Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
5/16/2005 Date:___________________
Kirk A. Severtson I, _________________________________________________________,
hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of:
Piano Performance
It is entitled:
Poulenc's Development as a Piano Composer: A Comparison of the Solo Piano Works and the Mlodies
Poulencs Development as a Piano Composer: A Comparison of the Solo Piano Works and the Mlodies
A thesis submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati
2005
by
Kirk A. Severtson
ABSTRACT
Recognized as one of the greatest twentieth-century French composers, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) wrote both songs and piano works throughout his career. His body of mlodies, in particular, is widely regarded as the culmination of the genre, while his piano works, on the whole, are of a less consistent quality. His early works in both genres, such as the Trois mouvements perptuels and Le Bestiaire, reflect the outwardly fresh and simple aesthetic associated with Satie and the rest of the Groupe des Six. Beginning in 1925, the style of writing between the songs and solo piano works began to diverge, a result of Poulencs differing methods of composition. Compared to the mlodies, which began with a careful study of the poetry, many of the piano pieces were improvised at the keyboard and suffer from an over-reliance on pianistic effects. Three watershed events occurring around 1935 were responsible for bringing his mlodie style to full maturity: a new recital partnership with baritone Pierre Bernac, a religious awakening, and the discovery of a musical language for the surrealist poetry of Paul luard. These events greatly affected the accompaniments of the songs, such as the masterful cycle Tel jour, telle nuit, but Poulenc expressed frustration that he seemed unable to translate this new style into his piano works. His final stylistic period is signaled by a unity of piano writing across the genres, in which all of his stylistic elements are synthesized into a fully mature whole. This thesis traces the development of Poulencs piano style throughout his compositional career by comparing the mlodies and solo piano works.
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TORADOR By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1933 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). COCARDES By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1920 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). VALSE, FROM ALBUM DES SIX By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1920 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). SUITE POUR PIANO By Francis Poulenc Copyright for all countries 1926, 1991 Chester Music Limited, London, United Kingdom All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. Reprinted by permission. CINQ IMPROMPTUS By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1989 Chester Music Limited, London, United Kingdom All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. Reprinted by permission. PROMENADES By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1923, 1989 Chester Music Limited, London, United Kingdom All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. Reprinted by permission. POMES DE RONSARD By Francis Poulenc Copyright by Heugel 1925, Heugel Editeur, Paris. Tous droits de reproduction, de traduction, darrangement, dadaptation et dexcution rservs pour tous pays. Reprinted by permission.
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CHANSONS GAILLARDES By Francis Poulenc Copyright by Heugel 1926, Heugel Editeur, Paris. Tous droits de reproduction, de traduction, darrangement, dadaptation et dexcution rservs pour tous pays. Reprinted by permission. VOCALISE By Francis Poulenc Copyright by Alphonse Leduc et Compagnie 1929, Paris. Tous droits dexcution, de transcription et dadaptation rservs pour tous pays. Reprinted by permission. PASTOURELLE By Francis Poulenc Copyright by Heugel et Compagnie 1929, Heugel Editeur, Paris. Reprinted by permission. AIR CHANTS By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1928 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). THREE NOVELETTES By Francis Poulenc Copyright for all countries 1930, 1960 (Renewed) Chester Music Limited, London, United Kingdom All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. Reprinted by permission. TROIS PICES By Francis Poulenc Copyright by Heugel 1931, Heugel Editeur, Paris. Droits dexcution rservs pour tous pays. Reprinted by permission. NOCTURNES By Francis Poulenc Copyright by Heugel 1932, Heugel Editeur, Paris. Tous droits de reproduction, et dexcution rservs pour tous pays. Reprinted by permission. TROIS POMES DE LOUISE LALANNE By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1931 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). iv
QUATRE POMES DAPOLLINAIRE By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1931 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). CINQ POMES DE MAX JACOB By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1932 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). CAPRICE (DAPRS LA FINALE DU BAL MASQU) By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1932 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). CONCERTO EN R MINEUR By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1934 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). VALSE-IMPROVISATION SUR LE NOM DE BACH By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1932 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). IMPROVISATIONS (#1-10) By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1933 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). VILLAGEOISES By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1933 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). PRESTO IN Bb By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1934 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). DEUX INTERMEZZI By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1934 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM).
HUMORESQUE By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1935 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). BADINAGE By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1935 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). CINQ POMES DLUARD By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1935 Editions Durand (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Durand (SACEM). SUITE FRANAISE By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1935 Editions Durand (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Durand (SACEM). LES SOIRES DES NAZELLES By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1937 Editions Durand (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Durand (SACEM). TEL JOUR, TELLE NUIT By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1937 Editions Durand (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Durand (SACEM). TROIS POMES DE LOUISE DE VILMORIN By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1938 Editions Durand (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Durand (SACEM). PRIEZ POUR PAIX By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1939 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). MIROIRS BRLANTS By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1939 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM).
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CE DOUX PETIT VISAGE By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1941 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). FIANAILLES POUR RIRE By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1940 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). BANALITS By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1941 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). INTERMEZZO IN Ab By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1947 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). FIANAILLES POUR RIRE By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1940 Editions Salabert (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Editions Salabert (SACEM). MTAMORPHOSES By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1944 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). DEUX POMES DE LOUIS ARAGON By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1944 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). MAIN DOMINE PAR LE CUR By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1947 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). MAIS MOURIR By Francis Poulenc Copyright by Heugel et Compagnie 1948, Heugel et Compagnie Editeurs, Paris. Droits dexcution et de reproduction rservs pour tous pays. Reprinted by permission.
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CALLIGRAMMES By Francis Poulenc Copyright by Heugel et Compagnie 1948, Heugel et Compagnie Editeurs, Paris. Droits dexcution rservs pour tous pays. Reprinted by permission. LA FRACHEUR ET LE FEU By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1951 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). THME VARI By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1952 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). PARISIANA By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1954 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). LE TRAVAIL DU PEINTRE By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1957 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). IMPROVISATION (#13) By Francis Poulenc Copyright 1958 Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM). Permission kindly granted by Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM).
All rights for the world on behalf of Editions Durand (SACEM), Les Editions Max Eschig (SACEM) and Editions Salabert (SACEM) administered by BMG Music Publishing France (SACEM). All rights for the US on behalf of BMG Music Publishing France (SACEM) administered by BMG Songs, Inc. (ASCAP).
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FOREWORD
The researcher into the life and music of Francis Poulenc is blessed with a veritable abundance of primary material in the form of interviews, correspondence, recordings, and various articles and lectures by the composer. The most detailed primary sources, however, are about his mlodies: his own Journal de mes mlodies, and Francis Poulenc, the Man and His Songs, written by his longtime recital partner, Pierre Bernac. Poulencs song diary was first published in 1964, and later published in a parallel French/English edition in 1985. However, the 1993 French language edition, edited by Renaud Machart, restores numerous excisions and is the most faithful reproduction of his original commentary on the songs. Keith W. Daniels Francis Poulenc: His Artistic Development and Musical Style (1982), though now over twenty years old, remains the most thorough, genre-by-genre analysis of the composers style, though many other authors have focused on individual works and genres. Poulenc research was further enhanced by the wealth of scholarship completed in celebration of the 1999 centenary of the composers birth. Two of the most thorough and important sources on Poulenc within the last decade were undertaken by Carl B. Schmidt: The Music of Francis Poulenc: A Catalogue (1995) and a biography, Entrancing Muse: A Documented Biography of Francis Poulenc (2001). This definitive biography now replaces the venerable work of Henri Hell, Poulencs first biographer. The FP numbers given for each work throughout this text refer to the Schmidt catalog.
ix
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................ii COPYRIGHT NOTICES AND PERMISSIONS .................................................................. iii FOREWORD ..........................................................................................................................ix LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES .........................................................................................xi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................1 2. OVERVIEW OF CAREER AND STYLE..............................................................4 Poulenc and the Piano .........................................................................................4 Poulenc and the Voice.........................................................................................8 Elements of Style ..............................................................................................11 3. EARLY LIFE AND COMPOSITIONS ................................................................18 Early Influences.................................................................................................18 Simplicity ..........................................................................................................21 Complexity ........................................................................................................28 4. INVENTIVENESS AND THE POULENC SOUND .......................................36 Stylistic Trends..................................................................................................36 192530.............................................................................................................38 1931: A Return to Song.....................................................................................54 193236: Virtuosic Piano Works ......................................................................62 5. LUARD/SERIOUS STYLE PERIOD ................................................................80 Toward an luard style .....................................................................................84 Full maturity after Tel jour ................................................................................96 Slowdown in Composition ..............................................................................112 A Final Apollinaire Cycle ...............................................................................120 6. FINAL MATURITY ...........................................................................................127 Final conclusions.............................................................................................143 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ...........................................................................................145 Primary Sources .......................................................................................................145 Biographical and Analytical Sources .......................................................................146
Example
Page
1. Nocturne #1, mm9092..........................................................................................................13 2. Montparnasse, mm2226....................................................................................................13 3. Improvisation #9, mm3033 ..................................................................................................14 4. Humoresque, mm4960 .........................................................................................................14 5. Miroirs brlants, Tu vois le feu du soir, mm13 ...............................................................17 6. Suite in C, III, mm8283 ........................................................................................................22 7. Torador, mm3439, piano part only .................................................................................24 8. Valse, mm4552.....................................................................................................................24 9. Cocardes, Enfant de Troupe, mm912...............................................................................25 10. Le Bestiaire, Le Dromadaire, mm1522 ............................................................................25 11. Suite in C, I, mm10712.........................................................................................................26 12. Valse, mm13845...................................................................................................................26 13. Cocardes, Miel de Narbonne, mm1013............................................................................27 14. Cinq Impromptus, I, mm1213 ..............................................................................................30 15. Cinq Impromptus, II, mm4346.............................................................................................31 16. Promenades, pied, mm2533 .........................................................................................32 17. Pomes de Ronsard, Le Tombeau, mm1112 ....................................................................33 18. Chansons gaillardes, La Matresse volage, mm916.........................................................41 19. Chansons gaillardes, Srnade, mm1013 ........................................................................42 20. Vocalise, mm2627, piano part only......................................................................................42
xi
21. Pastourelle, mm14 ...............................................................................................................43 22. Airs chants, Air Vif, mm4854.........................................................................................45 23. Airs chants, Air Vif, mm14.............................................................................................45 24. Novelette #1, mm2936..........................................................................................................46 25. Nocturne #1, mm71-74 ..........................................................................................................47 26. Chansons gaillardes, Madrigal, mm116 ..........................................................................48 27. Novelette #2, mm18..............................................................................................................49 28. Trois pices, Pastorale, mm1620 ......................................................................................50 29. Trois pices, Hymne, mm12 .............................................................................................51 30. Trois pices, Toccata, mm3942 ........................................................................................51 31. Nocturne #1, mm4354..........................................................................................................53 32. Trois pomes de Louise Lalanne, Le prsent, mm2933 ...................................................54 33. Trois pomes de Louise Lalanne, Chanson, mm1518 ......................................................55 34. Trois pomes de Louise Lalanne, Hier, mm710 ...............................................................55 35. Quatre pomes dApollinaire, LAnguille, mm6874 .......................................................57 36. Quatre pomes dApollinaire, Avant le Cinma, mm2225 ..............................................58 37. Cinq pomes de Max Jacob, Chanson bretonne, mm3033 ...............................................59 38. Cinq pomes de Max Jacob, Berceuse, mm1922 .............................................................60 39. Caprice (daprs la Finale du Bal Masqu), mm2324 ......................................................61 40. Caprice (daprs la Finale du Bal Masqu), mm8239 ......................................................62 41. Valse-improvisation sur le nom de BACH, mm8386 ...........................................................63 42. Valse-improvisation sur le nom de BACH, mm4148 ...........................................................64 43. Improvisation #2, mm4043 ..................................................................................................66
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44. Improvisation #6, mm58 ......................................................................................................67 45. Novelette #2, mm4144..........................................................................................................67 46. Concerto en r mineur, III, mm4043 ...................................................................................68 47. Villageoises, Rustique, mm1115 ......................................................................................69 48. Presto in Bb, mm3740 .........................................................................................................72 49. Intermezzo #2, mm912 .........................................................................................................73 50. Badinage, mm4551 ..............................................................................................................74 51. Humoresque, mm4551 .........................................................................................................74 52. Badinage, mm13 ..................................................................................................................75 53. Suite franaise, I, mm14 ......................................................................................................75 54. Les soires de Nazelles, Var. VII, mm25 .............................................................................78 55. Cinq pomes dluard, Rdeuse au front de verre, mm15...............................................78 56. Cinq pomes dluard, Peut-il se reposer, mm13 ............................................................85 57. Cinq pomes dluard, Plume deau claire, mm14 ..........................................................87 58. Cinq pomes dluard, Amoureuses, mm3940................................................................88 59. Tel jour, telle nuit, Bonne journe, mm16........................................................................91 60. Tel jour, telle nuit, Une ruine coquille vide, mm2429......................................................92 61. Tel jour, telle nuit, Une herbe pauvre, mm16...................................................................93 62. Tel jour, telle nuit, toutes brides, mm2023 ...................................................................94 63. Tel jour, telle nuit, Figure de force, mm2024...................................................................94 64. Trois pomes de Louise de Vilmorin, Aux officiers de la garde blanche, mm14 .............98 65. Miroirs brlants, Tu vois le feu du soir, mm3336 .........................................................100 66. Miroirs brlants, Tu vois le feu du soir, mm2628 .........................................................101
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67. Priez pour paix, mm510..................................................................................................102 68. Nocturne #8, mm912..........................................................................................................103 69. Ce doux petit visage, mm1014 .......................................................................................104 70. Fianailles pour rire, Violon, mm1214 .........................................................................106 71. Intermezzo in Ab, mm4143 ................................................................................................108 72. Banalits, Chanson dOrkenise, mm14 ..........................................................................110 73. Banalits, Htel, mm14 ..................................................................................................110 74. Mtamorphoses, Reine des mouettes, mm12 .................................................................114 75. Mtamorphoses, Cest ainsi que tu es, mm1516 ............................................................114 76. Deux Pomes de Louis Aragon, C, mm14 ......................................................................115 77. Main domine par le cur, mm14 ..................................................................................117 78. mais mourir, mm2024................................................................................................118 79. Montparnasse, mm3134..................................................................................................119 80. Calligrammes, LEspionne, mm1620.............................................................................122 81. Calligrammes, Mutation, mm916...................................................................................123 82. Calligrammes, Il pleut, mm14 ........................................................................................123 83. Calligrammes, Aussi bien que les cigales, mm5159 ......................................................124 84. Calligrammes, Voyage, mm3339 ...................................................................................125 85. La Fracheur et le feu, Rayon des yeux, mm910 .......................................................129 86. La Fracheur et le feu, Le matin les branches attisent, mm1216 ...............................129 87. Cinq pomes dluard, Plume deau claire, mm79 ........................................................130 88. La Fracheur et le feu, Tout disparu, mm57...............................................................130 89. La Fracheur et le feu, Homme au sourire tendre, mm16 ..........................................131
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90. Thme vari, Var. II, mm13 ...............................................................................................133 91. Thme vari, Var. III, mm14..............................................................................................133 92. Parisiana, Jouer du bugle, mm14...................................................................................135 93. Le travail du peintre, Marc Chagall, mm18 ...................................................................138 94. Le travail du peintre, Jacques Villon, mm3541 .............................................................139 95. Le travail du peintre, Juan Gris, mm16 ..........................................................................141 96. Improvisation #13, mm14 ..................................................................................................141 97. Novelette #3, mm14............................................................................................................142 98. Novelette #3, mm6877........................................................................................................142
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Francis Poulenc (18991963) is noted as one of the most important French composers of the twentieth century. His compositional career spanned nearly fifty years, from his first surviving work, Rapsodie ngre (1917) at the age of 18, to his final work, the Sonata for oboe and piano (1962), completed just months before his death. His output covered many genres, including ballets, operas, keyboard concertos, chamber music, songs, and choral works. Yet, despite this wide array of genres, it is clear that Poulenc felt particular affection for two instruments: the piano and the voice. Over half of his published works were for voice in various combinations or with other instruments, and the piano figured in over two-thirds of his compositions.1 Poulencs musical education and careers as composer and performer were grounded in the piano. His only musical training was as a pianist, and he was active as a soloist and accompanist all of his life. Further, his tendency to compose at the keyboard meant that a number of orchestral and instrumental chamber works were conceived at the piano and initially written out in piano score. With the piano occupying such a central role in his musical life, an understanding of Poulencs keyboard style and how it developed over the course of his career is therefore central to understanding the composer and his works. Poulencs other major fascination was with the voice, for which he wrote songs, operas, and choral works. This may be due to his early exposure to poetry and literature and his close personal contacts with contemporary writers in Paris. His interest in the voice was furthered by his close friendships with singers, including Suzanne Peignot and Denise Duval, and a longtime recital
By rough count, the piano is employed in ninety-nine published works, compared to forty-eight that do not use the piano.
partnership with Pierre Bernac, with whom he found ample and immediate performing opportunities for his new songs. Bernac, in particular, was a trusted advisor whose opinion of his works he valued highly. Poulenc paid careful attention to the prosody, mood, and tone of his musical settings, which were always rooted in an intimate understanding of the poetry. His mlodies, written throughout his career, represent the perfect marriage of his two greatest musical loves, and stand among his greatest and best-known achievements. Since he wrote in both genres throughout his life, it is therefore particularly appropriate to compare his writing for the piano alone with his writing for voice and piano, for which he described very different compositional processes. Through this comparison, we may better understand the differences between the genres and trace his stylistic development as a composer for the piano. Given Poulencs pianistic facility, it may be surprising that he himself considered solo piano his least representative genre.2 While the best of his piano works compare favorably with his best works in other genres, the overall quality is quite uneven, with some works sometimes descending into empty displays of virtuosity. His considerable skill at improvisation often assisted him in composing for the piano, but too often, an overdependence on idiomatic figuration and passagework, particularly during the years 1925 to 1934, resulted in works that were overly facile and devoid of true musical interest. The songs, on the other hand, rarely suffer from this flaw, due to his keen interest in the primacy of the poem. His composition of a song did not generally begin at the piano, but rather with careful study of the sound, meter, and meaning of the words, and even physical layout of the poem on the page. He rarely began composing at the beginning of the song, but rather conceived of individual phrases in piecemeal fashion. Only later did he connect the pieces together, often
Poulenc: cest ma musique de piano la moins reprsentative de mon uvre, quoted in Hlne JourdanMorhange, Mes amis musiciens (Paris: diteurs franais runis, 1955), 133.
through a variety of creative modulations. The result of this kind of process was a close marriage of voice and piano, the two highly dependent on one another. Beginning in 1935, Poulenc underwent a kind of midlife crisis during which time he strove to achieve greater simplicity and clarity in his piano accompaniments. The songs dating from this period of maturity show remarkable differences in piano textures and harmonic language, changes that he retained for the rest of his life. During this period, however, Poulencs interest in solo piano works slackened considerably, for he was seemingly unable to incorporate these changes into his solo piano writing. It was several years before his piano pieces began to show signs of his compositional maturity, but the best of his late piano works finally incorporate styles and techniques that he developed while writing his mlodies. His final period, beginning around 1949, is signaled by a complete synthesis of his earlier styles and a unity of piano writing between the genres.
