This thesis seeks to discuss Le jardin clos, Op. 106, a song cycle by the late 19th century French composer Gabriel Urbain Fauré, completed in 1914. Faure used eight poems by a Belgian Symbolist poet Charles Van Lerberghe (1861-1907) as the text for the song cycle. Through the poet’s use of obscure poetic language and techniques, as well as Fauré limiting the singer’s vocal range to a tenth, Faure creates quite radical music with a restrained expression, writing in a late Romantic style that is closer to modernist aesthetics, at the time allowing Le jardin clos to enter a new style, and becoming among the most obscure, neglected, and least performed of his song cycles.

The contents of this research is divided into three parts: (1) to explain the composer's artistic career and the unique characteristics of his song cycles; (2) introduce the poet Charles Van Lerberghe and explain the characteristics of the Symbolist Movement ; and (3) present a comprehensive musical analysis and performer’s interpretation of the 8 mélodies in Le jardin clos, Op. 106.