Musicians - Francis Poulenc

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	Musicians - Francis Poulenc

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (January 7, 1899 - January 30, 1963) was a French composer.

Poulenc was born in Paris. His mother, an amateur pianist, taught him to play, and music formed a part of family life. As a young man, in 1918 he was fulfilling his National Military Service but still managed to compose three miniatures. At one time, the best known of all Poulenc's music was the three Mouvements perpétuels of 1918, but his most successful work may be the opera Dialogues des Carmélites.

Biography

He was a Parisian by birth and always preferred the city to the country. However, in order to have the quiet solitude he needed to write music, he spent as much time as possible in Noizay, his home in the Loire Valley. This has led to the misconception that he preferred the country, but in fact he found rustic life boring and he hated walks.

He was called to military service twice, the first time beginning January 1918, during which Poulenc served a ten-day sentence in military prison for overstaying a leave in Paris. (Ivry 1996)

Poulenc was gay, openly so from his first serious relationship, that with painter Richard Chanlaire to whom he dedicated his Concert champêtre: "You have changed my life, you are the sunshine of my thirty years, a reason for living and working." (Ivry 1996) He also once said, "You know that I am as sincere in my faith, without any messianic screamings, as I am in my Parisian sexuality." (Aldrich 2004) However, Poulenc also had a number of relationships with women, one of which led to his becoming the father of a daughter, Marie-Ange.

Poulenc was profundly affected by the death of friends. First came the death of the young woman he had hoped to make his wife, Raymonde Linossier, the soul-mate of his early years. Then, in 1923 he was "unable to do anything" for two days after the death from typhoid fever of his twenty year old friend, novelist Raymond Radiguet, who was Jean Cocteau's lover at the time . However, two weeks later he had moved on, joking to Diaghilev at the rehearsals he was unable to leave, about helping a dancer "warm up". (Ivry 1996) He was also profoundly affected by the death of painter Christian Bérard, who was decapitated in a car accident in the early 30's. This loss, coupled with a pilgrimage to the Black Madonna of Rocamadour, led him to rediscover his profound Catholic faith, which was to inspire him for the rest of his life.

Critic Claude Rostand, in a July 1950 Paris-Presse article, described Poulenc as "half bad boy, half monk" , a tag that was to be attached to his name throughout his career. He was a bridge enthusiast, a dog lover, a hypochondriac, and suffered from low self esteem. At one point he was addicted to barbiturates. (Ivry 1996)

Francis Poulenc died of heart failure in Paris on January 30, 1963 and was interred in Cimetière Père Lachaise, Paris.

Music

Shown in his diverse musical output, a multitude of influences is one of the distinguishing features of Poulenc's music, which is however recognizable on the hearing of a few bars. Among his formative influences are Igor Stravinsky, Emmanuel Chabrier, and the French popular music and 'café-concert'. He kept scores of Béla Bartók's Allegro barbaro, Arnold Schoenberg's Six Little Pieces, all of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and Stravinsky's Petrushka and Le Sacre du Printemps. He attended Le Sacre du Printemps in 1914 conducted by Pierre Monteux at the Casino de Paris, and he wrote of Chabrier's Idylle from the Pièces pittoresques, "Even today I tremble with emotion in thinking of the miracle that was produced: a harmonic universe suddenly opened in front of me, and my music has never forgotten this first loving kiss." He heard bals musettes (accordion music), and popular music such as by chansonniers like Vincent Scotto and Henri-Marius Christiné vacationing in Nogent-sur-Marne. He counted Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes as one of his mentors, writing, "I owe him everything," possibly also because Viñes introduced him to Georges Auric and Erik Satie. (Ivry 1996, p.16-7)

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