CHAPTER 2 OVERVIEW OF CAREER AND STYLE Poulenc and the Piano Poulencs connection to the piano as performer and composer was lifelong and profound. His experience playing the piano began at the age of five when he began to take lessons from his mother, Jenny Royer. She was an accomplished amateur pianist, who instilled in Poulenc a love for music in general and for the piano in particular.1 Poulenc said: My mother played the piano exquisitely. Endowed with an impeccable musical instinct and a lovely touch, she enchanted my childhood.2 His piano study continued with Mlle Boutet de Monvel, who had excellent technical principles.3 It was, however, study and subsequent lifelong friendship with the Catalan pianist Ricardo Vies, beginning in 1914, that had the greatest importance for his career in music. Vies was an important premier interpreter of modern French music, playing the piano music of Debussy and Ravel years before any other pianist dreamed of touching it. Indeed, for a long time, all the first performances of these two composers piano works were given by him, as well as countless first performances of music by other composers, French, Russian, and Spanish.4 Through Vies influence, in the years 191418, Poulenc was introduced to music of a wide variety of contemporary composers, from Satie to the composers of the Second Viennese School. Vies was particularly
Carl B. Schmidt, Entrancing Muse: A Documented Biography of Francis Poulenc, Lives in Music Series, no. 3 (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2001), 5. Ma mre jouait du piano dune faon exquise. Doue dun sens musical impeccable, et dun ravissant toucher, elle a enchant mon enfance, Francis Poulenc and Claude Rostand, Entretiens avec Claude Rostand (Paris: R. Julliard, 1954), 13.
3 4 2
qui avait dexcellents principes techniques, ibid., 28. Calvocoressi, quoted in Schmidt, Entrancing, 20.
influential in Poulencs eventual development of a unique pedaling style and pedaling indications in his works for the piano (see below). Poulencs affinity for his piano teacher was such that he dedicated his earliest published piece to Vies (the first of the Trois pastorales, FP 5, written in 1917, but not published until 1928 as the first movement of Trois Pices, FP 48). Vies also premiered and championed the Trois mouvements perptuels (FP 14, 1918), which found enormous popularity and secured Poulencs membership in the Groupe des Six. Poulenc said, All that I know of the piano, I owe to this inspired master, and it is he who determined my vocation.5 A childhood friend, Jacques Soul, described Poulencs piano playing:
I was astonished then to see his large hands with round fingers run across the piano with agility; and while listening to him play with the velvet touch which already characterized his playing, I asked myself if this was the same Francis whom I had just seen spoil so many tennis shots.6
He was also skilled at improvisation and frequently entertained guests at soires or parties with his musical impressions of his friends.7 Poulencs career as a pianist was extensive:
His finest work was undoubtedly with [recital partner Pierre] Bernac, but he also toured successfully with [cellist Pierre] Fournier and [soprano Denise] Duval and collaborated successfully with [pianist Jacques] Fvrier on his Concerto in D minor. Recordings, which he made with all but Fournier, remind us today of his excellence.8
Poulencs last public performance was given with Denise Duval on January 26, 1963, just four days before his death.9
Tout ce que je sais de piano, je le dois ce matre gnial, et cest lui qui dcida de ma vocation, Francis Poulenc, Mes matres et mes amis, Confrencia: Journal de lUniversit des Annales 29 no. 2 (15 Oct. 1935): 522.
6 7
Musical portraits of his friends that he improvised during such evenings at his country home in the Touraine eventually resulted in his longest work for piano, Soires de Nazelles (FP 84, 193036). Similarly, Histoire de Babar, le petit lphant (FP 129, 194045), for narrator and piano, originated as a series of musical improvisations based on the book by Jean de Brunhoff.
8 9
Timothy Bruce Sloan, A Study of the Piano Works of Francis Poulenc (M.M. thesis, University of Cincinnati, 1981), 1718.
From study of piano, composition for piano naturally followed. Of the first twenty-four compositions listed in the Schmidt catalog, seventeen works were written for, or included, piano. In all, Poulenc wrote thirty-two sets and individual pieces for piano solo or four-hands.10 His final piano work was the fifteenth Improvisation (FP 176, 1959), but his writing for the piano extended even to his final completed compositions, the oboe and clarinet sonatas (FP 184 and 185, 1962). Poulencs piano works were variously championed by piano virtuosi such as Ricardo Vies and Arthur Rubinstein, and denounced by music critics. This diversity of opinion about his piano works may be due to his own pianistic facility and his improvisatory method of composition. The piano writing as a result, particularly early in his career, was often idiomatically pianistic and employed facile figurations that appealed to the virtuosi that championed some of his works. However, Ned Rorem felt that because he was a glib, a natural, keyboard technician he was inclined to pass off as finished compositions what in fact were passing improvisations, a dazzling froth floating on nothing.11 Poulenc felt most comfortable composing music while seated at the piano, particularly earlier in his career; this preference was a natural result of his overall comfort with the piano idiom. As he explained later in life, I work more at my desk now than in the early days, but Ive always used the piano a lot,12 and he expressed some guilt for this, envying composers such as Milhaud who could compose in railway carriages.13
Keith W. Daniel, Francis Poulenc: His Artistic Development and Musical Style (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1982), 163.
11 12
10
Ned Rorem, Francis Poulenc, in A Ned Rorem Reader (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 289. Francis Poulenc, Moi et mes amis, conversations assembled by Stphane Audel (Paris: ditions La Palatine, Ibid.
1963), 36.
13
Compared to the songs, which were inspired by poetic images, the piano works inspired by improvisation are called Poulencs most artificial, least personal body of music.14 Lacking a germinating text, many of his piano works were given abstract titles; as he explained: For my piano music, the slightest contact with the keyboard releases the creative spirit in me. Since this genre of composition doesnt create an image for me, I give them abstract titles: Improvisations, Novelettes, Intermezzi, etc.15 However, Poulenc acknowledged that these piano works sometimes seem devoid of musical inspiration, saying: It is because I know pianistic writing too well that I made a mess of many of my pieces. Cleverness, tricks, and pianistic facility often supplant a true musical interest.16 Poulencs own opinion about his piano works was decidedly mixed, believing their true value fell somewhere between the high opinion of the virtuosi and the dismissal by the critics.17 He gave a remarkably lucid account of his best and worst piano music in an interview with Claude Rostand:
I tolerate the Mouvements perptuels, my old Suite in C, and the Trois pices. I like my two books of Improvisations a lot, an Intermezzo in Ab and certain Nocturnes. I condemn without reprieve Napoli and the Soires de Nazelles. I dont care much about the rest of it.18
As an accomplished pianist, he felt it was paradoxical, but true, as they say: it is my piano music that is the least representative of my works.19 It was instead his mlodies that he considered among his best, most personal works.
14 15 16
Cest parce que je connais trop bien lcriture pianistique que jai rat beaucoup de mes pices. Lhabilit, le truc, le jeu des ficelles, supplent, hlas! souvent un vritable intrt musical, Poulenc, Entretiens, 3132. Je pense trs sincrement que ma musique de piano nest, ni si bien que le prtendent les virtuoses, ni si moche que lont crit certains de vos confrres. La vrit est entre les deux, ibid., 32. Cest trs simple, je tolre les Mouvements perptuels, ma vielle Suite en ut, les Trois pices (anciennes pastorales). Jaime beaucoup mes deux recueils dImprovisations, un Intermezzo en la bmol et certains Nocturnes. Je condamne sans recours Napoli et les Soires de Nazelles. Pour le reste, je ne men soucie gure, ibid., 35.
18 17
Poulenc and the Voice Poulencs mlodie output spanned nearly the same period as his piano works. Compared to the inconsistent quality of the works for piano solo, Poulencs songs are more consistently of a higher quality. While he once claimed, Singing is my greatest love,20 unlike his dual role as piano performer and composer, he was not known for any talent as a singer himself.21 During a radio interview with Claude Rostand in 1954, Poulenc teased the interviewer by threatening to sing his early Torador (a fake chanson Hispano-Italienne), but then confessed, Dear Claude, I only wanted to scare you! No, I will not sing Torador, because I am incapable of singing it, and I do not wish to set myself up for ridicule.22 His earliest songs were written for voice with instrumental ensemble, after which piano arrangements followed. These include the sets Le bestiaire (FP 15, 1919) and Cocardes (FP 16, 1919). After these works, the vast majority of his mlodies were written for voice and piano, including his final published songs, La courte paille (FP 178, 1960). Poulenc also wrote extensively for the voice in other genres, including cantatas, melodramas, operas, and a large body of choral music. But it is of his 152 songs23 that he wrote his Journal de mes mlodies, which he began in 1939, in the hope it would serve as a guide to interpreters who might take some interest in
Poulenc: Chose paradoxale mais vraie, dit-il, cest ma musique de piano la moins reprsentative de mon uvre, quoted in Jourdan-Morhange, Mes amis musiciens, 133.
20 21
19
On one occasion he was forced to make a singing appearance for the premiere of his Rapsodie ngre (FP 3, 1917): At the last minute the singer threw in the sponge, saying it was too silly and that he didnt want to look a fool. Quite unexpectedly, masked by a big music stand, I had to sing that interlude myself. Since I was already in uniform, you can just imagine the unusual effect produced by a soldier bawling out songs in pseudo-Malagasy! Schmidt, Entrancing, 44. Cher Claude, jai voulu vous faire peur! Main non, je ne chanterai pas Torador, car jen suis incapable, et je ne veux tout de mme pas tre ridicule ce point, Poulenc, Entretiens, 13436.
23 22
my poor music.24 In this important resource, Poulenc described the genesis of each song and carefully directed the performer toward his desired interpretation of it. In his justification for writing the Journal, Poulenc directly compared his piano works and the songs: My piano pieces are often massacred, but never as much as my songs, and, heaven knows I place a higher value on the songs.25 He also recognized that he wrote differently for the piano when it was paired with the voice. He said: A song, a cycle, is the opposite of an improvisation, at least for me;26 and The strange thing is that when the piano becomes accompanimental in the mlodies, it is then that I innovate.27 One reason that Poulencs songs were more successful than his piano works is because of the inspiration he found in the poetry. His musical response came primarily via visual images evoked from the text:
If I am abstract in my piano works, in my mlodies, on the contrary, I am incurably visual. A poem must contain an image for it to entice me. If it doesnt have a precise subject, I need at least an atmosphere.28
While the text was the greatest inspiration to Poulenc as he wrote his songs, he was also careful to point out that the accompaniment of a song is equally as important as the piano part of a violin
dans lespoir de servir de guide aux interprtes qui auraient quelque souci de ma pauvre musique; Francis Poulenc, Journal de mes mlodies, notes by Renaud Machart (Paris: Cicero / ditions Salabert, 1993), 13. Footnote citations for the French version are given in this text as Poulenc, Journal; those from the French/English version (Francis Poulenc, Journal de mes mlodies (Diary of My Songs), bi-lingual edition, translated by Winifred Radford, London: Victor Gollancz, 1985) as Poulenc, Diary. On massacre souvent mes pices de piano mais jamais tant que mes mlodies, et Dieu sait que je tiens plus celles-ci qu celles-l, ibid., 13.
26 27 25
24
Une mlodie, un cycle, sont le contraire dune improvisation, du moins pour moi, Poulenc, Entretiens, 63. Ce quil y a dtrange cest que, ds que le piano devient accompagnement de mlodies, alors jinnove,
ibid., 32. Si, pour mes uvres de piano, je suis abstrait, pour les mlodies je suis, au contraire, irrmdiablement visuel. Il faut quune posie fasse image pour me tenter. Sil ny a pas de sujet prcis, jai besoin tout au moins dune atmosphre, Poulenc, Mes matres, 526.
28
sonata, showing that he strove to give equal attention to the voice and piano.29 This poetic inspiration resulted in a completely different compositional process, which he described at length in this remarkably detailed depiction of a composer at work:
When I have chosen a poem, the musical realization of which I often dont complete until months later, I examine it from all angles. When dealing with Apollinaire or luard, I attach the greatest importance to the layout on the page, to the white spaces, to the margins. I speak the poem to myself many times. I listen to it, I search for the traps, I sometimes underline the difficult places in the text. I note the breaths; I try to discover the internal rhythm in a line that is not necessarily the first. Then, I try to set it to music, bearing in mind the different densities of the piano accompaniment. When I stumble over a detail of prosody, I dont worry about it. I sometimes wait for days; I try to forget the word until I see 30 it as a brand new word.
While few composers give this much detail about their compositional process, Poulenc gave specific examples of this process, even explaining the genesis of a song phrase by phrase:
Believe me, a song, a cycle, is the opposite of an improvisation, at least for me. I do not improvise my songs; a song like Montparnasse stayed nearly two years on the drawing board. I first found the music for the verse, un pote lyrique dAllemagne then several months later, donnez-moi pour toujours une chambre la semaine. This gave me the general color, the internal rhythm of the work; but, since I never transpose a phrase that I found in a given key for convenience, it is then that I truly began to construct my song to make them chain together logically.31
The result of such painstaking care and detail over the poem was one of Poulencs most beautiful songs, Montparnasse, begun in 1941 and finally completed in 1945.
Laccompagnement dun lied est aussi important que la partie de piano dune sonate pour piano et violon, Poulenc, Journal, 14. Lorsque jai lu un pome, dont je ne ralise parfois la transposition musicale que des mois plus tard, je lexamine sous toutes ses faces. Lorsquil sagit dApollinaire et dluard, jattache la plus grande importance la mise en page du pome, aux blancs, aux marges. Je me rcite souvent le pome. Je lcoute, je cherche les piges, je souligne parfois, dun trait rouge, le texte aux endroits difficiles. Je note les respirations, jessaye de dcouvrir le rythme interne par un vers qui nest pas forcment le premier. Ensuite, jessaye la mise en musique en tenant compte des densits diffrentes de laccompagnement pianistique. Lorsque je bute sur un dtail de prosodie, je ne macharne pas. Jattends parfois des jours, jessaye doublier le mot jusqu ce que je le vois comme un mot nouveau, Poulenc, Entretiens, 6970. Croyez-moi, une mlodie, un cycle, sont le contraire dune improvisation, du moins pour moi. Je nimprovise pas mes mlodies; quune mlodie comme Montparnasse est reste prs de deux ans sur le chantier. Javais trouv dabord la musique du vers un pote lyrique dAllemagne puis des mois aprs donnez-moi pour toujours une chambre la semaine. Cela mavait donn la couleur gnrale, le rythme interne de luvre, mais, comme jamais je ne transpose, par facilit, une phrase trouve dans un ton, cest alors que jai vritablement commenc construire ma mlodie pour que tout senchane logiquement, ibid., 6364.
31 30
29
10
If the detailed writing of a single song was sometimes a painstaking process, the overall plan of an entire cycle, such as his luard masterworks, was equally important to him:
Do you know that for a song to hold together, you must construct it; and that for a cycle to be well-balanced, you must adhere to a very subtle plan for the linking of keys, tempos, and nuances? Do you think it was by random chance that the first and the last songs of my cycle Tel jour, telle nuit adopt the same tonality of C major and an identical tempo? Do you think that it was merely gratuitous that I endowed the cycle with a coda for piano alone, thatas in Schumanns Dichterliebeprolongs the emotion?32
Poulenc paid great attention to the ordering of songs within a cycle, arranging each so that it contrasted well with the next in the same way a painter displays his artwork: It is all a question of the hanging, as essential in music as in painting.33 The lesser importance that Poulenc attached to his works for piano solo versus his mlodies is observable in the fact that he wrote no diary for his piano works. Neither did he give such detailed description of his approach to piano composition. This is probably indicative that the piano pieces were much easier and natural for him to write, while he gave the songs more of his truly creative energy. However, the devotion he lavished on the songs paid off for him in other ways, for as he matured as a song composer, his writing for the piano also matured. Eventually, he was able to incorporate the compositional techniques inspired by the written word into his solo piano works as well. Elements of Style Various authors have identified different systems of periodization depending on the genre. However, taking only the songs and piano works into account, we can distinguish four distinct
Savez-vous que pour quune mlodie se tienne, il faut la construire, que pour quun cycle squilibre il faut tenir compte dun plan trs subtil pour lenchanement des tons, des tempi, des nuances? Pensez-vous que cest par hasard que la premire et la dernire mlodies de mon cycle Tel jour, telle nuit empruntent la mme tonalit de do majeur et un tempo identique? Pensez-vous que ce soit gratuitement que jai dot ce cycle dune coda pour le piano seul qui permet au public, comme dans Les Amours du pote de Schumann, de prolonger en lui lmotion? ibid., 63.
33
32
11
periods. The earliest period, termed Fauve (wild) by Claude Rostand,34 lasted from 1919 until about 1925 and included the period of association with Les Six and his composition lessons with Charles Koechlin. The second period, from 1925 to 1935, was more Neoclassical and includes his first great songs and a greater coherence in the piano works. The third period shows a more serious style, discovered in the watershed year, 1935, with his first settings of the poet Paul luard and the beginnings of his recital partnership with Pierre Bernac. The final period of full maturity begins around 1950 and shows the composer with a completely integrated, unified style across all genres. Despite the development of style evident through each period of his career, there is a clear Poulenc style that makes most of his music immediately recognizable as such after hearing only a few measures. Within the greater context of the musical innovations by many composers of the twentieth century, Poulenc must be considered a conservative, rarely employing more experimental twentieth-century techniques. His music is most often tuneful, containing traditionally organized elements of melody with a subordinated accompaniment. The quality of melody and style of accompaniment often suggests the influence of Parisian popular entertainment, such as the music hall, caf-concerts, and music of the circus. The piano figures are frequently those of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century piano masters, such as Alberti bass, arpeggios, triadic chords, and scalar passagework. He often constructed phrases in antecedent/consequent pairs, but deployed them with flexibility of meter. The most distinctive element of Poulencs style is the harmonic language. Ned Rorem described a recipe for it thusly:
Take Chopins dominant sevenths, Ravels major sevenths, Faurs plain triads, Debussys minor ninths, Mussorgskys augmented fourths. Filter these through Satie by way of the
34
12
added sixth chords of vaudeville (which the French call Le Music Hall), blend in a pint of Couperin to a quart of Stravinsky, and you get the harmony of Poulenc.35
Rich tertian chords of the seventh, ninth, and thirteenth serve not only dominant functions, but also as consonant sonorities, as was Ravels practice. For example, many pieces begin with a tonic-seventh harmony and many end on color chords with an added seventh or ninth. Often extended tertian chords are found in chains, such as in the vi9 ii9 V13 I9 final cadence of the first Nocturne (see Example 1). In a particularly beautiful passage from Montparnasse, the bass
line moves functionally by fifths, while the harmonies are chains of seventh chords, of which the vocal line is entirely comprised of the sevenths (see Example 2). In the earlier piano pieces, the use of I9 and III9 chords is common in C major, lending the key a typically sunny color, while in his more serious luard style, tonic minor-minor-seventh chords and minor-ninth chords predominate. Along with the lush sonorities, Poulenc employed frequent and inventive modulations with little or no preparationa kind of slippery tonality that he said could sometimes pass through a
35
13
mouse-hole.
