Faure was the master of "Melodie," the French art song. Early pieces like "Apres un rêve" and "Au bord de l'eau" were considered good, but they were just his first published works. He completed a collection of 60 vocal pieces containing some of his more famous works including "Les Berceaux," "Les Roses d'Ispahan," and "Clair de Lune." A few later pieces such as "Le Secret," "Nocturne," and "Les Présents" are regarded as his hidden gems.
Faure's orchestral compositions included several pieces for solo instruments with orchestral accompaniment, and various orchestrated suites for stage works. He also completed two piano quintets and a variety of string quartets, pianoforte trios, violin sonatas, cello sonatas and select pieces for a solo harpist. He challenged the modern composers of the time by using the voice as a harmonic instrument.
Faure enjoyed telling stories with his music in the context of plays or opera. "Prométhée" was a lyric tragedy from 1900. "Pénélope" was a lyric drama written in 1913. "Masques et Bergamasques" was a notable lyrical comedy made famous in 1919. He also wrote a variety of smaller collections of dramatic incidental music and plays, the most notable of which was 1898's "Pelléas et Mélisande."
Faure very much enjoyed writing for piano. His array of piano music included 13 nocturnes, 13 barcarolles, a set of nine preludes, five impromptus and four walse-caprices. Perhaps his most famous work was his "Requiem." Ironically, it was not written for anyone's death, not even in honorarium. He wanted to create a piece that was a requiem about death. Instead of the loud and epic requiems that quickly became popular, his was calming, soothing and contemplative.