Poulenc, Francis
Poulenc, Francis
POULENC, FRANCIS
Contemporary composer noted for his religious works; b. Paris, Jan. 7, 1899; d. there, Jan. 30, 1963. Poulenc was one of the creative musicians who formed the Groupe des Six under the leadership of Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau (the other five were Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Germaine Tailleferre, Louis Durey, and Georges Auric). Strongly opposed to the refinement and elegance of debussy and Ravel, "Les Six" wished to be thought barbares, but Poulenc for one was much more than that. While his style revealed influences of schubert, faure, Satie, and Moussorgsky, his clarity, spontaneity, and irresistible melodic gift were his own. He composed some of the finest French art songs of the 20th century, as well as attractive instrumental works, such as the sparkling Organ Concerto (appreciated more in the U.S. than in France), and the operas Les Dialogues des Carmélites, based on the Bernanos-Bruckberger scenario for Gertrud von Le Fort's Song at the Scaffold (U.S. première, San Francisco Opera, 1957; also on NBC-TV), and La Voix Humaine (1960). His particular glory, however, is his choral writing, which ranges from Petites Voix for small girls to the demanding Mass (1937) for unaccompanied mixed chorus, in the spirit of the motu proprio on sacred music. In all his sacred choral works, which include a setting of the Prayers of St. Francis, the Litanies à la Vierge Noire de Rocamadour (1936), Salve Regina (1941), and Stabat Mater (1951), Poulenc gives free expression to a naturally religious temperament without falling into the banality of much religious music. The Gloria, commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation and first heard in Boston on Jan. 20, 1961, is not a Mass setting but, like the Vivaldi Gloria, a cantatalike work in several movements. Abounding in simplicity, humility, and joy, as well as in mystical sonorities, it places its composer among the masters of religious music. The Sept Répons des Ténèbres, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its opening season in Lincoln Center and first performed in April 1963, three months after Poulenc's death, takes its place with the classic tenebrae settings in "an enticement of sound that is an act of faith in itself," in the words of one commentator.
Bibliography: f. poulenc, Entretiens avec Claude Rostand (Paris 1954). h. hell, Francis Poulenc: Musicien français (Paris 1958), Eng. tr. e. lockspeiser (New York 1959); "La Musique religieuse de F. P.," La Revue musicale 212 (1952) 53–58; Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. f. blume (Kassel-Basel 1949–) 10:526–529. c. rostand, La Musique Française contemporaine (Paris 1952). r. h. myers, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. e. blom 9 v. (5th ed. London 1954) 6:898–901. e. lockspeiser, "The Wit and the Heart," High Fidelity 8 (July 1958) 35–37. i. kolodin, "The Merit of P.," Saturday Review 46 (Feb. 23, 1963) 49–50, 66. v. rasŠÍn, "Les Six and Jean Cocteau," Music and Letters 37 (1957) 164–169. p. m. young, The Choral Tradition (New York 1962). p. blay, "Francis Poulenc: Le Concert champêtre, " Analyse Musicale 21 (1990) 37–44. r. brandt, "Die religiöse musik von Francis Poulenc eine werkübersicht," Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch 73 (1989) 97–117. k. w. daniel, "Dialogues des Carmélites " in International Dictionary of Opera, ed. c. s. larue (Detroit 1993) 340–341; "La Voix Humaine, ibid. c. kimball, "Reach Out and Touch Someone: Poulenc's One-Act Phone Call," The Opera Journal 22/2 (1989) 2–12. w. landowska, "Thoughts On Modern Music: Francis Poulenc," in Landowska On Music ed. and trans. d. restout (New York 1964) 347. w. mellers, Francis Poulenc (Oxford 1993). c. b. schmidt, The Music of Francis Poulenc (1899–1963), a Catalogue (Oxford 1995).
[c. a. peloquin]
Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) was in many ways the most "typical" of the group of French composers known as Les Six, and he represents a trend of 20th-century music that is characteristically French.
Francis Poulenc was born in Paris to a family that was artistic, musical, and affluent. His mother was a fine pianist, and Francis began lessons at the age of 5. Later he studied with Ricardo Vines, a friend of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel who had played the first performances of much of their piano music. While still in his teens Poulenc met Erik Satie, who left a permanent mark on his musical ideals.
When Poulenc was 18, he wrote Rapsodie nègre baritone, string quartet, flute, and clarinet. Its lighthearted irreverence and music-hall atmosphere established his right to be a charter member of Les Six when the group was formed a few years later. He spent most of his life in Paris, except for concert tours that included several trips to the United States after World War II, where he accompanied baritone Pierre Bernac, who specialized in singing his songs.
Poulenc's gift was lyric; he was at his best when he was setting words to music. As the composer of over 150 songs with piano accompaniment, he is perhaps the most important songwriter of his time. He usually set the verses of poets he knew: Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean Cocteau, Paul éluard, and Max Jacob; he performed the same service for these poets that Debussy did for the symbolists. Poulenc's early set of songs, Cocardes (1919), written to Cocteau's poems, suggest the Paris streets. The accompaniment, consisting of cornet, violin, bass drum, and trombone, resembles the little street bands that still play there. A later cycle, Tel jour, tel nuit (1937), celebrates the quiet pleasures of life with sincerity and directness.
Poulenc's two operas differ strikingly from each other. Les Mamelles de Tirésias (1944) is a risqué, surrealist farce; Les Dialogues des Carmélites (1957) is a serious and moving account of the spiritual development of a nun during the French Revolution. His religious choral works, particularly the Litanies à la Vierge noire (1936) and a Stabat Mater (1950), are frequently performed. He also wrote numerous piano solos, a sonata for two pianos, and concertos for piano, two pianos, organ, and harpsichord. Among chamber works there are sonatas for various instruments and piano and a sextet for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn.
Poulenc avoided large, dramatic gestures. He accepted his natural limitations and was content to write music in the spirit of the composers he most admired: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Frédéric Chopin, Debussy, and Igor Stravinsky.
Further Reading
A book-length study of Poulenc is Henri Hell, Francis Poulenc (trans. 1959). There is a short biographical study and analysis of his work in Joseph Machlis, Introduction to Contemporary Music (1961).
Additional Sources
Bernac, Pierre, Francis Poulenc: the man and his songs, London: V. Gollancz, 1977.
Poulenc, Francis, My friends and myself: conversations with Francis Poulenc, London: Dobson, 1978.
Poulenc, Francis, Selected correspondence, 1915-1963: echo and source, London: V. Gollancz, 1991. □