36
One favorite device was to simply restate a phrase transposed up a minor third (see
Example 3). Rapid modulations were used to generate harmonic instability during sections of intensification. In Example 4, direct modulations to four different tonalities are used to prepare for the dominant harmony that marks a return to the opening theme. In his mature style, creative modulations were often necessary to link up phrases originally conceived in disparate tonalities.
36
Mes modulations passent parfois par le trou dune souris, Poulenc, Journal, 51.
14
Poulenc had a very specific conception of the performance of his piano music. It is worth quoting Poulencs comments on several major technical errors that disfigure my piano music to the point of being unrecognizable.37 First, he strongly disliked rubato, saying:
Once a tempo is adopted, never change it on any account until I indicate otherwise. Never stretch or rush a tempo. That drives me crazy. I would prefer all the wrong notes in the world.38
His scores are filled with cautions, such as sans nuances, trs mesur, sans rubato, and respecter strictement le mouvement mtronomique.39 In places where performers might be apt to make a ritardando, such as major cadences or final codas, Poulenc frequently marks sans ralentir or strictement en mesure.40 Along with the avoidance of rubato, he insisted on the observation of his indicated metronomic tempos, nearly always specifically indicated on the score: If pianists would have confidence in my metronomic indications, very meticulously established, much misfortune will be avoided.41 The second common error was lavarice de pdale,42 something about which he spoke for some length in an interview:
As for pedal usage, it is the great secret of my piano music (and often its true drama!). One can never use enough pedal, you hear me! never enough! never enough! Sometimes, when I hear certain pianists playing my works, I want to yell at them: Add more butter to the sauce! What is this, playing on a diet? In a fast tempo, I have sometimes come to count on the pedal to realize, virtually, the harmony of a pattern that would be impossible to write,
grandes erreurs techniques qui dfigurent ma musique de piano, au point de la rendre mconnaissable, Poulenc, Entretiens, 32. Une fois un tempo adopt, il ne faut en changer aucun prix jusqu ce que je lindique. Ne jamais allonger ou raccourcir un temps. Cela me rend fou. Je prfre toutes les fausses notes du monde, ibid., 3233. Trois mouvements perptuels, I, m1; Le Bestiaire, Le Dromadaire, m1; Mlancolie, m1; Air chants, Air Romantique, m1.
40 41 39 38
37
Si les pianistes faisaient confiance mes mouvements mtronomiques, trs soigneusement tablis, bien des malheurs seraient vits, Poulenc, Entretiens, 35.
42
Ibid., 32.
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integrally, in this tempo. For repeated chords and arpeggios, one must blend them most of the time in order to allow the voice to come to the fore.43
Poulenc clearly felt that the issue of proper pedaling was one of the most essential elements of his piano style. His constant reminders to the performers included score indications such as, beaucoup de pdale, crer une sorte de halo sonore avec les deux pdales, clair, dans un halo de pdales, and durant toute cette mlodie, se servir beaucoup des pdales.44 Finally, in the slow, lyrical pieces, his frequent use of repeated chords and arpeggiated filler required a gentle touch. He detested too much articulation of certain patterns of repeated chords or arpeggios that must be played, on the contrary, very blurred,45 and often marked such passages with advice such as, trs gal et estomp.46 This is especially important for the layered textures he frequently employed in the luard settings, consisting of a sustained bass note, one or more countermelodies, and repeated eighth-note chords to fill out the rhythm. For example, in Example 5, from Tu vois le feu du soir, he indicates in the score, the whole song should be accompanied in a halo of pedals, the melody [chant] sweetly brought out and the repeated chords very blurred. The chant mentioned refers not to the vocal line, but to the melodic content of the piano accompaniment. He felt that the accompaniments were as lyrical as the vocal parts, and he said: There exists in my accompaniments a pianistic melody that only a perfect legato can
Quant lusage des pdales, cest le grand secret de ma musique de piano (et souvent son vrai drame!). On ne mettra jamais assez de pdale, vous mentendez ! jamais assez ! jamais assez ! Parfois, lorsque jentends certains pianistes minterprter, jai envie de leur crier: Mettez du beurre dans la sauce ! Quest-ce que cest que ce jeu de rgime! Dans un mouvement rapide, il mest arriv parfois de compter sur la pdale pour raliser, virtuellement, lharmonie dun dessin quil serait impossible dcrire, intgralement, dans ce tempo. Pour les batteries et les arpges, on doit les effacer la plupart du temps pour laisser le chant en dehors, ibid., 33. Trois mouvements perptuels, I, m1; Les Soires de Nazelles, Final, m90; Fianailles pour rire, Fleurs, m1, Calligrammes, Sanglots, m1. le trop darticulation de certains dessins en batteries ou arpges quil faut, au contraire, jouer trs estomps, Poulenc, Entretiens, 32.
46 45 44
43
Bleuet, m1.
16
reveal.47 In many of his mature compositions, he often gave precise fingering in combination with detailed pedal indications. In this way, clarity could be balanced with the blurred quality that the composer desired.
Il existe dans mes accompagnements une mlodie pianistique que, seul, un parfait legato peut extrioriser, Francis Poulenc, Mes mlodies et leurs potes, Confrencia: Journal de lUniversit des Annales 36 no. 12 (15 Dec. 1947): 511.
47
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CHAPTER 3 EARLY LIFE AND COMPOSITIONS Early Influences Poulenc was born in Paris, where he lived most of his life,1 into a privileged family, surrounded by the visual arts, literature, and music. While his father did not allow him to attend the Conservatoire,2 he received early exposure to such diverse composers as Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Couperin, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg through the influence of his mother.3 His beloved uncle Papoum was well cultured in art as well as music, and by early adolescence, Poulenc was attending concerts and purchasing scores of new music. He spent his childhood summers in the nearby village of Nogent-sur-Marne, as he fondly recalled:
It was paradise to me, with its open-air dance halls, its French-fry vendors, and its bals musettes The bad-boy side of my music, you see, is not artificial as is often believed, because it is associated with my very dear childhood memories.4
The popular waltzes and dance-hall tunes became for Poulenc inextricably linked to these memories, and for the rest of his life, he was fond of using musical allusions to these happy days to evoke a carefree or nostalgic mood. At the young age of 16, Poulenc spent a great deal of time in a bookstore on the Rue de lOdon called Maison des Amis des Livres. Here a number of important avant-garde poets gathered, including Lon-Paul Fargue, James Joyce, Max Jacob, Guillaume Apollinaire, Louis
With the notable exception of the time he spent at his country home in the Touraine; however, Poulenc never felt an affinity with the country life and wrote some of his most Parisian music at his piano in Noizay.
2 3 4
Schmidt, Entrancing, 6. Wilfrid Howard Mellers, Francis Poulenc (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), xi.
Ctait pour moi le paradis, avec ses guinguettes, ses marchands de frites et ses bals musettes quon baptisa vers 1913 Le ct mauvais garon de ma musique, vous voyez, nest pas artificiel comme on le croit parfois, puisquil se rattache des souvenirs denfance trs chers, Poulenc, Entretiens, 1718.
18
Aragon, and Paul luard.5 He also met Apollinaire on several other occasions, including the premiere of his play, Les Mamelles de Tirsias, which Poulenc much later set to music. Poulenc recalled especially the sound of Apollinaires voice:
Most important: I heard the sound of his voice. I think there is here something essential for a musician who does not want to betray a poet. Apollinaires timbre, like his entire uvre, was at the same time melancholic and joyful. There was, in his speech, sometimes, a point of irony, but never le ton pince-sans-rire of a Jules Renard. That is why one must sing my Apollinaire songs without insisting on the comical sound of certain words.6
The young Poulencs literary taste was cultivated as he heard all these poets read their own poetry and mingled with many of the poets whose poems he would later set to music. At this same bookstore, he was present for an informal performance in 1919 of the first part of Erik Saties important vocal work, Socrate.7 Two years earlier, Poulenc had witnessed the premiere of Saties Parade, a ballet-collaboration with Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Sergey Diaghilev, and the Ballets Russes. These encounters proved to be profound for Poulenc by revealing to him an alternative aesthetic from those of Wagner and Debussy;8 as he said, everything I knew about Saties musicand I did know everythingseemed to me to be tracing a new path for French music.9 Poulenc wrote his earliest surviving works under the influence of Saties aesthetic. In comparison to the ambiguity and complexity of the more serious Debussy style, Poulencs early aesthetic was notable for its simplicity, sometimes to the point of banality. It featured a reestablishment of a clear relationship between melody and harmony, of which the melodies are
5 6 7
The performance was by Suzanne Balguerie with Satie at the piano, on March 21, 1919; ibid., 28. The official premiere did not occur until February 14, 1920.
8 9
Ibid., 36.
Francis Poulenc, My Friends and Myself, conversations assembled by Stphane Audel, trans. James Harding (London: Dobson, 1978), 64.
19
predominantly diatonic, simple and fresh; clear textures with uncomplicated rhythms; triadic harmony, often with extensions of the ninth, eleventh, or thirteenth; and extensive use of octave doubling of the melody, or doubling of the vocal line in the piano. However, like Saties music, this otherwise innocuous music was also occasionally irreverent, employing effective use of surprise wrong-note dissonance, abrupt harmonic or metric shifts, and the occasional tongue-in-cheek score indication such as excessivement lent.10 The influence of Saties Gymnopdies is particularly felt in the Mouvements perptuels (FP 14, 1918), Poulencs first published solo piano work. Its enormous popularity greatly helped define the budding aesthetic11 of a group of like-minded composers, eventually labeled Les Six by the music critic Henri Collet in 1920.12 The same characteristics evident in these pieces were being promoted at the same time by Jean Cocteau in his essay Le Coq et lArlequin, including brevity, clarity, and a use of popular sources.13 Poulencs earliest period , from 1918 to 1925, includes nine works for solo piano or voice and piano: Trois mouvements perptuels (FP 14, 1918), Valse from Album des Six (FP 17, 1919), the Suite in C (FP 19, 1920), Six Impromptus14 (FP 21, 192021), and Promenades, (FP 24, 1921) for piano; and Le Bestiaire (FP 15, 1919), Cocardes (FP 16, 1919), and Pomes de Ronsard (FP 38, 192425) for voice. Of the vocal works, however, only the last was originally written with piano accompaniment; the original versions of Le Bestiaire and Cocardes were for voice with instrumental ensembles, but Poulenc made voice and piano arrangements at or about the same time
10 11 12 13
Cocardes, Miel de Narbonne, m9. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 172. Schmidt, Entrancing, 72.
David Conley McKinney, The influence of Parisian popular entertainment on the piano works of Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc (D.M.A. thesis, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1994), 1. This volume was heavily edited and republished as Cinq Impromptus in 1924 and further edited and republished in 1939.
14
20
as the full scores. Because of Poulencs admittedly keyboard-centric method of composition and the idiomatic piano writing, it is likely that these pieces were conceived and composed at the piano, even if eventually intended for instrumental ensemble. The works from 1918 to 1920 all display similar characteristics and use essentially the same techniques in writing for the piano in both genres. While Poulencs piano and song styles would diverge in his second period, beginning in 1925, the characteristics inherited from Satie would remain in Poulencs work for much of his career:
Of all the group [Les Six], he was to remain the most faithful to the ideal of simplicity and clarity favored by Satie; in addition, he would remain faithful for a long time to the aesthetic of the anti-sublime characteristic of the 1920s. Until around 1936, he would produce works in this fauve vein with a perpetually renewed inventiveness.15
Even in his maturity, Poulenc would still count the aesthetic of tunefulness, simplicity, and clarity, among his guiding principles. Simplicity Poulenc intended that the simplicity, brevity, and clarity of his early works be matched by a straightforward treatment by the performer. In an (unpublished) notation on a manuscript copy of Mouvements perptuels, Poulenc advised that the whole should unfold uniformly and in a completely uncolored fashion. The pianist must forget that he is a virtuoso.16 These intentions are often emphasized directly in score indications, such as: en gnral, sans nuances, beaucoup de pdale and incolore et toujours p (Mouvements perptuels, I), indiffrent (Mouvements perptuels, II), trs mesur and sans pdales, sans nuances sans ralentir (Le Bestiaire, I), sans nuances (Le Bestiaire, VI), and uniformment articul et fort (Suite, I).
15 16
Poulenc: Le tout doit se drouler uniformment et dune faon tout fait incolor. Le pianiste doit oublier quil est virtuose; quoted in Carl B. Schmidt, The Music of Francis Poulenc (18991963): A Catalogue (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995; reprint, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 31.
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For pieces that are light-hearted, or even humorous, Poulenc disliked intentionally ironic or humorous treatments of them, insisting that those qualities should come through a serious treatment. He warned that to sing Le Bestiaire with irony and above all knowingly is a complete misinterpretation.17 These admonitions are similar to those Satie gave against winking before playing Embryons desschs or from reading aloud to the audience the droll score instructions of Sports et divertissements.18 Clarity is achieved throughout by a consistent dominance of melody over simple accompaniments. The pianistic writing generally favors the key of C major, along with occasional modal writing. This sometimes creates a feeling of pantonality, such as in the extensive scalar melodies of the first two movements of the Suite. The feeling is interrupted occasionally by wrong-note dissonance or even entire measures that seem to be placed in the wrong key (Example 6). Poulenc seems to avoid the use of key signatures, even when the music is in a clearly established key, such as the Bb major of the first movement of Mouvements perptuels, preferring to reiterate the persistent accidentals.
Cellular repetition, another hallmark of Saties style, is used to construct the brief and otherwise uncomplicated forms in both the piano works and songs. The cellular patterns are often
Chanter Le Bestiaire avec ironie et surtout des ntentions est un contresens complet. Cest ne rien comprendre la posie dApollinaire et ma musique, Poulenc, Journal, 14.
18
17
Robert Orledge, Satie the composer (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 213.
22
pianistic, seemingly discovered through improvisation at the keyboard. The various patterns are assembled almost haphazardly in arbitrary orders, often in order to maximize contrast among them. For example, in the first Mouvement perptuel, the first two-measure pattern recurs identically in mm34, mm89, and mm2021, and in modified versions in mm1415 and mm1617. Intervening cells are designed for maximum contrast: mm57 is a meandering three-measure cell that interrupts the strongly downwardly directed melody of mm14. Further interruptions occur in mm1011 and mm1112, where the Gb major melody contrasts with the insistent Bb major ostinato of the left hand. In the second movement, the pattern of cellular repetition in the right hand (AA AA BB BB CC DD A + tail) does not correspond to that of the left hand (AA AA AA BB BB CC A + tail). In another example, the accompaniment of the eight-measure song La Chvre du Thibet from Le Bestiaire is built completely out of two cellular patterns (A A A B B A A A).19 This cellular type of construction is not unique to his piano writing, however, for in the Sonata for Two Clarinets (FP 7, 1918) the ideas seem to fit together in any order of linkage.20 This use of ostinato patterns and repetition of cellular elements contributes to unity within the brief forms, but also mundanity and simplicity free from the thematic or motivic development of Germanic music. In addition to simplicity, another trait in evidence early in Poulencs career is the influence of Parisian popular musical entertainment. During Poulencs childhood and adolescent years, popular music was found in many different kinds of venues, including caf-concerts, cabarets, circuses, revues, and music halls. Poulenc himself was very fond of the street carnivals and balmusettes from his summers in Nogent-sur-Marne, and later in life, Poulenc employed allusions to
The first measure, including the pick-up note, is a five-beat pattern otherwise identical to the four-beat pattern except for the interpolation of the F major chord on the second beat of the measure.
20
19
Jon Ray Nelson, The Piano Music of Francis Poulenc (Ph.D. thesis, University of Washington, 1978), 52.
23
popular styles in nostalgic songs reminiscent of earlier days. In his early works, however, these allusions were simply part of an attempt at an unsophisticated style. The early Chanson Hispano-Italienne, entitled Torador (FP 11, 1918), is not properly considered one of Poulencs mlodies, being une fausse chanson de caf con influenced by Maurice Chevalier21, but it does serve as an early example of Poulencs popular music style. One bal-musette device in particular would reappear frequently in his later works: the use of a right-hand octave melody with chordal accompaniment in imitation of a barrel organ (see Example 7). This
same technique is used in the Valse (Example 8) and many other times later in his career, most commonly when setting the quintessentially Parisian poetry of Apollinaire. In Enfant de Troupe
from Cocardes, the poems images are descriptive of the circus at Medrano, and Poulenc responds with brash circus music (Example 9).
21
24
Another common technique Poulenc used is the doubling of a melody, either in octaves in the piano, or between the piano and voice. This is a very common procedure throughout Le Bestiaire: in the first song, Le Dromadaire (Example 10), and in the fourth, Le Dauphin, the
vocal line is doubled by octaves in the piano. Other piano/vocal doubling or melodic octaves occur extensively throughout Cocardes, the Suite in C (see Example 11), and many other works from this period and throughout his career.
25
Another technique Poulenc developed early on is his tendency to create composite eighth or sixteenth note rhythms by filling in melodic gaps where necessary with syncopated chords. For example, in Example 11 above, the accompanying chords in the right hand fill in the rhythmic gaps in the melody to preserve the constant flow of eighth notes. The result is a more lyrically flowing texture where melody and accompaniment are closely wedded. Finally, the light-hearted nature of the piano writing was often punctuated with flippant endings in the form of small codettas or coloristic chords. The last measures of the Valse (Example 12) interrupt the bal-musette accompaniment noted above with a flashy flourish of bare octaves. Similarly flashy endings occur at the end of Le Dromadaire and Enfant de Troupe. His propensity for flashy or enigmatic endings lasted through his second period.
The set Cocardes merits particular attention, for Poulenc said that it responds very directly to the fairground [popular music] style hoped for by Cocteau. It is my most Les Six work.22 It was
22
rpondait trs exactement au style forain souhait par Cocteau. Cest mon uvre la plus Groupe des Six,
ibid., 66.
