bachelor (1863). He was named church organist at the Madeleine Church in Paris and professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory in 1896. He succeeded Théodore Dubois as director of the conservatory in 1905, and he served in that role until compelled to retire in 1920 due to ill health and deafness. Maurice Ravel, Georges Enesco, and Nadia Boulanger were among his pupils.

Fauré was a master composer in every branch of chamber music, not just as a songwriter of great sophistication and sensitivity, but also as a songwriter of great refinement and sensitivity. He composed over 100 songs, including "Après un rêve" (c. 1865) and "Les Roses d'Ispahan" (1884), as well as song cycles such as La Bonne Chanson (1891–92) and L'Horizon chimérique (1893). (1922). He contributed to the piano literature with a variety of extremely original and exquisitely crafted compositions, the most representative and well-known of which are his 13 nocturnes, 13 barcaroles, and 5 impromptus. Other well-known works by Fauré include Ballade for piano and orchestra (1881; originally arranged for solo piano, 1877–79), two sonatas for violin and piano, and Berceuse for violin and piano (1880). The cello and piano sonata Élégie (1880; arranged for orchestra, 1896), as well as two sonatas for cello and piano, as well as chamber parts, are often performed and recorded. Fauré was not particularly fond of theater, but he composed incidental music for a number of productions, including Maurice Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande (1898), as well as two lyric dramas, Prométhée (1900) and Pénélope (1900). (1913). Masques et bergamasques is one of his only compositions composed for the orchestra alone (1919). While Fauré's Messe de requiem for solo voices, chorus, orchestra, and organ (1887) was not instantly popular, it has since become one of his most frequently performed compositions. Fauré succeeded in infusing conventional styles of music with a mélange of harmonic daring and freshness of creativity, considering his strong appreciation for traditional forms of music. His fondness for daring harmonic progressions and abrupt modulations, often performed with sublime beauty and a deceptive sense of ease, was one of the most striking features of his style. His unassuming movement paved the way for the new French school's more sensational advances.