Poulenc :: essays research papers

Francis Poulenc was born in Paris, France on January 7, 1899 into a welltodo family. His father, Emile Poulenc, was one of the directors of the pharmaceutical firm Rhone-Poulenc. neer one to be without money, Poulencs composing was often viewed as more than of a hobby than a necessity. Poulenc never studied at the known Paris Conservatory or any other euphonyal institution, which subsequently made it difficult for him to be accepted by his peers. Poulenc studied pianissimo assai with Ricardo Vines and composition with Charles Koechlin, although this study was limited and Poulenc was considered to be primarily a self-taught composer. During the 1920s, Poulenc became associated with a group known as Les sixsome that included Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Germaine Tailleferre, and Georges Auric (the Les Six received their name after being compared to Russias Big Five). Although these composers did non represent a particular school of music, they favored jazz and music hall styles and opposed the romantic and formal style of previous cut composers including Claude Debussy. Poulenc, himself, was inspired by Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud and Erik Satie as well as Maurice Chevalier and cut vaudeville. While in his early 20s, Poulenc began to have great winner as a composer in several genres orchestral, chamber music, ballets, concertos, film scores, and opera, as well as powerful choral and sacred music. During the 1930s, he rediscovered his Catholic faith and began writing spiritual music, establishing himself as one of the great unearthly and choral music writers of the century. He endured the German occupation of Paris during WWII, which gave find to his more or less impassioned and difficult work Figure Humaine, or The memorial tablet of Man, which was a covert work of protest. Some of his other major religious works include his Mass in G (1937), Stabat Mater (1950), and Gloria (1959). He also wrote the religious opera The Dialogu es of the Carmelites (1957) and a one-act tragedy for soprano, The Human phonate (1959).The concert I attended, entitled PoulencPiano and Wind, contained three pieces of music compose by Francis Poulenc Sonata for the Clarinet and Bassoon (1922), Trio for the Piano, Oboe, and Bassoon (1926), and Sextet for the Piano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, and Horn (1932-39). All three pieces, although diverse in their content and composition, contained a similar element common to most of Poulencs secular music. The main focus of each composition was its melody.