26
immensely popular among members of Les Six, as Milhaud recollects: We would coerce Poulenc into playing his Cocardes every Saturday, which he would do with the utmost grace.23 They are, in fact, the only songs written to texts of Cocteau.24 Not only do the accompaniments seem to emerge from the style of Mouvements perptuels,25 but the piano parts are independent enough that they could easily stand alone as solo works. The phrases of the vocal part are often short, emerging from melodies already established in the piano. In the first song, the accompaniment is reminiscent of the style of Mouvement perptuels with its widely spaced voices and cellular repetitions (see Example 13). It could easily stand alone
Darius Milhaud, Notes sans Musique (Paris: R. Julliard, [1963]), 1034. Daniel, 19, quotes a lengthy description of Saturday soires enjoyed by members of Les Nouveaux Jeunes, a more informal and wider group, including performers, painters, and writers, than what was later dubbed Les Six. He makes particular mention of the popular entertainment they frequented. Poulenc actually set other texts of Cocteau to music; these, with the exception of the very early chanson Torador were operas and melodramas.
25 24
23
27
without the voice, whose fragments of melody seem to emerge from the melodies and textures of the piano. The piano frequently is responsible for introducing new themes before being joined by the voice (e.g. I: m10, mm1314, and m21; II: mm15, mm1516, and m19) and providing connecting material between small vocal fragments (I: mm37; III: mm35 and mm712). In fact, in the entire first song, the voice only sings for twenty-one out of the thirty-four measures, and only nineteen out of the forty-two measures in the second song. The dominance of the accompaniment, its control over the flow of the music, and the great dependence of the vocal line on it, suggest that the piano part was written first and the voice was added to it. One reason the piano works and the songs from this earliest period do not differ much in their compositional techniques is that the texts Poulenc chose from this time, typified by brevity, irony, and light-heartedness, perfectly accorded with the aesthetic of Satie and the improvisational nature of Poulencs keyboard writing. When later text choices would lead Poulenc to discover other aesthetics and keyboard techniques, he never abandoned this early aesthetic entirely. Rather, he was able to incorporate new modes of expression alongside his existing ones. Complexity After these early works, the next pieces attempt [a] greater depth and seriousness,26 but suffer from being too complicated and in a style that did not come naturally to Poulenc. These pieces include Cinq Impromptus (FP 21, 192021) and Promenades (FP 24, 1921) for piano and Cinq pomes de Ronsard (FP 38, 192425) for voice. They are often unnecessarily complex harmonically and employ what Daniel described as contrived dissonance.27
26 27
28
When he began the Cinq Impromptus at the end of 1920, Poulenc was perhaps feeling a bit pigeonholed by his aesthetical association with Les Six. Poulenc therefore began attempting works that would establish him as more of a serious composer, using more sophisticated harmonic and contrapuntal techniques. This was not easy for him, however, as he had never received any formal training in composition. In the midst of writing the complex Promenades for Rubinstein, Poulenc wrote:
I am suffering from an attack of Stravinsky-itis. The CRAFTMANSHIP, that is what is admirable in Stravinsky. For two days I have been immersed in Renard. The counterpoint is extraordinary. The secret is that [Stravinskys] contrapuntal writing is a superimposition of very apt themes rather than the Wagnerian hair-splitting you find in Honegger.28
He felt further frustration with a set of four songs he was writing to the poetry of Max Jacob. Numerous references in his correspondence refer to several major revisions before he finally completed them, but just two years later, he announced: I have burned them. It was a stray work bogged down in polytonality and other idiocies.29 In June 1921, Sergey Diaghilev was in attendance for the premiere of Les Maris de la Tour Eiffel, a joint work by members of Les Six. He was impressed enough by Poulencs contribution to it that shortly thereafter, he approached Poulenc with a commission for a ballet.30 It was exactly at this time that Poulenc began to be interested in studying composition more formally, and by September of 1921 wrote to Charles Koechlin asking for lessons:
Circumstances have prevented any sustained study until now. I have therefore been obeying my instinct rather than my intelligence. I have had enough of this now and wish to put myself very seriously in your hands. I hope that you will accept a pupil as self-educated
Letter to Paul Collaer, 12 July 1921; Francis Poulenc: Echo and Source: Selected Correspondence 1915 1963, trans. and ed. Sidney Buckland (London: Victor Gollancz, 1991), 3940. Poulenc: Je les ai brls. Ctait une uvre dgar dans la polytonalit et autres conneries; Letter to Ernest Ansermet, Francis Poulenc: Correspondance, 19101963, ed. Myriam Chimnes ([Paris]: Fayard, 1994), 210. The first written mention of the ballet that became Les Biches was in a letter to Poulenc from Diaghilev on November 15, 1921. The two must have discussed the possibility in person, for Diaghilev wrote, This ballet interests me greatly and the details that you give me on the subject seem very amusing; Correspondence (Buckland), 4243.
30 29
28
29
as myself and that my ignorance will not repel you. With your help I would like to become a musician.31
The composition lessons finally commenced in November of that year. While Les Biches was completed by 1923, the lessons continued sporadically until March 1925.32 By then, Poulenc was ready to turn away from this complex style toward his more natural inclinations. The Cinq Impromptus were written over a six month period, from September 1920 to March 1921.33 The title Impromptus is ironic because the work is the most studiedseemingly the least improvisedof all his works thus far. The writing in these pieces seems to be an extreme, conscious rejection of the aesthetic of simplicity and lightness that had pervaded his earliest works; they were, instead, overly chromatic, dissonant for dissonance sake, in short, experimental.34 The score indications, such as trs agit (I), brusque presser (II), and violent (IV) along with frequent indications of fff are a far cry from his earlier markings, such as doucement timbr and indiffrent (Mouvements perptuels, I and II). Passages of extreme chromaticism (Example 14) contrast with the simplicity and banality of the early works. He is also extremely specific about dynamic markings: in just twenty-seven
Letter to Charles Koechlin, September 1921; Correspondence (Buckland), 42. Orledge (in Sidney Buckland and Myriam Chimnes, eds., Francis Poulenc: Music, Art, and Literature (Aldershot; Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 1999), 13) speculates that Poulenc began lessons with Koechlin because he was planning to write Les Biches and felt he needed more training first.
32 33
31
They were published as a group of six pieces in 1922, but a revision in 1924 resulted in the addition of one newly composed impromptu (the third) and the deletion of two others.
30
measures of music (II: mm1946), he employs sixty-seven separate dynamic instructions (Example 15), compared to just three dynamic indications in the last forty-eight measures of the Valse, written just two years earlier. The fifth movement is a slow, somber dirge; both the slow pace and the left hand ostinato pattern (mm110) are reminiscent of Le Dromadaire from Le Bestiaire. However, the impromptu is darker than the song and utilizes a lower range of the piano. The coda slows and fades to a piccardy third, compared to the songs light-hearted tag that negates all its matter-of-fact dryness. There are wisps of lighter qualities in this set, however. The second piece begins much more in the popular vein of a street waltz (mm18), but employs bitonality in the return of the theme (mm6168); the right hand melody is dropped by a half-step for the return. The most typical Poulenc movement is the third, with the jazzy feel of a cakewalk, and two measures (mm1819) of inexplicable lyricism that contrast sharply with the surrounding measures. It is probably not a coincidence that this more light-hearted impromptu was written later than the rest, in 1924, toward the end of this experimental period. The set Promenades, a set of ten pieces, each a portrayal of a different means of transportation ( pied, En auto, cheval, etc.) were written during the summer of 1921. They were received very well by the critic Jean Marnold: The abundance of inspiration, the variety
34
31
of rhythm, and the casual originalityall deeply personalare quite simply stunning. In truth, it is the work of a master.35 Yet they are probably his most chromatic and rhythmically complex work, with a more sophisticated structure than any other piano piece thus far. He described his intention thusly:
As for Promenades, here is how I have resolved the problem of short pieces. The plan is this: Prelude. 10 Promenades. Finale.36 I view the 10 promenades as 10 variations on 10 different themes (one for each promenade). The special technique used for each number will create in the end a sort of trompe-loreille [aural illusion] given that there will be one in thirds, another in repeated octaves, and so on. In this way I shall achieve a semblance of unity.37
Melodies, when they exist at all, are extremely chromatic (Example 16) and sometimes subsumed by chromatic washes (portions of II) and bitonality. All but two of the pieces completely defy key signatures. In one remarkable passage (for Poulenc) in the fifth piece, the hands are
Jean Marnold: Labondance dinspiration, la varit de rythme, loriginalit dsinvolte, au maxime degr personnelle, sont tout bonnement tonnantes. En vrit, cest une uvre de matre; quoted in Schmidt, Catalogue, 79.
36
35
32
notated in different time signatures simultaneously. Only two of the pieces, III and VIII, are more typical of later Poulenc; the eighth, En chemin de fer, is in Poulencs trademark easy-going, calm C major with Alberti bass, and even employs the tonic minor in its B section, just as the first movement of his Suite in C does. One indication of Poulencs later dissatisfaction with both of these sets is that he revised them later in life: the Impromptus in 1939 and the Promenades in 1952.38 The first set of songs written after his study with Koechlin, and in fact the first since Cocardes in 1919, were the Pomes de Ronsard (192425). In these works, we can find much that hints at the changes Poulencs style was to later undergo. For example, the relation of the voice and piano is more independent and complementary, with the piano enjoying true introductions, interludes, and codas. The pianists four introductory measures in the first song, Attributs, have the same function and very similar mood as the first four measures of Air Vif, from Airs chants (192728) The lyricism at mais les soucis et les pleurs in Attributs and throughout Le Tombeau (Example 17) prefigures the lyricism of some of his later writing, the latter even of Tu vois le feu du soir (1938) with its widely spaced bass and melody, the vocal line doubled in the
37 38
Letter to Paul Collaer, 12 July 1921; Correspondence (Buckland), 3940. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 175.
33
right hand, and gently syncopated accompanying chords. The rich harmonies and certain harmonic progressions also hint at the mature Poulencs style, while the litany of d- words (dcharn, dnerv, dmuscl, dpoulp) anticipates Poulencs fascination with the litanies of luard. Poulencs most free writing can be found in son page, a drinking song that anticipates Couplets Bachiques from Chansons gaillardes (192526), with its mostly four-square phrases and joyous, highly pianistic, coda. Poulenc was initially pleased with the work, writing of the premiere:
They have even pronounced for the first time since judging my music the words magnificent and very moving, for the fourth song (Je nai plus que les os). These adjectives, replacing charming and delicious, surprise me a little. I wasnt trying to be such a big shot.39
However, he later claimed the set was written with all possible negligence, except, thank God, that of prosody.40 Bernac blamed both Poulencs counterpoint studies with Koechlin that led to a less spontaneous, more complicated style and his lack of an affinity with classical poetry for the failure of the work.41 Two additional movements, not published until 1925, must be considered part of Poulencs first period. The first two movements of Napoli (FP 40) were both written in 1922, before the Ronsard settings. Daniel deems this work as unsuccessful as the works which immediately preceded it, due mainly to its vaguely impressionistic second movement, Nocturne, employing
Poulenc: On a mme prononc pour la premire fois depuis quon juge ma musique les mots magnifique, trs mouvant, pour la 4e mlodie (Je nai plus que les os). Ces adjectifs remplaant charmant, dlicieux, mtonnent un peu. Je ne pensais pas avoir pt si haut; in a letter to Georges Auric, Dimanche [March 15, 1925]; Correspondance (Chimnes), 251.
40 41
39
avec toutes les ngligences possibles sauf, Dieu merci, de prosodie, Poulenc, Journal, 15. Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc, the Man and His Songs, trans. Winifred Radford (New York: Norton, 1977),
207.
34
unnecessary dissonance.42 Years later, Poulenc asserted, I condemn without reprieve the Napoli.43 When considered in the context of his entire career, the works from this period must be considered experimental. Poulenc may have felt that his association with Satie and Les Six was too restricting on his future prospects as a serious composer and desired to explore a more studied approach to composition. In doing so, both he and Koechlin seemed to discover that his true calling as a composer lay in other directions: as Koechlin wrote to him in August 1924, praising the melodies and charming harmonies of Les Biches, You are right to write music that sings; that is the essential thing.44 With few exceptions, Poulenc rarely returned to such a needlessly complex language.
42 43 44
Koechlin: Vous avez raison de faire de la musique qui chante, cest lessentiel; Correspondance (Chimnes), 234.
35
CHAPTER 4 INVENTIVENESS AND THE POULENC SOUND Stylistic Trends After Poulencs period of study with Koechlin and the unusually complex and difficult pieces of 192125, he returned to a generally simpler aesthetic, in which his earlier selfconsciousness is replaced with a greater self-assurance as a composer. Poulencs great facility for piano composition is demonstrated by the sheer number of piano works he wrote between 1925 and 1936: he wrote more works in this period alone than from all his other periods combined. It is during this time that his pianistic style began to diverge from the style of the songs, and this is mostly due to the highly idiomatic nature of his solo piano writing noted in Chapter 2. Both the piano accompaniments in the songs and the first piano works of this period employ a great variety of textures and figurations with real musical interest, but later piano works often descend into showy, but musically empty, pianistic patterns. The songs from this time do not suffer this problem, however: with few exceptions, such as the intentionally banal Airs chants, these years show a more self-assured composer who is establishing techniques for dealing with a wide variety of poetic moods and styles. While this period is characterized by great uncertainty and experimentation, one can trace the development of a recognizable Poulenc style beginning with the first set of songs of the second period, Chansons gaillardes. The works from this period are sometimes called neoclassical, and indeed, some include features that are similar to Stravinskys neoclassical works from approximately the same time, such as a general clarity of texture, classical conception of structure (including antecedent/consequent phrasal pairs), use of ostinato rhythmic and melodic devices, and modest forms and forces. However, Daniel asserts that Poulencs neoclassicism is less synthetic, 36
less abstract, and less objective than that of Stravinsky.1 Furthermore, the rich harmonic language Poulenc developed, typified by frequent use of extended tertian chords and frequent and sudden modulations to unrelated key areas, cannot properly be considered neoclassical, but rather unique to Poulenc. Phrasal structures followed the tendency toward simplicity and clarity, with symmetrical antecedent-consequent patterns common. However, Poulenc often avoided predictable patterns through a slight metrical shift or disruption, the rhythmic equivalent of wrong-note dissonance. Thus, an antecedent phrase of eight measures might be followed by a similar consequent phrase that is shortened or lengthened by an entire measure or just a single beat. This disruption foils the listeners metrical expectations, and the result is slightly surprising and occasionally seems irreverent. Given the amount of music that Poulenc wrote in a short period of time, it should not be surprising that some motives often recur in a number of works. These include certain formulaic melodic patterns, customary modulations and their preparations, chord progressions with distinctive use of extensions of the ninth and thirteenth, and specific pianistic textures. Often an entire passage of a work bears strong resemblance to an earlier work. What is most interesting about this is that most often, when Poulenc borrowed from himself, he borrowed motives from the songs for use in the piano works, and only rarely vice-versa. It is clear from the emergence of a recognizable Poulenc sound that he became much more confident as a composer. However, the many compositional advances of this period are marred by occasional missteps in both piano works and songs.
37
192530 The third movement of Napoli (of which the first two movements were composed in 1922 and discussed above) is the first work to be considered part of his second period. Poulenc wrote of his satisfaction with the movement in September 1925:
I finished a long piano piece, Caprice italien, in the genre of the Bourre fantasque [of Chabrier]. Im rather pleased with it. I believe in any case that it has a nice effect, for I played it to Lucien [Daudet], who cried out: what development, what blossoming!! I hope hes not misleading me.2
Gone is most of the heavy dissonance of his experimental works; the piano writing here is clearer and more brilliant than the preceding works. At just over five minutes and 336 measures long, it is his longest single movement for piano thus farlonger, in fact, than the first two movements combined. His experience writing the larger forms required for Les Biches no doubt enabled Poulenc to overcome the inherent structural problems associated with his earlier cellulartype writing. Comprised of a rather unusual ABC structure, the work is highly sectional and employs a sequence of themes with brief reprises of earlier themes. While most of the B section is on the whole more lyrical (a strain of lyricism that was hinted at in the Pomes de Ronsard), the facility of piano figuration increasingly dominates the remainder of the piece. Shortly after this work, Poulenc composed the cycle Chansons gaillardes (FP 42, 192526), his first truly successful songs originally for voice and piano.3 As is the case with his other most successful pieces, this cycle represents a synthesis of experiments from earlier works. This set incorporates the clarity and simplicity of Le Bestiaire; the pianistic facility and variety of Caprice
Poulenc: Jai termin un long morceau de piano, Caprice italien, dans le genre de la Bourre fantasque. Jen suis assez content. Je crois en tout cas quil fait pas mal deffet car, par exprience, je lai jou Lucien qui a pouss de grands cris en disant: Quelle volution, quel panouissement!!! Jespre quil ne se trompe pas; letter to Valentine Hugo [September 25, 1925]; Correspondance (Chimnes), 26364.
3
The earlier Le Bestiaire and Cocardes were originally written for voice and chamber ensemble.
38
Italien; and the lyricism, fast/slow/fast ordering, and pianistic introductions, interludes, and postludes of the Ronsard songs. Poulenc chose the text for the eight songs from two collections of anonymous poetry from the eighteenth century.4 They range from mischievous to bawdy, and sometimes the text is quite innocent on the surface, but hides a scandalous double-meaning.5 According to Bernac, Poulenc detested smutty stories but liked obscenity;6 Poulenc himself explained that he chose the texts because he needs a little musical vulgarity just like a plant needs compost.7 The songs capture a true spontaneity of expression, ranging from whimsical, light-hearted songs to more serious ones. They are organized according to a careful alternation of fast and slow tempos, indicative of Poulencs attention to the overall effect of the piece through contrasts from one song to the next. This is the first set of songs that employs extensive text repetition, a device clearly required in order to create larger forms, given the rapid delivery of these relatively brief poems. Earlier song sets had either been limited in length by short poems (such as Le Bestiaire), or achieved greater length using longer poems (such as Pomes de Ronsard). These are the first successful songs to achieve satisfactory length through text repetition, and this is another sign of the composers greater maturity. Most impressive is how comfortable Poulenc seems writing for the piano in a wide variety of tempos, moods, and modes of expression. For example, in the faster songs, the piano has some
4
The score mistakenly identifies the texts as all being from the seventeenth century, but Schmidt (Catalogue, 87, 125) clarifies that the sources were published in the eighteenth century. Poulenc had earlier set a poem from one of these sources as Chanson boire (FP 31, 1922), for the Harvard Glee Club.
5 6
Ibid. Bernac premiered this cycle with Poulenc in 1926, but it was ten years before they would work together again and form a recital partnership. Jai besoin dune certaine vulgarit musicale comme une plante recherche le terreau, Poulenc, Mes matres, 526.
