Francis Poulenc (1899-1963); FRA

Poulenc, Francis (b Paris, 1899; d Paris, 1963). Fr. composer and pianist. Taught pf. by his mother. At 15 studied with Ricardo Viñes, who encouraged his ambition to compose and introduced him to Satie, Casella, Auric, and others. In 1917 his Rapsodie nègre brought his name to notorious prominence in Paris as one of a number of composers—Les Nouveaux Jeunes—encouraged by Satie and Cocteau. Even so, his technical knowledge was still scanty and in 1920 he studied harmony for 3 years with Koechlin, but never studied counterpoint nor orchestration. His knowledge of form was instinctive. In 1920, a mus. critic, Henri Collet, selected 6 of Les Nouveaux Jeunes and called them Les Six, Poulenc being among them. They gave concerts together, one of their articles of faith being to draw inspiration from ‘Parisian folklore’, i.e. street musicians, mus.-halls, circus bands. This milieu is faithfully reflected in Poulenc's settings of Cocteau's Cocardes. These caught the ear of Stravinsky who recommended Poulenc to Diaghilev, the result being the ballet Les Biches (1923), in which he expressed brittle 1920s sophistication, a faithful understanding of the jazz idiom, and (in the adagietto) the romantic lyricism that was increasingly to dominate his work. Perhaps his finest achievements are contained in his many songs for v. and pf., particularly those written after 1935 when he began to acc. the great Fr. bar. Pierre Bernac. His settings of Apollinaire and of his friend Paul Éluard are particularly good, covering a wide emotional range. He comp. 3 operas, the biggest being Les dialogues des Carmélites (1953-6), based on events of the Fr. Revolution, and his religious works have a tuneful ecstatic joy such as one finds elsewhere only in Haydn. He rediscovered his RC faith after the death of a close friend in a car crash, the first musical result being Litanies à la vierge noire (1936). Of his instr. works, the org. conc. (1938) is highly original in its treatment of the solo instr. His mus., eclectic yet strongly personal in style, is essentially diatonic and melodious, embroidered with 20th-cent. dissonances. It has wit, elegance, depth of feeling, and a bitter-sweetness which derives from the mixture in his personality of gaiety and manic depression. In 1946 he said: ‘I have no system for writing music, thank God! (by system I mean “contrivances”)’. Prin. works:

OPERAS: Le gendarme incompris (comédie-bouffe) (1921); Les mamelles de Tirésias (1944); Les dialogues des Carmélites (1953-6); La voix humaine (1958).

BALLETS: Les Biches (1923); contribution to L'Éventail de Jeanne (1927); Les Animaux modèles (1941).

INCID. MUSIC: La Reine Margot (Bourdet), with Auric (1935); Léocadia (Anouilh) (1940); La fille du jardinier (Exbrayat) (1941); Le voyageur sans bagages (Anouilh) (1944); La nuit de Saint-Jean (Barrie) (1944); Le soldat et la sorcière (Salacrou) (1945); L'invitation au château (Anouilh) (1947); Amphitryon (Molière) (1947); Renaud et Armide (Cocteau) (1962).

FILMS : La Belle au bois dormant (1935); La Duchesse de Langeais (1942); Le voyage en Amérique (1951).

ORCH.: 2 Marches et un intermède, chamber orch. (1937); Suite, Les Biches (1940, rescored); Suite, Les Animaux modèles (1942); Sinfonietta (1947); Matelot provençale (1952); Bucolique (1954).

CONCERTOS: Concert champêtre, hpd. or pf., orch. (1927-8); Aubade, ‘concerto choréographique’, pf., 18 instr. (1929); 2 pf., orch. (1932); org., str., timp. (1938); pf., orch. (1949).

CHAMBER MUS.: 2-cl. sonata (1918); sonata, cl., bn. (1922); sonata, tpt., tb., hn. (1922); trio, ob., bn., pf. (1926); pf. sextet (1932-9); Villanelle, pipe, pf. (1934); vc. sonata (1940-8); vn. sonata (1942-3); str. qt. (1946, destroyed); fl. sonata (1957); Élégie, hn., pf. (1957); Sarabande, gui. (1960); cl. sonata (1961-2); ob. sonata (1962).

VOICE(S) & INSTR(S).: Rapsodie nègre, bar., pf., str. qt., fl., cl. (1917); Le Bestiaire, v., fl., cl., bn., str. qt. or v., pf. (1919); Le Bal masqué, cantata, bar. (or mez.), chamber ens. (1932); Colloque, sop., bar., pf. (1940); La Dame de Monte Carlo, sop., orch. (1961).

