Fauré - Barcarolle No. 6 in E-flat Major Op. 70, Inez Popko

Barcarolles were originally folk songs sung by Venetian gondoliers. Following the precedents of Chopin and most conspicuously Mendelssohn, Fauré made extensive use of the barcarolle, in what his biographer Jessica Duchen calls "an evocation of the rhythmic rocking and lapping of water around appropriately lyrical melodies."

Fauré's ambidexterity is reflected in the layout of many of his piano works, notably in the barcarolles, where the main melodic line is often in the middle register, with the accompaniments in the high treble part of the keyboard as well as in the bass.

Barcarolle No. 6 was composed in 1896 and is described by Fauré scholar Roy Howat as "sensuous insouciance" with an underlying virtuosity and wit under the "deceptively nonchalant surface".