7
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quite difficult, at times virtuosic, writing, but the voice and piano are well integrated: the piano figurations in the brief introductions and interludes connect naturally with the vocal entrances, and the voice part no longer seems conceived as an afterthought, as it does in his earliest songs. Poulenc felt the piano part was very well written,8 and it is clearly far more intricate [and] well constructed than his earlier song efforts, yet still idiomatically pianistic.9 The most pianistic songs are the fast ones, particularly the virtuosic third song, Madrigal. It is Poulencs first example of a patter song, a style he was to use in many later songs and analogously in later piano works. The fifth song, Couplets bachiques, has the most brilliant piano figuration: virtuosic, but idiomatically written so that it lies well in the hand. The seventh, La belle jeunesse, is likewise pianistic. The light-hearted spirit of the fast songs is enhanced by some metrical playfulness that shifts what might otherwise be rather predictable antecedent-consequent phrasal pairs. For example, in the first song, La matresse volage, the eight-measure piano introduction, with its pair of balanced phrases, establishes a context of four-measure phrasal pairs. The first antecedent vocal phrase (Ma matresse est volage, mon rival est heureux, continues this pattern of four measures, but the consequent phrase (sil a son pucelage, cest quelle en avait deux) is shortened by one beat to the equivalent of three-and-a-half measures (Example 18). This metric shift underscores the punch line of the text by making the off-balance music match the bawdiness of the text. The seventh song also employs metric shifts to keep the music lively (this time through the addition of beats to both the four-measure introduction and the first four-measure vocal phrase). The third song, however, employs much more straightforward phrasing; its forty measures consist neatly of five pairs of
8 9
Les accompagnements sont trs difficile mais bien crits, je crois, Poulenc, Journal, 16. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 256.
40
balanced phrases. This is due to the fact that the entire poem sets up the punch line that occurs in the final two lines of text. The slow songs all employ some degree of modality, including modal mixtures. The use of modality is somewhat unusual for Poulencs style, but here can be understood as suggestive of the antiquity of the texts. The songs also utilize a great deal of vocal doubling in the piano, but unlike in the earliest works, the piano writing here switches easily between doubling the voice and more independent contrapuntal melodic lines. While the most scandalous hidden meanings are found in the slower fourth, sixth, and eighth songs, they are masked and counterbalanced by the most serious musical styles of the set. Further, while the songs contain suggestive figures that could easily become too demonstrative for good taste, such as the sigh motive of the sixth (Ha! mm28) and the upward portamenti of the eighth (mm3943), both Poulenc and Bernac warn the singer against overdoing such things to the point of 41
vulgarity. This is a further reflection of Poulencs desire to make the audacity of language acceptable in a concert hall.10 The last song, Srnade, is the earliest example of Poulencs nascent lyrical side; one clue is the score indication for the voice, doux mais trs chant. Another feature is the flowing 6/8 rhythm in the piano, which, along with occasional countermelodies in the right hand, ensures an even rhythmic flow for the piece (Example 19). This steadiness of rhythmic motion was to become important throughout the rest of his second period.
The next song Poulenc composed following Chansons gaillardes was the Vocalise-tude (FP 44, 1927). It is insignificant apart from the first appearance of a motive that recurs frequently in later works, the most prominent of which is in the opening of his late-period Gloria (FP 177, 1959). It occurs several times in this vocalise (mm2629, mm3134, and mm7074) and in the Pastorale and Hymne of Trois pices (FP 48, 1928) (see the melody of Example 20; compare with Example 25, below).
10
42
The next piece for piano was the Pastourelle (FP 45, 1927, transcribed in 1929), a transcription of a movement from the 1927 collaborative ballet, Lventail de Jeanne.11 Despite the fact that it was not originally written for the piano, Daniel claims that it is the first piano work to reveal Poulenc as a lightweight, but sincere, composer of lyrical salon music.12 The music is generally fresh and light-hearted; for example, the motion of the tenor line in mm14, as well as the Bb-major-seventh harmony created by it, is suggestive of a popular flavor (Example 21). Metrical shortening of antecedent-consequent phrases is also used effectively in this piece.
Poulenc floundered in the [song] genre during the ensuing four years (192730),13 an observation which can be partly explained by his deliberate choice of bad poetry for the Airs chants (FP 46, 192728). The poems, which he called, suitable for mutilation,14 are by Jean Moras, a nineteenth-century poet who wrote in a classical style. Poulenc wrote in his Journal that the third song, Air Grave, was surely my worst mlodie and that this collection turned me off writing mlodies for a long time. In short: a bad decision.15 Despite his opinion of the work, and
Ten composersRavel, Ferroud, Ibert, Roland-Manuel, Delannoy, Roussel, Milhaud, Auric, and Schmitt were asked to write a movement of three to five minutes for five strings, five winds, and one percussion player; Schmidt, Catalogue, 13536.
12 13 14 15
11
Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 176. Ibid., 257. propices la mutilation, Poulenc, Journal, 16.
est srement ma plus mauvaise mlodie; Ce recueil ma dgot dcrire des mlodies pendant un long temps. En bref: une mauvaise action, ibid., 16.
43
much to his chagrin, this set turned out to be quite popular. There are several possible reasons for this: first, they stand nearly alone among his works written before 1931 in that they were written for a soprano voice; second, the writing is outwardly quite vocal, along the lines of Chansons gaillardes; and third, because Poulenc, not having considered the words or the meaning of the poem, has used his marvelous melodic gift.16 The piano writing, though still pianistic, isnt quite as successful as that of Chansons gaillardes. Some awkwardness is evident in transitions between sections, and the voice and piano are less consistently well integrated. In the first song, Air romantique, the nearly frantic accompaniment (marked extrmement anim) employs constant sixteenth-note motion that creates a rhythmic foil for the more comfortable eighth-note motion of the voice. Poulenc admonishes against the use of rubato in this song (le tempo doit tre implacable17), even when the energy is relaxed somewhat in the middle section of the ternary form (respecter strictement le mouvement mtronomique). The second song, Air champtre, is more bucolic, and uses metric shifts in the piano introduction and interlude (mm2932) that contribute to a light-hearted atmosphere. The third, Air grave, is unusually clumsy for Poulenc; here the presence of a piano countermelody throughout only contributes to an awkward vocal line. Its progressive tonalitybeginning in F minor and moving to A minor in the piano codais also unusual for Poulenc. However, the accompaniment of the fourth song is well written for the piano; it could stand quite well on its own, due to its nearly incessant doubling of the voice. A careful use of contrasts throughout also contributes to its success. One such contrast is that of texture in adjacent phrases,
16 17
44
such as the legato, p phrase in mm4851 that is followed by a staccato, mf, left hand figure in mm5154 (Example 22). Another contrast is found in the melodic contour of the piano introduction: the melody boldly begins with a leap of a fifth then meanders for a measure, before its strongly directed sixteenth-note descent (Example 23). He frequently used this technique of contrasting melodic construction later, as well (see the Quatre Pomes dApollinaire, below).
After this decidedly mixed set, Poulenc did not write songs until 1931, apart from another unsuccessful attempt at setting classical poetry: the pitaphe (FP 55, 1930). This work is remarkable only for a passage in the accompaniment employing octave tripling and requiring three staves for its notation (mm913). The next piano pieces are the two Novelettes (FP 47, 192728). They are the first piano works following Chansons gaillardes to be written originally for piano, and these already show some influence from the songs, particularly in their formal construction. However, they seem derived from a more improvisational compositional method compared to the songs.
45
The first Novelette, in C major, is a close cousin of Mendelssohns Songs without Words with its pastoral, tonal melody and flowing accompaniment sometimes mirroring the melody in parallel sixths. Poulenc claimed that this key evoked peaceful happiness for him.18 He used it quite commonly in his piano works: previously, in his Suite (1920), and later, for the first Nocturne, the seventh Improvisation, and the Valse (from Album des Six). Since Poulenc seemingly found it a convenient key for improvisation, it should not be surprising that C major is quite rare in the songs, which were composed by a different method, in which he likely found it to be less evocative for poetic expression.19 The first Novelette often employs diatonic extended-tertian chords, most often nonfunctional seventh, ninth, or thirteenth chords (first used extensively in Chansons gaillardes). One harmonic trademark, hinted at earlier in the third Impromptu (mm1819), fully appears here for the first time (Example 24). The motion of the tenor linethrough the pitches C, B, Bb, and Alends
Poulenc alludes to earlier pieces in C when he describes Picasso, from Le travail du peintre: ut majeur ne veut plus dire bonheur paisible, ibid., 58. One notes the important exceptions of Bonne journe from Tel jour, telle nuit, and Picasso from Le travail du peintre.
19
18
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this work a similar popular flavor as that of the Pastourelle (Example 21, noted above), functioning as a chromatically passing seventh tone (C major, first with a major seventh, then with a minor seventh). Poulencs treatment of the device is typical in that the two successive phrases are nearly identical except for the octave displacement of the melody. This same device, in the same tonality, later appears in the Pastorale from Trois Pices (mm2023) and in the first Nocturne (mm7174; see Example 25).
Balanced period phrasing is common in the first Novelette, just as in Chansons gaillardes. The form is again ternary, and the A section seems fresh and spontaneous; the B section, however, is less successful in that it seems more artificially contrived than spontaneously inspired. This is a problem that would continue to plague parts of his piano pieces for most of his second period. The second Novelette, on the other hand, shows a greater maturity, with writing that is remarkably similar to Madrigal, from Chansons gaillardes: both are ternary with only an abbreviated return to the opening theme and both are more through-composed than the first Novelette, employing a progression of related themes. Poulenc seems content to place distinct themes in succession without composed or developmental connections between phrases, especially in the interior of the piece.
47
It is specifically this construction of form that Poulenc seems to have learned from writing his song accompaniments. In both Madrigal and the second Novelette, phrases are carefully placed and contrasted to counterbalance the expression of the previous through melodic contour, texture, and direction. The result is periodic phrasing with much greater coherence than he had previously found, even in the first Novelette. One can see the immediate similarity between the openings of the two works by comparing Example 26 and Example 27.20 Both are in a minor key, and both are in a style that might be called scampering. The opening, antecedent phrases of each
One could equally well consider the four phrases commencing at the vocal entrance, which demonstrate the same features described for the given examples. It should also be noted that the third Improvisation, in B minor, opens with another very similar example, also in minor.
20
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contain an upward flourish followed by a detached, descending contour. The following, consequent phrases counterbalance the initial gestures by sweeping upward in a legato manner until the final descent on a strong cadence. The next antecedent-consequent pairs begin with chromatic meandering and close with another strong cadential figure. Thus, in both pieces the four phrases are carefully ordered so as to create a unity and balance, contrasting by texture and melodic contour; they would not, for example, proceed logically if placed in any other order. This is a more carefully crafted structure of phrase than we saw in the earliest writing for the piano, in which the ordering of phrases or ostinato patterns seemed at best arbitrary. The Trois pices of 1928 (FP 48, rev: 1953) are a strange mixture of styles, owing to the large span of time over which they were composed. The pieces have their genesis in the three early, unpublished Pastorales (FP 5, 1917) that were composed the year before Mouvements perptuels. The first piece retains the title Pastorale, and according to Poulenc, is nearly identical to the
49
original version.21 Certain aspects are almost certainly from the 1928 revision, such as the predominance of the C major and C major-seventh harmonies (Example 28). This use of these harmonies with the passing B natural to B flat was observed in the first Novelette (Example 24, above).
The second piece, Hymne, was newly composed in 1928 and is strongly neoclassical with its stately double-dotted figuration and ornate written-out ornamentation, which Poulenc said resembled the harpsichord writing of Concert champtre (FP 49, 192728).22 It prominently features the motive that was earlier used in the Vocalise, but here the use is closer to the clatant style of the opening of the Gloria (see Example 29 and Gloria, mm14). Its harmonically unstable middle section accelerates through a rapid progression of dense harmonies until its peak at m37, where it begins a descent back to C major. The opening theme, in Eb, returns in the coda, but just when it appears the final cadence will conclude in Eb, the harmony abruptly changes to G minor for the final two measures.
21 22
presque identique la version originale, Poulenc, Entretiens, 31. assez proche du Concert champtre, ibid., 31.
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Poulenc retained the opening and conclusion of the third pastorale for the brilliant Toccata, which, true to its name, features all manner of pianistic figuration employing nearconstant use of sixteenth notes. A pianistic showpiece with a certain amount of substance,23 the toccatas figurations all fit easily within the hand, and it seems likely that Poulenc invented them while improvising at the piano. The harmonic progression and symmetrical phrasing in mm3942 (Example 30) are especially typical of later Poulenc. The melody begins in C major and then sweeps into the lowered submediant, Ab. The antecedent is redeployed in sequence a step higher, then winds its way back to the starting key of C major. The phrases also contain contrast of texture and melodic contour: the four accented quarter notes are contrasted by a sweeping reply that ends
23
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with signature appoggiaturas above the local tonic. The internal contrast is balanced by the symmetry of the phrases. The mood of the quiet A minor passage (mm6871) is strongly predictive of his treatment of the same tonality in two works from thirty years later: the thirteenth Improvisation and the middle section of the Intermezzo in Ab. The showy conclusion utilizes alternation of the hands in a highly chromatic passage just before the final cadence, another feature common in his second period piano works. The following piano piece, Pice brve sur le nom d'Albert Roussel, (FP 50, 1929), is from a collection of works by eight composers, entitled Hommage Albert Roussel. Poulencs contribution, an attempt at a very free use of soggetto cavato, is again rather insignificant except for several passages that are strikingly similar to other works from about the same time. The melody in mm1417 bears a strong resemblance to the opening of the first Nocturne (mm18), while the end, with its single-note quasi-militaristic rhythmic theme is closely related to the coda figuration of the Pastourelle (and also used at the end of the fourth Improvisation, 1932). Such passages of striking similarity between pieces, common throughout this second period, are likely due to Poulencs improvisational method of piano composition: motives and figures that were already in his fingers were easily rediscovered and used again, either consciously or not. The eight Nocturnes (FP 56) were written over a period of eight years, from 1930 to 1938. Poulencs tendency toward abstract titles for his keyboard works is again in evidence here. The set is uneven in quality, and Poulenc himself said he only cared for a few of them. Only the first was written during 1930, and so the others, most of which were written in 1934, will be discussed chronologically at the appropriate time. The first Nocturne, in C major, is one of the best of the set. Here Poulenc affirms his associations with this signature key, the peace and grace of this piece placing it alongside works noted above (including the Suite, first Novelette, and seventh Improvisation). The harmonic 52
language is generally pantonal, embracing diatonic seventh chords such as D minor-seventh and F major-seventh, and only touching on a single accidental, F#, in the first ten measures. As in the first Novelette, a constant stream of eighth notes creates a flowing style (the score contains the instruction: laccompagnement trs estomp et rgulier). As is becoming fairly common in his piano writing by now, the climax at mm4451 is achieved by a rapid progression of tonalities, including a melody used in sequence that leaps into each new key (B major, G minor, and Bb major; see Example 31). As if to balance out the turbulence of the previous measures, the following four measures are notable for their static harmony and undirected melody in the left hand. This use of adjacent contrasts shows Poulenc was paying more careful attention to the developmental flow and overall effect of larger sections of music than in his earlier works.
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1931: A Return to Song In 1931, Poulenc again found success in the mlodie genre, composing three sets of songs in this year alone. The first set was Trois pomes de Louise Lalanne (FP 57, 1931), to poems that were actually written by Marie Laurencin and Guillaume Apollinaire and published under a pseudonym. Poulenc was likely amused when he learned of the deception from Marie Laurencin after he completed the songs.24 The piano writing of the first two songs is closely related to the piano works from this time, but the third song is in a remarkably different style; it is in fact the first example of a song in Poulencs tender and lyrical vein,25 entirely without precedent among the earlier piano works. The first, Le prsent, is written entirely in a whirlwind of bare octaves split between the hands, consciously borrowed from the final movement of Chopins Sonata in Bb minor. The piano and voice are tied closely together, with all of the notes of the vocal line doubled within the accompaniment (Example 32).
The second song, Chanson, employs a series of disparate piano figures, similar to the method used in the Toccata. It is complex, yet fleeting, with extreme chromaticism. Poulencs
24 25
Keith Daniel identifies six categories or styles into which most of his songs may be placed: songs with a popular flavor, simple, child-like songs, prayer-like songs, tender, lyrical songs, patter songs, and dramatic songs. These categories are not mutually exclusive and some songs cannot be easily categorized, but these styles help us to understand and relate the many different faces of Poulenc. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 25051.
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penchant for using a chain of secondary dominant-function chords is demonstrated in mm1518 (G#13, C#M7, F#7, BM7; see Example 33). These rich harmonies, placed among the sparser textures surrounding them, give a fleeting wisp of popular flavor.
The third song, Hier, while at times quite chromatic, is striking for its more relaxed feel and gentler figuration following the first two fast songs. Bernac wrote:
This poem by Marie Laurencin, so tenderly nostalgic, is quite authentically and typically feminine, and it inspired Poulenc to compose a song which foreshadows the tender, lyrical vein in which he was to write his most beautiful songs.26
The opening accompanimental chords consist only of bare thirds, the repetition of which throughout creates at once a feeling of stasis and movement. The piano once again frequently doubles the voice (see Example 34), while the repeated chords create a flow of eighth notes, yet preserve the slower harmonic motion. The tempo indicated here is 66 beats per minute; this tempo and the
26
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subdivision of the beat with repeated chords are very similar to third-period songs such as Bleuet, Montparnasse, Aux officiers de la garde blanche, and other songs typical of Poulencs nostalgic and melancholic style. Due to the Parisian slang and gossipy references to people and places in the often frivolous texts, the Quatre pomes dApollinaire (FP 58, 1931) are as purely Parisian as his earlier Cocardes. These songs are well written and clearly in the established second period style because of their light-heartedness, semi-popular nature, and effective use of patterns and techniques only hinted at in the first period. Once again, the relationship between voice and piano is well balanced, through both frequent doubling of the vocal line in the piano and a careful division of musical interest between the two partners. There are no piano introductions to the faster songs; rather, the text seems to initiate and guide the musical mood, and vocal phrases are judiciously connected with occasional, brief interludes. In the slower second song, the melancholic mood is established by a sinuous piano introduction that continues throughout, with the voice participating as a kind of obbligato line. The accompaniments are consistently idiomatic for the piano, but are never unnecessarily flashy, as were many of his solo piano works from this time. The accompaniment of each song is quite distinct, and generally maintains the same pattern throughout: for example, the first uses a barrel-organ accompaniment with octave melody notes, the second employs a slow melody (or sometimes countermelody) woven in the right hand among syncopated accompanying chords, and the third and fourth employ pervasive triplets and duples, respectively. The first song, LAnguille, is a valse-musette in which the piano and voice are closely doubled. The barrel-organ style (Example 35), in which the waltz-type accompaniment is shared between the hands and the melody is included with the right hand, is not new to Poulenc; it is the same as he had earlier used in Torador (1918) and the Valse (1919), and later used in a number 56
of other songs evoking a popular style.27 The piano is particularly effective at connecting the otherwise disjunct vocal phrases together. It is through-composed and ranges far afield tonally from the opening C major, but unity is achieved by the recurrence of the opening piano gesture (with a jarring cross-relation) and by the persistent sweeping waltz rhythm felt one beat per measure. The second song, Carte-Postale, is in the style of a popular song of the 1930s,28 with a more lyric intimacy achieved through the ever-present melody in the piano and the never-ceasing flow of eighth notes. The accompaniment here again could easily stand on its own without the voice. Intimacy is achieved through the flowing piano style and complete lack of dynamic contrast (marked p throughout).
