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Composer of the Month - January, 2004

Francis Poulenc, 1899-1963
by Daryl Lee

Born just before the arrival of the 20^th Century to a pharmaceuticals manufacturer whose family business has survived to the 21^st Century, Poulenc began his musical studies early. At the age of five years, he began learning his keyboard skills from his mother. His father's financial success meant that Poulenc's career served his own personal interests more than his need for financial support, leading to a highly unconventional style.  It also meant that he was largely self-taught, partly due to the difficulty of finding teachers who can teach the extraordinary. For example, he was recommended to the prestigious Paris Conservatory by Igor Stravinsky, but his application was rejected upon the discovery of his admiration of the composer Erik Satie.  He had decided at the age of fourteen that he intended to become a musical composer.  Sadly, both of his parents died before any of his compositions were performed in public.

He was a relentless perfectionist. He once spent over ten years on a single four-minute song, seeking the perfect musical setting of a text that he believed demanded nothing less.  One string quartet found its way to the Paris sewer because he despaired of its ever reaching the level he demanded of himself.

Poulenc's compositional style was always marked by rugged individualism, encouraged by his comrades among "Les Six." This band of composers, of which he retained the greatest claim to fame, encouraged one another in their quiet revolution against the conventions of French music represented by Ravel and Debussy. This tendency to the innovative was indicated by his debut piece.  At the age of eighteen, his composition Rhapsodie Negre for baritone solo was performed. The middle of the five movements was "Honoloulou," a piece in an Africanesque dialect Poulenc invented for the occasion.

In 1935, after the death of a close friend, Poulenc adopted the Catholic faith of his father, and his composition took on a depth of quality that would mark the remainder of his career.  The organ concerto Litanies to the Black Virgin, the Mass in G, and the Four Motets for a Time of Penitence are representative of his production during this phase of his career. The Michael O'Neal Chamber Singers present the Four Motets as part of its 2004 program.  This composition is a fine example of Poulenc's art of blending styles: Renaissance, jazz, and contemporary (composed in 1938-39). Music-loving parents will be interested to know that he wrote L'Histoire de Babar, a piano -accompanied baritone recitation of the beloved tale of Babar the Elephant.  No summary of Poulenc's life could fail to mention his magnum opus, Dialogues des Carmélites, first performed in 1957. This tragic opera tells the story of the persecution and eventual execution of a convent of Carmelite nuns during the French Revolution. His ability to capture the personalities of the individual nuns in the music they sang shows Poulenc's command of lyric style.

For further reading on Francis Poulenc:
http://www.naxos.com/composer/poulenc.htm
http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/poulenc.html
http://www.classical.net/music/books/reviews/019816338Xa.html
http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2000/feb00/poulenc.htm
http://www.chesternovello.com/composer/1265/main.html
http://www.nyfos.org/?body=notes&program=1999poulenc
http://www.unitel.de/uhilites/010199.htm

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