Fauré's 1887 setting of the poem was for voice and piano; but in 1888, at the instigation of the Princesse de Polignac, he made a version for voice and orchestra, first performed at the Société Nationale de Musique in April of that year, with the tenor Maurice Bàges as soloist.
The song is dedicated to Fauré's friend the painter Emmanuel Jadin, who was a talented amateur pianist.
[3] The pianist Graham Johnson notes that it closes Fauré's second period and opens the doors into his third.
[4] Votre âme est un paysage choisi Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.
Your soul is a chosen landscape Where charming masqueraders and bergamasquers go Playing the lute and dancing and almost Sad beneath their fantastic disguises.