These include Berceuse from Cinq pomes de Max Jacob (1931), Voyage Paris from Banalits (1940), and Le disparu (1946).
28
27
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The last two songs of the set, Avant le Cinma and 1904, are patter songs, both marked trs anim. The former is in a rapid 12/8 with leaps in both piano and voice that propel the music forward until a passage of sudden lyricism at Aussi mon Dieu faut-il avoir du got (Example 36). The last song also comes to an abrupt stop at the coda, suddenly trs lent after a full measure of rest. Throughout the Quatre pomes, the voice and piano are closely linked through near-constant doubling and effective use of connecting material in the piano accompaniment. While the language and Parisian nature of the poems are very similar to those of Cocardes, the popular music influence here results in longer vocal phrases and more consistent figuration compared to the earlier set. In a letter to his publisher, Poulenc placed these songs among Le Bestiaire, Cocardes, and Chansons Gaillardes as his best mlodies thus far.29 Poulencs third set of songs written in 1931, the Cinq pomes de Max Jacob, (FP 59), are also in a semi-popular vein. The poems are surrealistic in their fleeting succession of images, often caricatures taken from daily village life in Brittany, and their range of moods, from earthy and bitter to simple and ordinary.
29
58
Daniel believes that Jacobs juxtaposition of unrelated or remotely-related imagery represents a poetic counterpart of Poulencs additive, non-developmental style.30 Both the poetry and Poulencs music are above all descriptive,31 compared to what Daniel called Apollinaires evocative style (or later, luards psychological style).32 Poulencs uncharacteristic tendency toward text painting (for example, the use of bird song in Chanson bretonne, Example 37) results in a set of songs that do not display the same consistency as the Apollinaire settings.
Despite the poetic differences, there are a number of similarities with the other songs of 1931. The beginning of the third song, La petite servante, employs the same rapid octave figuration and tempo (both are designated as 152 beats per minute) as Le Prsent (Trois pomes de Louise Lalanne). The Jacob setting, however, is much more dramatic in its use of different textures and moods for various sections of the poem. The fourth, Berceuse, is set incongruously as another valse-musette with a barrel-organ style accompaniment. It is similar to LAnguille
30 31 32
Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 34. avant tout descriptives, Poulenc, Journal, 18. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 259.
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(even employing a cross-relation similar to that in the recurring piano figure; see Example 38), but with a much more tuneful melody, in the style of Edith Piaf.33 Poulenc described the irony:
Everything is topsy-turvy in the poem: the father is at mass, the mother in a tavern, a waltz rhythm takes the place of a cradle song. It is redolent of cider and the acrid smell of the thatched cottages.34
The first measures of the fifth song, Souric et Mouric, are very similar to the beginning of Le Prsent, using the same contour and modal mixture of major and minor third in the vocal motive and similarly punctuating piano octave chords. Despite many similarities with other songs from this time, the Jacob settings generally use a wider range of figurations than the Apollinaire settings in attempting to depict the images of the poetry and reflect its frequent sarcasm and irony. Ironically, the effect of this overtly programmatic writing is similar to the principle of adjacent contrasts used so much in the abstract piano works. Poulenc further explored the poetry of Max Jacob in his cantate profane, Le bal masqu (FP 60, 1932), for baritone and a chamber ensemble that prominently included piano. Poulenc transcribed two movements for piano solo: the Intermde, and the final movement, Caprice. These are particularly interesting to examine in light of the fact that they are hybrid works, with
33 34
Well-known chanteuse to whom he dedicated his final Improvisation, Hommage Edith Piaf, in 1959. Poulenc, Diary, 29.
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parts conceived programmatically with a vocal line and other parts strictly instrumental and transcribed for the piano. Though the pieces are transcriptions instead of originally piano solo works, the piano plays such a prominent role in the original instrumentation that Poulencs transcription is not much different from the original piano part in the ensemble. Further, most motives and figurations are shared in the original instrumentation between the piano and other instruments; they are very pianistic and seem to have been worked out at the piano. For example, in the passage shown in Example 39, the two hands alternate between black and white keys in very pianistic manner.
Like the Apollinaire and Max Jacob sets from 1931, the music shows a popular music influence. The Caprice is built sectionally, beginning with an extended instrumental-only passage, marked frntique, that consists of a series of recurring themes with colorful, constantlychanging instrumentation. The opening theme resembles a catchy dance hall tune, but it is written at a dizzying tempo, as if to underscore the surrealist images of Jacobs poetry. Despite the flashiness, the patterns always seem to lie well in the pianists hands (see Example 40). More dance hall influence is seen at rehearsal 68, where the slower tempo and rhythm of a tango suddenly appears. The final section, the only passage that originally included the singer, retains a popular flair but is reflective of the rather violent poetic images. This work and the Cinq pomes (above) establish a distinct Max Jacob style for Poulenc: infused with popular music influence, but with a biting, sarcastic quality and without any hint of the nostalgia of his Apollinaire style.
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193236: Virtuosic Piano Works Poulenc did not write any more songs during the next three years. Daniel speculates that he may have been engaged in a period of self-analysis, during which time he fell back upon forms that he found innately easier to write.35 This may explain the predominance of piano works in the years 193234, many of which were rather artificial and overly pianistic. Many of them are short, individual pieces that Poulenc wrote under pressure from his publisher, Jacques Lerolle,36 who was anxious to sell his music; therefore, Poulenc may not have given these works much effort. This period of self-analysis was eventually proven worthwhile, for the mature Poulenc style was to emerge out of it, beginning in 1935. Some hints of this more serious style have already been observed (see Hier, above), and a few more may be found even in the facile piano works of these intervening years.
35 36
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Returning to the happier semi-popular vein of the Apollinaire songs, Poulencs Valseimprovisation sur le nom de Bach (FP 62, 1932) was a scandalous inclusion in a volume entitled Hommage J. S. Bach comprised of mostly serious works by the composers Roussel, Casella, Malipiero, and Honegger.37 It uses a motive based on Bachs name (spelled musically as Bb-A-CB-natural) to launch a valse-musette that Keith Daniel deemed unusual and critically unsuccessful.38 The incongruously light-hearted style of Poulencs homage alongside the more serious attempts of the other contributors (which included preludes, fugues, and a ricercare), no doubt explains the critical disapproval of Poulencs effort. Absent this context, however, the work stands as a fine example of Poulencs style and compositional procedures. The piano writing in the Valse is considerably chromatic, yet manages to retain the popular flavor struck at the outset. Inspired by the great master of counterpoint, Poulenc chose to subject Bachs name to a variety of motivic manipulations, including use of the B-A-C-H theme in retrograde (Example 41).39 Despite these highly uncharacteristic procedures, Poulencs style is nevertheless evident throughout.
The tempo indication of the Valse, in a rare departure from his usual insistence on strictness of tempo once it is set, directs the performer to begin a little under tempo at the beginning and then
37 38 39
Schmidt cites the use of the B-A-C-H motive in retrograde and in simultaneities in the coda as atypical; Entrancing, 198.
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speed up progressively to the end.40 This direction accords with the popular nature of the piece, but is not to be found among the songs, which frequently admonish: surtout, sans ralentir or sans nuances et strictement au mme mouvement.41 The valse-musette texture is most closely related to that of LAnguille (Quatre pomes dApollinaire), with its sinuous right-hand melody sounded in octaves against a barrel-organ style accompaniment split between the hands. In the song, the left-hand bass notes are marked sans pdale and trs sec et ponctu, with indications for the melody in the right hand of the piano: le chant li and avec douceur. While these same indications are not specified in the Valse, the writing is clearly analogous and care should be taken by the performer to apply the indications there as well. The meticulous markings in his songs, compared to those in his piano works, are further indication of the relative importance he attached to the two genres. Compared to the songs, which most often contain a single style throughout, the Valse is an admixture of various styles, yet it is in various interjections and interpolations that we can hear snatches that seem to be borrowed from his song styles. For example, two eight-measure phrases in the Valse (the first of which is shown in Example 42) are surprisingly diatonic and lyrical within the more chromatic context; this is similar to the abrupt lyricism of the last vocal phrase of Avant le
40
Score indication: commencer un peu au dessous du mouvement puis presser progressivement jusqu la Score indications from LAnguille and Carte-Postale from Quatre pomes dApollinaire.
fin.
41
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Cinma (see Example 36, above). Likewise, the melody in mm107112 of the Valse is strikingly similar to the melodic line of LAnguille at the text Tout ce que nous ferons Dimanche. The brusqueness of the coda of the Valse is not new to this period, however; enigmatic endings were a trademark of Poulencs, dating from his earliest compositions, and he used this technique throughout his life in song and piano works alike. Poulencs fifteen Improvisations were composed over a period of twenty-eight years, but were published incrementally in collections beginning with the first six in 1933. He considered these to be among his better piano works, saying, I love very much my two collections of Improvisations.42 Poulenc was actually very skilled at improvisations, and would often sit at the piano during social occasions and improvise for the entertainment of the guests. Two later works, Les soires de Nazelles and LHistoire du Babar, both had their roots in sketches improvised for the delight of others. It should not be surprising, then, that each of these Improvisations has a very distinct character, often borrowing from styles of well-known composers, such as Debussy, Schubert, Prokofiev, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Schumann.43 The improvisations are fresh and brief, uncluttered and simple; they possess the spontaneity associated with improvisation at the keyboard.44 Many employ a ternary form, typically with the B section strongly contrasting with the A. Used extensively in the second period piano works, this form is found with much less frequency among the mlodies, which tended to follow the flow of the poetry instead of imposing an arbitrary musical form. Thus, in the piano works, there is much greater contrast between major sections than
42 43 44
Jaime beaucoup mes deux recueils dImprovisations, Poulenc, Entretiens, 35. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 17982. Ibid., 179.
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in the songs, which more often ended up in the same style throughout or in a phrase-by-phrase progression of pianistic figures. The first Improvisation is an example of such a ternary procedure. The nervous, rapid figurations in the A section are voiced in a single line that is split between the hands for convenient execution. This is followed by a more lyrical, chordal second theme beginning in m18, with a return to the A material following in m42. The second Improvisation begins simply, reminiscent of a Schubert waltz or piece from Schumanns Album for the Young, but as it develops, the harmonic language becomes richer, employing frequent seventh chords, particularly Bb minor sevenths (Example 43).
The Prokofiev-like march style of the third is similar to passages of the second Novelette and Madrigal from Chansons gaillardes. Its opening melody, in fact, exactly mirrors the contour of those discussed above (see Example 26 and Example 27, above), but the sharp, dry quality soon cedes to a more lyrical section beginning in m7. The melodic contours in mm1112 and 1718 (chromatic descents followed by large leap up to an accented appoggiatura on the tonic note) are exactly the same as used in numerous passages of the first Nocturne. This middle section also uses rich tertian extensions supporting a particularly ingratiating melody. The march-like material returns at m43 to complete the ternary form.
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The fourth again employs figuration split between the hands to facilitate execution of what is the most pianistic improvisation of the set.45 The fifth is another exercise in constant sixteenth note motion, with syncopated chords or single notes filling in the rhythmic gaps of the highly chromatic melodic line. Its pervasive use of a rhythmic motive (eighth, sixteenth, sixteenth) is used gracefully to achieve a pleasant melodic contour with hints of a popular flavor. The sixth Improvisation again shares the same character as the second Novelettes march-like middle section, and also with the third movement of the Concerto for Two Pianos (FP 61, 1932), written just months before. Analogous passages abound: mm2530 corresponds to mm4548 of the Novelette and mm4445 of the concerto, and mm58 corresponds to mm4144 of the Novelette and mm40 43 of the concerto (compare Example 44, Example 45, and Example 46).
The tuneful, seventh Improvisation, written a year after the first six, recalls the first Novelette and first Nocturne in its gentle and peaceful use of C major. The buildup to a climax
45
Ibid., 180.
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through mm2530 uses the same kind of harmonic turbulence as mm4451 of the Nocturne. It returns to its opening subject at m34 and ends on a non-functional dominant C9 chord. In general, there is little influence of his vocal style of writing on these first seven Improvisations. Each is a remarkably well-developed miniature drawing from a wide range of influences and styles, but also drawing on certain established techniques and figurations. The remaining eight improvisations, written between 1934 and 1959, will be discussed below. The next collection, Villageoises (FP 65, 1933), which Poulenc subtitled, Petites Pices Enfantines, is delightful and quite straightforward. However, even in this intentionally accessible style, two interesting features should be mentioned. The third piece, Rustique, is in a fast, but lyrical, 4/4 meter in Bb major. In a passage beginning at m11, the theme is stated consecutively in Ab major, B major, and D major, before finally arriving at an F dominant-seventh chord (Example 47). The direct transposition of themes up by the interval of a minor third is one of Poulencs favorite means of building harmonic tension from this time on. The fifth piece, Petite Ronde, is notable for its sparse texture: a solo melodic line in the first eight measures, then over a drone bass octave for the next eight, then stated in bare octaves. The simplicity of textures, harmonies, and forms (occasionally sprinkled with wrong-note dissonance, as in the first, Valse Tyrolienne, 68
m31) hearkens back to his first period works, but may be indicative that Poulenc was looking for a greater economy of means, one that he would begin to discover just two years later in his third period. The final piano work from 1933 is Feuillets dAlbum (FP 68). The set has a strange mixture of titles (Ariette, Rve, and Gigue) that seems to combine baroque keyboard suites and nineteenth-century character pieces. While the first piece opens with an uncharacteristic canonic device (which he was to use in the Cinq Pomes dluard, 1935, below) and the harmonies of the second are remarkably non-functional, the set as a whole is otherwise rather nondescript. The year 1934 was a prolific one for Poulenc, during which time he wrote only one set of songs, Huit chansons polonaises (FP 69), but wrote thirteen piano works and little else. The piano works include the eighth, ninth, and tenth Improvisations, a number of Nocturnes, two Intermezzi, and a number of individual works. For all the compositional activity, however, viewed as a whole, the results from this year are probably the least imaginative and innovative works of his career. It should not be surprising, then, that there are many passages that seem derivative of other recent attempts. His creative ambitions, as it turns out, were only in hibernation, preparing for renewed emergence in the following year. 69
The most interesting work from 1934 is the Huit chansons polonaises. He composed these in the same manner as Ravel did his Cinq mlodies grecques: by writing accompaniments to preexisting melodies and texts. Poulenc wrote that he was fully cognizant of Ravels precedent and dreaded the ghost of an Athenian Chopin.46 The piano writing in this set is notably different from the previous song sets three years earlier. This may be due to the amount of time that had elapsed since, but is more likely due to a forced new compositional approach. Instead of beginning the compositional process of the songs with a careful attention to prosody, Poulenc was confronted with pre-existing melodies and had nothing else to do but improvise an accompaniment.47 That this process was not quite as simple as he stated is evidenced by the fact that he worked on them over a span of four months, January through April of that year. Of prime importance to this study are the brief connective pieces (introductions, interludes, and postludes) as well as the way he harmonized the vocal line. According to Daniel, there are two stylistic advances in this set. First, the piano parts show a noticeable improvement in technique, appropriateness, and interaction with the vocal line, over his mlodies of 193132; this is demonstrated most clearly in the introduction to the first song and the fifth and sixth songs.48 There are interesting contrapuntal lines, such as the chromatic tenor line in the third song, and creative turns of harmony, such as the passage in mm916 of the fifth, with its indolence that is predictive of Violon from Fianailles pour rire (1939). The other innovation occurs in the last piece: Poulencs self-assuredness writing in a strongly dissonant, chromatic idiom; here the style seems perfectly natural and not labored.49
46 47 48 49
Poulenc, Journal, 19. Aprs tout, y avait-il autre chose faire qu improviser un accompagnement? ibid. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 3536. Ibid.
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The texture of this final song is quite sparse, like the Petite Ronde from Villageoises, but unlike the primarily diatonic melody of the latter, the chromatic lines in Jezioro are profoundly expressive of the text. Both the mood and the use of only a single piano staff in the accompaniment are reminiscent of Ravels son me. Because of the careful counterpoint of the final piece, the melodic line must remain above the countermelody in the piano, and so this set should not be sung by men in octave transposition. It was, presumably, the Polish language and melodiesnot a condemnation of their qualitythat prompted Bernac to omit this set from his list of concert songs.50 This set signaled an expansion of technique and a deepening of seriousness, without which the Cinq pomes de Paul luard (1935), the other significant solo vocal collection of the period, would not have been possible.51 It is notable that the greatest stylistic innovations in 1934 occurred in the only vocal work of the year, leading the way to his mlodies of 1935 and after, and that the least interesting output of this year were the piano works, composition of which fell off sharply beginning in 1935. The Nocturnes written during this yearthe fourth through the eighthare of varying quality. Of the five, four were given programmatic titles. The fourth, Bal fantme, a haunting Chopin-like mazurka, dates from March of 1934 and was clearly inspired by his simultaneous work on the Huit chansons polonaises. The form and rhythmic quality are those of Chopin, but the rich chromatic harmonies are purely Poulenc. The indolent figure at m26 is very similar to that used later in Violon. The sixth Nocturne features some interesting chromatic figuration, especially in
50 51
71
the middle of the piece, but the musical material is not sufficient to sustain the work for its entire duration, and the piece is not well integrated overall. For the remaining works of this period, Poulenc seemed to fall back on his earlier, more comfortable idioms. The scampering, minor mode of the eighth Improvisation is directly related to that of Madrigal from Chansons gaillardes (192526) and others already mentioned. Fast tempos with rapid sixteenth notes abound: Presto possibile (the ninth Improvisation and the Presto in Bb), Presto con fuoco (first Intermezzo), and Prestissimo molto staccato (Humoresque). The harmonic side-slipping that is so typical of his second period is evident in abundance, particularly direct modulation by the restatement of a phrase up a minor third (for examples, see Humoresque, mm4960 and numerous passages in the first Intermezzo). Harmonic interest in lyrical antecedent-consequent phrase pairs is also created by an escape to a new tonality followed by a side-slipped return to the tonic. In a phrase of the Presto in Bb exactly analogous to one from the 1928 Toccata (Example 30, above), Poulenc ends the antecedent phrase in the lowered sub-mediant, but deftly manages to return to the tonic by the end of the consequent phrase (Example 48). This presence of a chromatically sculpted melodic phrase in the Presto stands out by way of contrast with the immediately surrounding measures, which consist entirely of dazzling figuration.
