The Music of Francis Poulenc

Catalogue of compositions
by Francis Poulenc
The composer and the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska in 1930
Composed	1914 (1914)–1962
piano music chamber music songs concertante and orchestral music choral music stage works

Le Groupe des six, 1921 painting of members of the group Les Six by Jacques-Émile Blanche. The pianist Marcelle Meyer is surrounded by (left) Tailleferre, Milhaud and Honegger, (right) Poulenc, Jean Cocteau, Auric and Jean Wiener, while Durey is missing.^[1]

The Music of Francis Poulenc (1899–1963): A Catalogue, abbreviated FP, is a chronological catalogue of Francis Poulenc's works which was published by Carl B. Schmidt in 1995. Schmidt provides for each known composition, which includes unfinished, unpublished and lost works, a detailed history of composition and performance, and lists manuscripts and publications.^[2]

As a pianist, Poulenc composed many pieces for his own instrument in his piano music and chamber music. He wrote works for orchestra including several concertos, also three operas, two ballets, incidental music for plays and film music. He composed songs (mélodies), often on texts by contemporary authors. His religious music includes the Mass in G major, the Stabat Mater and Gloria.

Overview

The composer had written a catalogue of his works in 1921, which is reproduced in Schmidt's book.^[3] According to this list, the first noted piece was in 1914 Processional pour la crémation d'un mandarin for piano, now lost or destroyed. Poulenc completed his last work, his Oboe Sonata, in 1962.

Piano, chamber music and songs

As a professional pianist, Poulenc wrote many pieces for his own instrument. He was a prolific writer of works of chamber music, often with piano, and some works for two pianos. Poulenc composed many songs (mélodies), most of them accompanied by piano, but some also in versions with a small instrumental ensembles, for example his Rapsodie nègre for baritone, flute, clarinet, string quartet and piano. He composed easily for woodwind instruments, scoring for example a piano trio with oboe and bassoon instead of the traditional violin and cello. Poulenc was less familiar with string instruments. The cellist Pierre Fournier helped him to write the Cello Sonata, which he premiered with the composer as the pianist.^[4] Poulenc destroyed all sketches for string quartets and three for violin sonatas, while only the fourth one survived, but was received critically.^[5]

Orchestra and stage

Among his works with orchestra are three operas, two ballet, incidental music for plays, film music and concertos, some with unusual solo instruments such as harpsichord and organ. The harpsichordist Wanda Landowska inspired the composition of the Concert champêtre.^[6]

Collaboration in the group Les Six

Poulenc was a member of the group of composers Les Six, with Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and Germaine Tailleferre, and contributed to their collective productions, which included another ballet.^[1]

Sacred music and choral music

Poulenc turned to writing also religious music in the 1930s, composing a Mass in G major for a cappella choir. He composed the Stabat Mater in 1950 in memory of the painter Christian Bérard in 1950. The late Gloria for soprano, choir and orchestra became one of his best-known works.^[7][8] He drew inspiration for his sacred compositions mostly from liturgical texts.

Songs

For his songs and song cycles, he often collaborated with contemporary poets, setting poems by writers such as Guillaume Apollinaire, Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, Max Jacob, Federico García Lorca, Ronsard and Louise de Vilmorin, whom he mentioned in titles. He further set poems by Louis Aragon, Théodore de Banville, Maurice Carême, Colette, Robert Desnos, Maurice Fombeure, Marie Laurencin, Madeleine Ley, François de Malherbe, Jean Moréas, Jean Nohain and Paul Valéry, among others. In 1943, during the occupation of France, a cantata Figure humaine on poems by Éluard which celebrate Liberté.^[9]

Table of works

In the table, the works are initially listed by the FP number. Other information given is the French title, a translation if commonly used, the key, the scoring if not clear from the title, the year(s) of composition, the genre, text information, notes and a free score when available, and the page number in the catalogue. Abbreviations used are "rev." for "revised", "orch." for "orchestrated" and "sc." for "score".^[2]

In Genre, instrumental pieces are distinguished as orchestral and chamber music, particularly that for piano. The group of stage works contains operas, ballets and incidental music, while film scores are marked separately. Sacred and secular music for voice is divided in choral, for cantatas and motets, and vocal, holding songs and song cycles.

References

Bibliography

• Bialek, Mireille (2012). "Jacques-Émile Blanche et le Groupe des Six" (PDF). La Gazette. Des Amis des Musees De Rouen et du Havre (15): 7. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
• Clements, Andrew (21 March 2008). "Poulenc: Gloria; Motets, Gritton/ Polyphony/ Britten Sinfonia/ Layton". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
• Hell, Henri (1978). Francis Poulenc (in French). Paris: Fayard. ISBN 2-213-00670-9.
• Ivry, Benjamin (1996). Francis Poulenc. 20th-Century Composers series. Phaidon Press Limited. ISBN 0-7148-3503-X.
• Prieto, Carlos; Murray, Elena C.; Mutis, Alvaro (2006). The adventures of a cello. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-71322-2.
• Schmidt, Carl B. (1995). The Music of Francis Poulenc (1899–1963): A Catalogue. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-816336-7.
• "Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) / Gloria & Motets". Hyperion Records. 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2017.

External links

• List of works by Francis Poulenc at the International Music Score Library Project
• List of works by musical genres – Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) (in French) BNF
• Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) / Compositions (in French) BNF