This lovely five-minute piece is among the finest and most beautiful of late-Romantic works for harp solo.

There was a special affinity on the part of French late-Romantic composers with the harp. They stressed the impression of delicacy and the elegance that are inherent in the instrument, creating a trademark sound for the instrument that focused on broken chord figurations and occasional glissandi (sweeps up or down the harp strings).

Gabriel Fauré was one of the most respected of French composers. Nearing the end of a long life (and having outlived the younger Debussy), he now was allowing himself to use some of the newer harmonic ideas that Debussy had pioneered. Nevertheless, Fauré's approach did not relegate harmonies to the status of simply another way to create color.

This is the third of his solo harp pieces. The prior two were both written in 1904 and includes an exercise called Morceau de lecture (Sight-reading piece) and the more substantial Impromptu, Op. 86. The comparison with these pieces is intriguing: It showed that Fauré, though he was a conservative composer for the time, still kept his creative ears open. The instant piece, however, also shows a consistent artistic point of view in that the music is beautiful, flowing, tasteful, and refined, qualities that mark all of Fauré's music.

Un Châtelaine en sa Tour means "A chatelaine in her tower," a "chatelaine" being a woman who owned or exercised control over a castle or chateau. The line comes from a poem by Paul Verlaine; the chaste, retiring beauty of Fauré's music perfectly illustrates the mood of the poem. The piece is in a three-part (ABA) form. In the first part the melody is first surrounded by broken chord accompaniment, then briefly isolated in timbre when it is played in harmonics. This theme is lyrical and with a restrained passion.

The central section has a more flowing and dance-like flavor, and rises to the most intense part of the work. The return of the "A" section is, by contrast, the most restrained part, and Fauré reserves the most characteristic and ethereal harp sounds for the beautiful conclusion.

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