xzibit | STOLEN RECORDS

Gabriel Faure

When I’m not listening to songs about sex, money and violence, I like to fill the room with one of my favourite French romantic composers, Gabriel Faure. Pavane in F-Sharp Minor is a piece he composed in 1887, and was sampled more than 100 years later by Xzibit. At the time when he wrote it, he was unhappily married and earning very little for his compositions, which were selling for about 50 Francs to the publisher. He was a bit of a depressive, pedantic sort of a chap. In his time off from his day job working as a church organist, he would write these large scale works and a couple piano pieces, but unhappy with how they were received he would destroy them just after a few performances. Here is the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra playing one that thankfully survived.

MP3: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra – Pavane in F-Sharp Minor | Buy

MP3: Xzibit – Paparazzi | Buy