 Fauré's compositions from this period did not overtly reflect the turmoil and bloodshed.Some of his colleagues, including Saint-Saëns, Gounod and Franck, produced elegies and patriotic odes.Fauré did not, but according to his biographer Jessica Duchen, his music acquired "a new sombreness, a dark-hued sense of tragedy ... evident mainly in his songs of this period including "L'Absent", "Seule!"