The example above is successful because it contains an interior balance (the use of antecedent/consequent phrases) and employs brilliant figuration while avoiding banality. However, 72
overall these pieces are less successful, not for a complete lack of melodic interest of the kind we have come to expect from Poulenc, but rather because many of the contrasting phrases are not sufficiently balanced or integrated. Forms that are constructed using only a succession of contrasting phrases are not always capable of sustaining musical interest for these longer pieces. An example of a passage that attempts at contrast, but instead seems strangely dissociated from the surrounding phrases, can be found in the second Intermezzo (Example 49). Instead of
using his trademark elevation of harmony by the interval of a minor third, the relationship between measures nine and ten is only a half-step. The harmonies follow the circle of fifths from E to A, D and G, and then return to the home key again by the use of a half-step. This is the same procedure of a harmonic progression leaping out of the key (most often by the interval of a third), then turning a corner and returning, all within four measures. However, this half-step relationship provides no common tones to ease the modulation, and instead of sounding fresh and surprising, seems to stand out from its context. An example of a successful piano work from 1934 is the Badinage (banter, jesting talk), a pleasant trifle and the epitome of the lightness of his second period works. Its clear, transparent texture is dominated by pleasant melodic lines and a strongly functional bass. The melodic contours and frequent shifts of tonality are so typical of this period that they seem nearly formulaic, yet somehow still enticing. The playful quality is emphasized by the brief coda: following an A minor-ninth chord (functionally ii9), the harmonic motion is interrupted by an unrelated chromatic 73
figure, before concluding with a final cadence (D major-ninth to G major + M7). The identical chords and procedure were also used for the lightweight coda to the Humoresque (compare Example 50 and Example 51). This frequent repetition of previously-used formulas and patterns indicates that Poulencs creativity and innovation during this time had waned considerably.
74
While Poulenc was to discover a new, more serious style in the early part of 1935, two piano works from after that time stylistically belong to his second period of piano works. The first, Suite franaise (FP 80, 1935), like the song A sa guitare (FP 79, 1935), was derived from incidental music to the play, Margot, and was originally written for chamber ensemble. The suite is based on themes by the sixteenth-century French composer, Claude Gervaise, making it neoclassical in the same way that Stravinskys Pulcinella suite was based on themes by Pergolesi. Poulenc frequently uses modes to suggest an earlier style, but other Poulencian signatures abound, however, in the frequent use of seventh chords, occasional wrong-note dissonance, and the establishment, then disruption, of predictable metric patterns. Of the seven movements, the first and fifth seem closest to his piano style; the opening of the first bears a strong resemblance to the opening of the Badinageboth in G major employing frequent major ninth intervals (Example 52 and Example 53).
75
The most extensive work of the second period, however, is Les soires de Nazelles (FP 84), considered by Daniel to be the epitome of inconsequential salon music.52 It is written in the quintessential pianistic style of his second period, with its roots in improvisation and highly pianistic figuration. Poulencs work on it spanned seven years, from 1930 to 1936, during which nearly half of his entire piano output was written. Because the original 1930 sketches have not survived, it is impossible to tell authoritatively what features date from the early sketches, and what were added in the process of revising. However, the work is such a composite of various styles that certain features clearly belong to the earlier and others to the later. The genesis of the work is described by Poulenc in the preface:
The variations that form the center of this work were improvised at Nazelles during long country soires when the composer played portraits with some friends grouped around the piano. We hope that today, presented between a preamble and a finale, they will have the power to evoke this game played in a salon in the Touraine, as a window open to the night.53
Poulenc actually first wrote about the piece in an October 1930 letter, describing a little folly in the spirit of Couperins Folies franaises. Title: Le Carnaval de Nazelles. It consists of a series of short, linked pieces inspired by some neighbors but given (mostly) abstract titles.54 The friends depicted in the portraits are unidentified except for the dedicatee, his Tante Linard, who is portrayed in the eighth variation, Lalerte vieillesse; he later confessed that the
52 53
Ibid., 186.
Les variations qui forment le centre de cette uvre ont t improvises Nazelles au cours de longues soires de campagne o lauteur jouait aux portraits avec des amis groups autour de son piano. Nous esprons aujourdhui que, prsentes entre un Prambule et un Final, elles auront le pouvoir dvoquer ce jeu dans le cadre dun salon tourangeau, une fentre ouverte sur la nuit, Poulenc, preface to Soires de Nazelles. une petite folie dans lesprit des Folies franaises de Couperin. Titre: Le Carnaval de Nazelles. Il sagit dune srie de courtes pices enchanes inspires par des voisins mais pourvues (la plupart) dun titre abstrait, Poulenc, letter to Marie-Laure de Noailles, [October 1, 1930]; Correspondance (Chimnes), 327. Poulenc further gives the projected titles and order of movements: Le contentement de soi, La joie de vivre, Linstinct, La suite dans les ides, Le comble de la distinction, Le charme voulu, Les points des suspension, Romance, Frissons, Nerfs, Soupirs, and Lalerte vieillesse, preceded by an Overture and followed by a Final. Since no early sketches survive, it is impossible to tell exactly how these movements align with the final version, since several movement names were changed.
54
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first and last sections were intended as a self-portrait. He also spoke of the wealth of associations with his childhood:
It sings of the banks of the Marne, dear to my childhood: Joinville with its open-air cafs, its frites, its phonos-volubilis, its boats of amorous couples; Campigny and its Island of Love, where I loved to stroll with Raymond Radiguet; and finally, Nogent, where I spent all of my childhood.55
The set begins with a Prambule, followed immediately by a Cadence written in the fantasylike harpsichord style of Couperin, then eight character variations, and ends with another Cadence and the Final. In the final performing edition, Poulenc recommends omitting variations four through six, thus omitting what are indeed the weakest variations and shortening the work considerably. Still, the work is stylistically disconcerting, combining, as it does, eighteenth-century harpsichord figuration, nineteenth-century romantic character piece techniques and harmonies, and Poulencs own signature stylemost evident in the outer movements. In a rare departure for Poulenc, he expressly indicates the use of rubato: in the Prambule ( peine rubato), the first variation (Commencer trs au-dessous du mouvement et exagrment rubato jusqu A), and again in the seventh variation (rubato). If the use of rubato is intended to convey a feeling of improvisation, it is notable that he did not indicate this in his set of Improvisations, which are marked with his much more frequent indications, sans ralentir and surtout sans ralentir. Instead, the relative freedom of tempo that Poulenc permits in this set must be intended to give the effect of the listener hearing a very private performance through a window opened to the night. Many of the character variations seem to borrow from works written earlier in his second period: the first in his scampering minor-mode style of Madrigal or the second Novelette; the
Jy chante les bords de la Marne, cher mon enfance: Joinville avec ses guinguettes, ses frites, ses phonosvolubilis, ses barques pleines damoureux; Campigny et son le dAmour, o jaimais flner avec Raymond Radiguet; Nogent, enfin, o sest passe toute mon enfance, Poulenc, Mes Matres, 526.
55
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third, La dsinvolture et la discrtion, reminiscent of the happy-go-lucky style of La belle jeunesse as well as that of the Humoresque (1934); and the fourth, La suite dans les ides, using stark double-dotted chords and harpsichord-like embellishments reminiscent of the Concert champtre and Hymne. The seventh variation, Le got du malheur, however, is in a starkly different style that borrows instead from his third period. Since this title is not among those listed by Poulenc from the original 1930 sketches, it is therefore likely that it was newly composed during his revisions in 1935 or 1936. The strong similarity between the first phrase of the variation and that of Rdeuse au front de verre, from Cinq pomes dluard (written early in 1935), would seem to confirm this. Both passages employ a prolongation of the exact same harmony (ambiguously either Bb minorninth or Gb major-eleven), essentially identical left-hand figures, the same repeated chords in the right hand, and a melody outlining the same few pitches (see Example 54 and Example 55).
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The score indications of the seventh variation, such as lent et mlancolique, le chant doucement en dehors, and doux et clair (lharmonie trs estompe) were last commonly used in the first period, and would become important parts of his third period style. Unlike many of the other movements, the seriousness of the style of this movement demands that rubato not be used, in accordance with Poulencs demands for other pieces in this style. From 1935 to 1939, Poulenc wrote very little piano music, turning his focus instead to mlodies and choral music. He never again produced such an abundance of solo piano music.
79
The three years prior to 1935 seem to have been a stagnant compositional period for Poulenc. This is indicated by the abundance of facile piano works, the dearth of vocal works, and the lack of any real stylistic innovation in any genre. However, a series of three events of profound importance combined to rejuvenate his compositional development and spurred him to new and renewed genres. The first significant event was the formation of a recital-duo with baritone Pierre Bernac, the inaugural concert of which was April 3, 1935.1 The two had partnered together for the premiere of Chansons gaillardes in 1926, but did not collaborate again until the summer of 1934, when they gave a concert of Debussy songs in Salzburg. Immediately after the concert, they decided to form a recital partnership:
After the concert, we decided to collaborate in a regular fashion and to create, in short, a team similar to those that perform violin-piano sonatas, with the same concern for balance 2 and stylistic preparation going into our interpretation of vocal music.
This partnership lasted for the next twenty-five years, during which time Poulenc wrote about 90 songs especially for their recitals together.3 Poulenc said that it was through accompanying Bernac that he learned about song writing, saying:
All of the evolution that took place in my mlodies was due to Bernac. Just as Vies had revealed to me certain secrets of pianistic writing, Bernac showed me the possibilities of singing, and since singing is my greatest love, I need say no more as proof of my happiness during these years of collaboration.4
1 2 3 4
Schmidt, Entrancing, 208. Bernac, quoted in Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 36. Bernac, Francis Poulenc, 27. Poulenc, quoted in Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 37.
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As Poulenc came to know Bernacs unique voice better, he could tailor phrases according to Bernacs specific abilities, and he, in turn, provided trusted and immediate advice to Poulenc about works newly completed or in progress. Poulenc wrote in his Journal of the difficult prosody of a phrase in Tu vois le feu du soir:
I hesitated a lot over the prosody of lt qui la couvre de fruits. The syllable t, very closed, is in general rather difficult to pronounce on a high note. This was, however, my first version to which, after many experiments, I returned, in agreement with Bernac.5
On another occasion, Poulenc played some songs he had just written for Bernac, to poems of Jean Cocteau. Sensing his disappointment in them, Poulenc leapt to his feet and gleefully tossed the manuscript into the fireplace, promising him a much better set instead. The promised set turned out to be the masterful Tel jour, telle nuit.6 The recitals became important times for Poulenc and Bernac to experiment with the ordering of songs, both within recital groupings, and the flow of the entire recital. Through these trials Poulenc came to learn how best to pair and group songs in a manner calculated to show them both in the most favourable light. It is all a question of the hanging, as essential in music as in painting.7 These issues were of utmost importance in the cycles, but also for some songs published separately or in pairsthat were intended since their conception to be grouped together in recital. It was through this process that Poulenc developed what he called tremplin, or springboard, songs: generally fast, sometimes quite violent or troubled, songs that stood in the greatest possible contrast to those preceding and following, which were often slower and lyrical. The recital partnership with Bernac led directly to the second event of supreme importance in Poulencs development: Bernacs vocal style prompted me to seek, quite naturally, a lyric poet.
5 6 7
Poulenc, Diary, 47. Bernac, Francis Poulenc, 98. Poulenc, Diary, 79.
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I immediately thought of Paul luard.8 Poulenc wrote his first luard settings, the Cinq pomes dluard, in 1935 for the duos inaugural recital, followed by Tel jour, telle nuit, in 1937. Poulenc recalled his first encounter with the poetry of luard:
I actually admired luard since the day I met him, in 1917,9 at Adrienne Monniers bookstore on the rue de lOdon. I have to admit it: I had at once a weakness for luard.10
Unlike Breton and Aragon, whom he met on the same occasion, luard held special interest for Poulenc as the only surrealist who could tolerate music.11 luard had not yet developed his surrealist techniques when Poulenc first met him, however, and the volumes from which Poulenc drew the poems for his first sets, toute preuve, and Les Yeux fertiles, were not published until 1930 and 1936, respectively.12 Poulenc seems to have contemplated musical settings of luards poetry before 1935, often at the urging of Auric,13 but wasnt able to find the appropriate style for it: All of his work is musical vibration. But how could I tackle such poems as a composer?14 After Poulenc finally discovered the musical key to setting his poetry, he was delighted that at last I had found a lyric poet, a poet of love, whether it be human love, or love of liberty.15 In all, Poulenc was to write thirty-four songs and several important choral works to the poetry of luard.
8 9
Poulenc, whose memory for exact dates was not always perfect, gave the date as 1916 in his interview with Stphane Audel in 1963; Poulenc, Moi et mes amis, 13132. Jadmirais, en effet, luard depuis le jour o je lai connu, en 1917, chez Adrienne Monnier, dans sa librairie de la rue de lOdon Dois-je lavouer: jeus de suite un faible pour luard, Poulenc, Entretiens, 93.
11 12 13 14 10
le seul surraliste qui tolrt la musique, ibid., 93. Schmidt, Catalogue, 236 and 265. Bernac, Francis Poulenc, 93.
Toute son uvre est vibration musicale. Mais comment aborder ses pomes en tant que compositeur? Poulenc, Entretiens, 93. Enfin, javais trouv un pote lyrique, un pote de lamour, quil sagisse de lamour humain, ou de celui de la libert, ibid., 94.
15
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The third important event in Poulencs life occurred in August 1936, while on a working vacation in Uzerche:
I asked [Bernac] to drive me in his car to Rocamadour, of which I had often heard my father speak. I had just learned, a day or two before, of the tragic death of my colleague Pierre-Octave Ferroud. The atrocious extinction of this musician so full of vigour had left me stupefied. Pondering on the fragility of our human frame, the life of the spirit attracted me anew. Rocamadour led me back to the faith of my childhood. This sanctuary, certainly the most ancient in France, had everything to subjugate me. Clinging in full sunlight to a vertiginous craggy rock, Rocamadour is a place of extraordinary peace, accentuated by the very limited number of tourists. With a courtyard in front, pink with oleanders in tubs, a very simple chapel, half hollowed into the rock, shelters a miraculous figure of the Virgin, carved, according to tradition, in black wood by Saint Amadour, the little Zacchaeus of the gospel who had to climb a tree to see the Christ. The evening of this same visit to Rocamadour, I began my Litanies la Vierge Noire for womens voices and organ. In this work I have tried to express the feeling of peasant devotion which had so strongly impressed me in that lofty place.16
This religious awakening had a profound effect upon Poulencs musical style. The most immediate and significant musical result was a large body of religious choral music, beginning with his Litanies la vierge noire (FP 82, 1936), and spanning the entire last twenty-five years of his life. Daniel asserts that it was his renewed religious fervor in the choral music of 1936 that paved the way for his mature luard settings.17 The style required by a cappella voices was quite different from his primarily melodicharmonic interest seen in most of his works until this time. In writing for three, four, six, or eight independent voices, Poulenc may have drawn on his early tutoring by Koechlin in his few composition lessons, particularly some highly chromatic exercises in which he harmonized chorale tunes. A more recent influence, however, was his study and delight in the polyphonic marvels of
16 17
Poulenc, quoted in Bernac, Francis Poulenc, 28-29. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 264.
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some motets of Monteverdi.18 Also contrasting with his second period style, the importance and functionality of the bass line is much diminished. The effect of this religious awakening was not limited to the choral music, however, for the gentle, tender mood, characteristic harmonies, and oscillating chord patterns would make their way into other genres in which he composed after 1936.19 During 1935 to 1939this period of compositional discovery and renewalPoulenc wrote very little piano music. Instead, mlodies, a genre he mostly neglected in the previous three years, and choral works were of greatest interest to him. It is during this time that he developed his true serious style. Toward an luard style His first luard settings were the Cinq pomes de Paul luard (FP 77, 1935). There is some discrepancy in the literature about when Poulenc began these songs. Schmidt states: In 1935 Poulenc came across A toute preuve (1930), a small collection of poems printed on pink paper. Encouraged by Auric, he chose five to set to music20 However, in July 1931, in the midst of a renewed interest in mlodies, Poulenc mentioned a planned group of songs entitled, 5 Pomes dluard,21 but it is not known whether these were the same poems he later set. Since no further mention of these projected settings was made again until 1935, we may surmise that Poulenc may have chosen the poems for the set in 1931, but did not proceed with their composition until the planned recital with Bernac.
18 19 20 21
merveilles polyphoniques, Poulenc, Entretiens, 98. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 41. Schmidt, Entrancing, 215. Letter to Marie-Blanche de Polignac, [July, 1931]; Correspondance (Chimnes), 341.
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Poulenc felt that the poetry of luard required a new musical language from what he had been accustomed. He wrote in his Journal:
Groping around in this work. Key turned in a lock. Attempt at giving the piano the maximum with the minimum of means. Much thought in composing these mlodies to an exhibition of drawings by Matisse for a book of Mallarm, where one sees the same drawing in pencil, full of hatching, of repetitions and the final attempt having retained nothing but the most essential, in a single stroke of the pen Its the piano reduced to its essence, thats all I have sought for years the musical key to the poetry of luard.22
The Matisse drawings to which Poulenc referred were on exhibit in 1933; in viewing these drawings, he realized that his accompaniments had grown increasingly complex and were in competition with the vocal line. Matisses working method obviously struck a nerve with Poulenc, who realized that a less encumbered piano part for his mlodies was appropriate.23 Taken as a whole, the set is considerably more chromatic and employs a wider range of expression and figuration than the works from his second period. Still, evidence of Poulencs attempt at an economy of musical material can be found, beginning with the first measures of the first song, Peut-il se reposer (Example 56). The voice begins in unison with the bare piano
uvre de ttonnement. Clef tourne dans une serrure. Tentative pour faire rendre au piano le maximum avec le minimum de moyens. Beaucoup pens en composant ces mlodies une exposition de dessins de Matisse pour un livre de Mallarm, o lon voyait le mme dessin, au crayon, plein de hachures, de redites et lpreuve finale nayant retenu que lessential, dans un seul jet de plume Cest du piano dcant, voil tout Javais cherch, des annes, la clef musicale de la posie dluard, Poulenc, Journal, 1920.