CHORAL: Chanson à boire, unacc. male ch. (1922); 7 Chansons, unacc. ch. (1936); Litanies à la Vierge Noire, women's or children's ch., org. (1936); Petites Voix, unacc. ch. (1936); Mass in G, unacc. ch. (1937); Sécheresses, ch., orch. (1937); 4 Motets pour un temps de pénitence, unacc. ch. (1938-9); Exultate, unacc. ch. (1941); Salve Regina, unacc. ch. (1941); Figure humaine, cantata, unacc. double ch. (1943); Un soir de neige, cantata, 6 unacc. vv. or unacc. ch. (1944); Chansons françaises, unacc. ch. (1946); 4 petites prières de St. François d'Assise, unacc. male ch. (1948); Stabat Mater, sop., ch., orch. (1950); 4 Motets pour le temps de Noël, ch. (1952); Ave verum corpus, 3 female vv. (1952); Laudes de Saint Antoine de Padoue, unacc. male ch. (1959); Gloria, sop., ch., orch. (1959); 7 Répons des ténèbres, male ch., orch. (1960-2).

PIANO: 3 Pastorales (1918); 3 mouvements perpétuels (1918); Valse (1919); 5 Impromptus (1920); Suite in C (1920); 10 Promenades (1921); Suite, Napoli (1925); Pastourelle (1927); 2 Nouvellettes (1927-8); 3 Pièces (1928); Pièce brève sur le nom d'Albert Roussel (1929); 8 Nocturnes (1929-38); Valse-Improvisation sur le nom Bach (1932); 15 Improvisations (1932-59); Feuillets d'album (1933); Villageoises (1933); Presto (1934); 2 Intermezzi (1934); Humoresque (1934); Badinage (1934); Suite française (1935); Les Soirées de Nazelles (1936); Bourrée, Au Pavillon (1937); Mélancolie (1940); Intermezzo in Ab (1943); Thème varié (1951); Novelette (1959); Improvisation in D: Hommage à Edith Piaf (1960).

PIANO & NARRATOR: L'Histoire de Babar le petit éléphant (1940-5).

PIANO (4 HANDS): Sonata (1918).

2 PIANOS: L'Embarquement pour Cythère (1951); Sonata (1953); Elégie (1959).

SONGS (v., pf. unless otherwise stated): Toréador (Cocteau) (1918); Le Bestiare au cortège d'Orphée (Apollinaire, 6 songs), v., 7 instr. or pf. (1919); Cocardes (Cocteau, 3 songs), v., 5 instr. or pf. (1919); 5 Poèmes de Ronsard (1924-5); Chansons gaillardes (17th-cent. anon., 8 songs) (1926); Vocalise (1927); Airs chantés (Moréas, 4 songs) (1927-8); Epitaphe (Malherbe) (1930); 3 Poèmes de Louise Lalanne (Apollinaire pseudonym, 3 songs) (1931); 4 Poèmes (Apollinaire) (1931); 5 Poèmes (Jacob) (1931); 8 Chansons Polonaises (1934); 4 Chansons pour enfants (Jaboune) (1934-5); 5 Poèmes (Éluard) (1935); A sa guitare (Ronsard) (1935); Tel jour telle nuit (Éluard) (1936-7); 3 Poèmes (Vilmorin) (1937); 2 Poèmes (Apollinaire) (1938); Le Portrait (Colette) (1938); Miroirs brûlants (Éluard, 2 songs) (1938); Priez pour paix (d'Orléans) (1938); La Grenouillère (Apollinaire) (1938); Ce doux petit visage (Éluard) (1938); Bleuet (Apollinaire) (1938); Fiançailles pour rire (Vilmorin, 6 songs) (1939); Banalités (Apollinaire, 5 songs) (1940); Le chemins de l'amour (from Léocadia) (1940); Chansons villageoises (Fombeure, 6 songs) (1942, also with chamber orch.); Métamorphoses (Vilmorin, 3 songs) (1943); 2 Poèmes (Aragon) (1943); Montparnasse; Hyde Park (Apollinaire) (1945); Le Pont; Un Poème (Apollinaire) (1946); Paul et Virginie (Radiguet) (1946); Le disparu (Desnos) (1947); 3 Chansons de F. Garcia Lorca (1947); Main dominée par le cœur (Éluard) (1947); ‘… mais mourir’ (Éluard) (1947); Calligrammes (Apollinaire, 7 songs) (1948); Hymne (Racine) (1949); Mazurka (Vilmorin) (1949); La Fraîcheur et le feu (Éluard, 7 songs) (1950); Parisiana (Jacob, 2 songs) (1954); Rosemonde (Apollinaire) (1954); Le Travail du peintre (Éluard, 7 songs) (1956); 2 Mélodies 1956 (Apollinaire and de Baylié) (1956); Dernier poème (Desnos) (1956); Une chanson de porcelaine (Éluard) (1958); Fancy (Shakespeare) (1959); La Courte Paille (Carême) (1960).

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