Francis Poulenc
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France (1899 – 1963)
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (January 7, 1899 - January 30, 1963) was a French composer and a member of the French Group Les Six.
He was a Parisian by birth and death, and always preferred the city to the country. His mother, an amateur pianist, taught him to play, and music formed a part of family life.
Poulenc was a member of Les Six, a group of young French composers, Darius Milhaud, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger and Germaine Tailleferre, who also had links with Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau. He embraced the dada movement’s techniques, creating melodies that would have been appropriate for Parisian music halls. An outstanding pianist, Poulenc featured the keyboard in many of his early compositions. He also, throughout his career, borrowed from his own compositions as well as those of Mozart and Camille Saint-Saëns.
He composed music in all major genres, including art song, chamber music, oratorio, opera, ballet music and orchestral music. Among Poulenc’s last series of major works is a series of works for Winds and Piano. He was particularly fond of the woodwind instruments, and planned a set of sonatas for all of them, yet only lived to complete four: the Flute Sonata (1956), and sonatas for oboe, clarinet and horn.
Poulenc’s Rapsodie nègre (1917), written for baritone, piano, string quartet, flute, and clarinet, sets nonsense syllables purportedly by a black Liberian poet.
He was a Parisian by birth and death, and always preferred the city to the country. His mother, an amateur pianist, taught him to play, and music formed a part of family life.
Poulenc was a member of Les Six, a group of young French composers, Darius Milhaud, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger and Germaine Tailleferre, who also had links with Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau. He embraced the dada movement’s techniques, creating melodies that would have been appropriate for Parisian music halls. An outstanding pianist, Poulenc featured the keyboard in many of his early compositions. He also, throughout his career, borrowed from his own compositions as well as those of Mozart and Camille Saint-Saëns.
He composed music in all major genres, including art song, chamber music, oratorio, opera, ballet music and orchestral music. Among Poulenc’s last series of major works is a series of works for Winds and Piano. He was particularly fond of the woodwind instruments, and planned a set of sonatas for all of them, yet only lived to complete four: the Flute Sonata (1956), and sonatas for oboe, clarinet and horn.
Poulenc’s Rapsodie nègre (1917), written for baritone, piano, string quartet, flute, and clarinet, sets nonsense syllables purportedly by a black Liberian poet.
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POULENC: Stabat Mater / Gloria / Litanies
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POULENC: Melodies
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Bacteria4 wrote:
I think whoever composed the Apocalypse now soundtrack must have listened to his Concerto for Organ. Quite a few similarities
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Aotus wrote:
I'm looking for the 1957 Flute Sonata, can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks!
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yu00 wrote:
Such a great composer, I particularly love his organ concerto and his sinfonietta
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ConkertheKing wrote:
Playing the double piano concerto in our orchestra. good stuff!
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Zlotythepoet wrote:
Ou sont les "animaux modeles"? :(
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Crashnodarfan wrote:
Sombre nuit, aveugles ténèbres, Fuyez; Le jour s'approche et l'Olympe blanchit
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theo_equis wrote:
poulenc is where it's at
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oseland wrote:
ha, poo-long.
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wafizainalmusic wrote:
Dialogues of the Carmelites!
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freezegelman wrote:
nocturne #5 is where its at
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moonlit_reverie wrote:
Happy Birthday Poulenc! :)
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_KevMusic_ wrote:
Everything he writes is so damned perfect :) The violin sonata is one of the most perfect things in existence, in my opinion. Beautiful, haunting, angry, dissonant yet melodic - simply perfect. And very definitely in my top 5 violin sonatas (the others being Prok 1, Enescu 3, Franck and about 50 others - as is how it is when there is such a wealth of "back catalogue")
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tbwilliams wrote:
French pronunciation sounds a lot like 'poo-long'. You don't actually make a harsh 'kuh' sound at the end. Just say poolong and deaden the 'ng' sound quickly. It'll sound pretty much right
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Epitymbidia wrote:
Hm, for those who are able to read the International Phonetic Alphabet it's quite simple: [pulɛ̃k], but the main problem is, I think, that there is no sound as the French [ɛ̃] in English. The one English open-mid front unrounded vowel [ɛ] is quite different from the French two, especially from the [ɛ̃]... So maybe "Pool-Ahnk" is really not so bad. I would have said "Pool-Unc" though, with "unc" as in "uncle", but with a long vowel...
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nplanet wrote:
What is the correct pronunciation of his last name?
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bibo42 wrote:
There's nothing like the Organ Concerto after a lousy day at the office. But you need to turn it up LOUD (sorry neighbors).
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KraeheK wrote:
"but I'm an uneducated honkey" An affliction so many of us suffer from :-( Mr. Poulenc: your choral music kicks ass...
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villa_seurat wrote:
Monsigneur - vous ete un homme de couer et un musicien immense. Merci
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Amina172 wrote:
Join Schumann group!
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Mokami wrote:
I am the first!
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