23
22
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octaves, and in its second phrase establishes a brief canon with the pianos single line. While this texture is interrupted by a violent and dramatic middle section marked Subito allegro molto, the first sections figuration and tempo return for the last four measures of the song. Poulenc wrote that he regretted burning the draft of this song; otherwise, he could show critics that the simple texture had evolved from a complex one, just as in the exhibit of Matisse drawings.24 The extreme violence of the second song, Il la prend dans ses bras, stands in strong contrast to the relative peace of the first and third songs; it is his first true bridge song. Poulenc called it horribly difficult,25 because of its highly sectional progressions of figurations and sharp contrasts of dynamics, but it paves the way for later settings of luard poems that consist of a succession of images. Poulenc considered the third and fourth songs, Plume deau claire, and Rdeuse au front de verre, the best of the set, saying that in these songs, the musical key to the poetry of luard truly grinds in the lock for the first time.26 The third is only nine measures long; its near-constant sixteenth note motion and unified expression are the result of a single poetic image. The melodies, in both the voice and piano, are quite chromatic, but have a lyrical sweep that avoids harshness (see Example 57). For example, the ascending line at Fracheur voile de caresses is chromatic, but sweeps lyrically upward before resolving in a typical way with a 9-8 appoggiatura approached from below. Similarly, the piano writing is highly chromatic, but the bass note motion is quite functional, consisting predominantly of resolutions by a fifth. The first three measures of the vocal line consist entirely of pitches of an octatonic scale, as do all of the notes of the piano part in the third measure, apart from the use of the pitch G in the first beat. This usage is undoubtedly quite
24 25 26
Poulenc, Journal, 1920. Ibid., 20. la clef musicale de la posie dluard grince vraiment pour la premire fois dans la serrure, ibid.
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accidental, since, with only few exceptions, Poulenc studiously avoided the use of serialism or development based on pitch sets.27 In Rdeuse au front de verre, the harmonies are quite static, generally changing at most once per measure (see Example 55 in Chapter 4, above). There is pianistic support for the vocal line throughout using countermelodies, creating true chamber music with the piano and the voice as equal partners.28 The use of seventh and ninth chords shows that Poulenc did not abandon elements of his established style in his attempt at a new musical language. Rather, the rather static harmonies combine uniquely with suspended textures to create an intimate mood that simply does not exist in his piano works from the second period.29 The fifth song is evocative of a street at night in Paris, with its fast waltz-like 9/8 meter and chanson-style accompanimental figures. It is therefore closer to some of the settings of Apollinaire, except for the more sweeping chromatic lines, such as at pour dvtir la nuit (mm1213). The piano writing likewise goes beyond the language of Apollinaire in reaching a significant climax (Example 58) with chordal writing that resembles that of Rachmaninoff. The final measures, Mon
27 28
Richard Berry, Francis Poulencs Settings of Poems of Paul luard for Solo Voice and Piano: A Reflection of French Artistic Moods from 1920 to 1960 (D.M.A. doc., University of Missouri, Kansas City, 1985), 65.
29
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amour, ton amour, ton amour, ton amour, use wrong-note dissonances with intervals of minorninths; Berry believes these no longer carry a mocking tone, and sees this as evidence of Poulencs fully assimilated style.30 The present author, however, believes that these wrong-note intervals convey a sarcastic tone to the repetition of ton amour. This is indicative that Poulenc is continuing to draw upon earlier techniques for use alongside his newfound ones. The Cinq Pomes dluard show the direction Poulenc was to follow with his later luard settings, but the overall quality of the set is uneven. While some economies of musical material were noted above, in other places, Poulenc does not seem to have restrained himself in terms of texture, richness of figuration, or chromaticism. The lack of key signatures throughout, despite its strong chromaticism, testifies to the highly fluid harmonic language of the set. However, there are numerous examples of circuitous melodic resolutions, melodies that appear jagged or disjunct, but are actually quite lyrical because of the diatonic approach and resolution of the large leaps.31 While the second song does act as a bridge between the first and third, the ordering of the songs is
30 31
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not as carefully designed as in later sets; one hears five disparate songs instead of a unified whole. Daniel writes:
These are difficult melodies: the struggle that Poulenc underwent to turn that key is evident. Both the melodic lines and the accompaniments lack the simplicity and purity which we associate with his mature songs; there is a great deal of disjunct writing and chromaticism. These mlodies give a hint of the depth, power, and sensitivity that Poulenc was seeking in the song genre.32
Poulencs next settings of luard were not mlodies at all, but in fact the Sept chansons for mixed chorus (FP 81, 1936), based on five poems by luard and two by Apollinaire. They are notable for several reasons. First, the initial poem he set, Belle et ressemblante, was originally intended as a solo song, but Poulenc found that his piano accompaniment writing made the poem too heavy: One poem, Belle et ressemblante, literally bewitched me. I had first thought of writing a mlodie, but an accompaniment in the piano could only weigh it down. I then had the idea of writing it for a cappella voices, and that was the beginning of the Sept chansons.33 Therefore, it is clear that he had not yet found an appropriate style of piano writing to convey the expression of the poetry. Second, the Sept chansons are relevant to the present study because of his use of some devices in the songs from this work. Poulenc responded in similarly violent ways to the poetry at the beginning of Par une nuit nouvelle and in various songs, including Je nommerai ton front (Miroirs brlants, FP 98, 1939). There is also remarkable similarity between the delicate music at Un visage semblable tous les visages in the fifth movement and the music for Il est bien plus petit / Que le petit oiseau du bout des branches in Tu vois le feu du soir (also from Miroirs brlants). Finally, Belle et ressemblante is the first luard poem set by Poulenc that is truly a
32 33
Un pome, Belle et ressemblante, menvotait littralement Javais dabord pens en faire une mlodie, mais laccompagnement au piano ne pouvait que lalourdir. Jeus lide alors de le faire chanter a cappella et ce fut le dbut des Sept chansons, Poulenc, Entretiens, 99.
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litany of poetic images, with the recurring text, Un visage, providing poetic unity.34 Poulenc responded musically by changing the texture of the voices with each poetic image, just as he changed moods and figurations frequently in Il la prend dans ses bras (Cinq pomes, above). However, Poulencs eventual preferred solution to the difficulty of litanies of images was to provide unity of texture instead. For all these reasons, the choral Sept chansons are important for understanding Poulencs development of a serious, mature style. Poulencs efforts in setting the poetry of luard finally came to fruition in the masterful cycle Tel jour, telle nuit (FP 86, 1937) and the several luard works that followed. These songs display the truly mature Poulenc style with their controlled lyricism, their balance between voice and piano, their clear yet varied moods, and their interpretation of the luard poems.35 Bernac called them indisputably one of his greatest achievements in the domain of song, while the critic Roland Manuel compared them favorably with Winterreise and Dichterliebe.36 Throughout, musical decisions seem to be tied much more closely to the text than ever before. The nine songs are carefully ordered to create a truly cyclical work, using more subtlety of contrast than the simplistic slow/fast alternation in the Chansons gaillardes. Bernac writes:
Poulenc says, In my opinion a song in a cycle must have a colour and a special architecture. The value of each one depends on its place in the ensemble, on the song which precedes it and that which follows. In fact some of the songs are intended only to form a transition in order to heighten the effect of the following one. The first and the last are in the same key and in the same tempo, establishing the atmosphere of calm and serenity which imbues almost the whole of the cycle.37
The choral work that immediately followed, the Litanies la vierge noir (FP 82, 1936), for three-part womens chorus and organ, is another example of Poulencs interest in litanies.
35 36 37
34
Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 264. Bernac, Francis Poulenc, 97. Ibid., 9798.
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The first song, Bonne journe, uses the key of C major to evoke une joie bien calme.38 luards familiar device of a recurrent phrase appears with the three occurrences of Bonne journe, set each time to the same musical figure employing a raised fourth that seems to suggest optimism.39 The genius of the song is that while Poulenc maintains an accompanimental walking figure (Example 59), lending unity to the song, the musical effect of the pattern is able to change to supply the contrasts as needed by the poem. Steadiness of tempo is of the utmost importance to provide the unity that Poulenc desired; even the final chord, a poignant Bb over the modally ambiguous C chord lacking a third, is marked laissez doucement vibrer; strictement en mesure.
Poulenc, Journal, 22. Poulenc continues: Cest si rare, si merveilleux, une bonne journe. Les belles journes sont tellement plus banales. This device is reminiscent of Faur, whose music Poulenc avowedly detested. However, various authors have found more than a few instances of borrowing or influence from Faur, some of which may have been quite conscious. Poulenc also specifically mentions lunit de la Bonne Chanson as a model for his construction of the similar first and final songs of Tel jour, telle nuit; Journal, 2122.
39
38
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Example 60: Tel jour, telle nuit, Une ruine coquille vide, mm2429
The second song, Une ruine coquille vide, employs a layered piano texture throughout (Example 60). The prolonged bass notes (marked tenu), along with the pedals (Les deux pdales presque tout au long de cette mlodie), sustain the relatively slow harmonic rhythm, while short tenor lines and occasionally longer upper lines provide countermelodies to the vocal line. Finally, the eighth note composite rhythm is completed by the syncopated chords in the right hand (what Poulenc refers to as batteries); these must be played without accent, as they serve to suspend the harmonies and poetic atmosphere. The individual components of this layered texture (composite eighth-note rhythm, use of syncopated chords, occasional countermelodies) are not new, but they are here completely synthesized into an organic whole that entirely supports the mood of the text. This is a common characteristic of Poulencs most mature piano style. The fourth song, Une roulotte couverte en tuiles, like Plume deau claire, from Cinq Pomes, consists of only nine measures. In comparison to the earlier song, however, the text is declaimed in an essentially recitativo style, while the piano chords are sinuous and sinister. The sixth song, Une herbe pauvre, is quiet and slow, with quarter-note rhythm throughout in both voice and piano. The writing here, for the first time, seems influenced by his choral writing in several respects. The voicing of the chords in mm110 and mm1724 carefully preserves individual lines, even with the frequent voice crossings. They frequently lack strong bass functionality, but instead employ oscillating harmonies seen commonly in his choral music, 92
including the first movement of Sept chansons, 40 written only nine months earlier. In Example 61, three distinct harmonies are used in the pattern: 1, 2, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 1. In attempting to follow Matisses example in simplifying the piano writing, Poulenc looked to his choral writing for its distillation and purity of sound.
Example 61: Tel jour, telle nuit, Une herbe pauvre, mm16
By contrast, the seventh song, Je nai envie que de taimer, employs much more functional and directed harmonies. The trs allant et trs souple 12/8 meter and short countermelodies in the pianos tenor line bear the faintest marks of a popular music influence. The fact that these features never rise completely to the surface is an indication that Poulenc was able to incorporate them into his more mature style even after his encounter with the poetry of luard.41 The third, fifth, and eighth songs are all trampoline songs: generally much faster, less melodic, and sometimes quite violent, they come between slower, more lyrical songs. There is also a great deal of contrast within the songs, usually encompassing dynamics from pp to ff. The meter is not strict, but flexibly changes to accommodate the text throughout the songs. These elements imply that the declamation of the text is the driving force behind the music. The end of the fifth song, fff chords marked trs violent, is calculated to provide maximum contrast with the following song, marked pp, clair, doux et lent, and trs humble (Example 62). Likewise, the eighth song
40 41
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begins presto (trs violent) with sharp, dry, repeated chords in the piano marked trs sec et haletant. The second half of the song is much slower and doleful, but ends ff, in a style Poulenc in other places marked clatant (Example 63). The figuration in these measures recalls the walking figures of the first and prepares for the return of the same pattern in the following, final song.
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Nous avons fait la nuit is the longest song of the cycle, beginning in C minor but finishing in the sunny C major of the first song. The same walking, eighth-note rhythm of the first song provides flowing motion to support the voice, the lyricism of which is scarcely equaled in the vocal literature of the twentieth century.42 While the specific pianistic textures change approximately every two poetic lines, according to the needs of the text (m5: Je te soutiens; m9: Sillons profonds; m16: Je ris encore; m20: Des fous que tu respectes; etc.), the relentless eighth-note rhythm never flags until the last measures of the piano coda. The piano doubles the voice for the first fourteen measures, but beginning in m15, the piano is allowed more melodic independence from the voice. It begins a countermelody that, despite occasionally rejoining the vocal line, continues unbroken into the coda. This extended coda for the piano alone is Schumannesque in its cyclicality, reminiscent of Dichterliebe or Frauenliebe und -leben. Mirroring the ending of the first song, the final C chord here also includes Bb as the seventh. However, unlike in the first song, where the ambiguous tonality implied a potential dominant functionality, this time an Eb is supplied as the third of the chord to establish a minor-seventh harmony. Through such frequent use of this harmony during his third period, Poulenc has succeeding in establishing it as a stable harmony suggestive of tranquility and happiness, and as such is the perfect concluding harmony for this cycle. What makes Tel jour, telle nuit such a remarkable work is the carefully-crafted unifying elements of the cycle. Poulenc chose and ordered the poetry so that the expression of luards wonderful and varied poetry of love is heightened and enhanced by the music; there is therefore a clear accumulation of meaning, both poetic and musical, as the work progresses. The contrasts within and between songs support the overall conception of the cycle, showing that he had learned
42
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that even poems of violence have their proper and effective place. It is by their very presence that the love songs are made most effective.43 Keith Daniel asserts that Tel jour, telle nuit represents the full development of Poulencs vocabulary as a song writer. For the remainder of his career, Poulencs song style changed little.44 If his song style was to remain little changed, his piano style did not reflect this until three years later, in 1940, when the first hints of this maturity would be seen in a solo piano work.
Full maturity after Tel jour Following Tel jour, telle nuit until 1940, Poulenc focused almost exclusively on choral and song composition, writing twenty-five songs and three major choral works. However, in several ways, he seems to have changed his approach to mlodies. After his great success with the poetry of luard, though, it is surprising that only three of his next twenty-five songs were to poems by that poet. Instead, he returned to his other favorite poet, Apollinaire, and explored the poetry of a new poet, Louise de Vilmorin. While most of his recent songs had been conceived for a mans voice, he now desired to write songs that were more typically feminine.45 Finally, after the great achievement of a truly unified song cycle, this period is notable for his relative disinterest in grouped songs or cycles: from 1937 to 1948, there are only six published groups of three or more songs, compared with twenty-four individual or paired songs.
43 44 45
Berry, Francis Poulenc, 83. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 26667. Bernac, Francis Poulenc, 129.
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Poulenc said he found it very difficult to find gloriously feminine poetry,46 and he was very pleased to find it in the poetry of Louise de Vilmorin. Henri Hell, Poulencs first biographer, describes her poetry thusly:
Charm where veiled eroticism plays a part. Transparent, easy, readily precious and capricious like embroidery: beneath the lightness of its style this audacious poetry is not without seriousness. Its elegance barely disguises a melancholy which is never renounced. And the shadow of death seems at times to caress her. This game of words that would be called nonchalant and facile knows the essential truths: Desire, pleasure, melancholy and love. The whole adorned with romantic grace.47
These qualities evoked from Poulenc a more direct and emotional expression compared to the musical and textual complexity of his settings of luard and Apollinaire.48 Poulenc seems to have first encountered the poetry of Louise de Vilmorin at the home of his friend, Marie-Blanche de Polignac. After reading the poem Aux Officiers de la Garde Blanche, Poulenc wrote to Vilmorin and requested that she write additional poems for him to set to music; she responded with the poems, Le garon de Lige and Eau-de-vie! Au del! The result was Trois pomes de Louise de Vilmorin (FP 91, 1937). The set is uneven, but the poetry, playful and serious in turn, is enhanced by the variety and contrast of the music, from the unison piano sixteenths of the first (reminiscent of Le prsent, by another female poet, Marie Laurencin), to the fleeting lightness of the second, and the almost medieval austerity49 of the repeated sixteenths and bare octaves of the third (Example 64).
46 47 48 49
Cest si difficile de rencontrer des vers glorieusement fminins! Poulenc, Journal, 23. Henri Hell, quoted in Bernac, Francis Poulenc, 131. Keith Clifton, The Vilmorin Songs of Francis Poulenc, Journal of Singing 55, no. 3 (Jan.Feb. 1999): 11. Clifton, Vilmorin, 9.
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Example 64: Trois pomes de Louise de Vilmorin, Aux officiers de la garde blanche, mm14
The next song, Le portrait (FP 92, 1938), was published as a single song, but is rather peculiar for two reasons. The text, written by Colette, is a prose poem, and is the only one of its kind that Poulenc set to music. Also, its musical style and tempo indication, trs violent et emport, are both typical of an luard transitional song, although it was published individually. The clue to this apparent mystery is found in Poulencs Journal, where he explains that this song was conceived as part of a larger group of five songs for recitals with Bernac, consisting of: Le jardin dAnna and Allons plus vite (Deux pomes de Guillaume Apollinaire, FP 94, 1938), Le portrait, and Tu vois le feu du soir and Je nommerai ton front (Miroirs brlants, FP 98, 1938).50 The duo premiered this set on February 16, 1939, in this order.51 The transitional character of Le portrait, appropriately prepares for the beautiful tenderness of Tu vois le feu du soir, discussed below. The first two songs of this recital grouping mark Poulencs return to the poetry of Apollinaire, last set in the Quatre pomes of 1931. Poulenc found the musical settings of parts of each almost immediately: the lyrical conclusion and the few Spanish measures and the measure sur le boulevard de Grenelle.52 As was often his habit, Poulenc found he had to put these poems aside after his initial attempts so that he might return to them with a fresh perspective. The light and ironic poetry of Dans le jardin dAnna is highly sectional, and this is matched by the music as
50 51 52
Poulenc, Journal, 24. Concert program listing in ibid., 70. la conclusion lyrique et les quelques mesures espagnoles, ibid., 2425.
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well. Both Poulenc and Bernac admonish the performers that an inexorable tempo must be observed so that unity may be achieved despite the enumeration of images.53 The multitude of disparate phrases comprise a virtual encyclopedia of textures and styles used throughout his mlodies, including the light, leaping staccato opening, the meandering legato phrasing in mm710, the octave sixteenths in mm2933, the dry, declaimed style in mm3640, and the lyrical conclusion beginning at m62. Daniel cites several of these styles as evidence in support of Poulencs statement that this song was to have been a part of the Quatre pomes of 1931. The care that Poulenc took with the poetry of Allons plus vite demonstrates his love for the Paris that is so well evoked by Apollinaire. As Poulenc wrote, I have so often loitered at night in Paris that I think I know better than any other musician the rhythm of a felt slipper sliding along the pavement on a May evening.54 The music is most clearly a response to the poetry in its clarity (eighth-note motion in the trs calme tempo) and emotional content. The poetry and music alternate between lyrical expansiveness (marked mu et doucement potique) and the rather harsh reality (marked sec et un peu narquois). The music in both of these songs seems more closely related to his second period settings of Apollinaire than to his more recent luard style. The final two songs of this intended recital grouping are to poems of luard, his Miroirs brlants. The first of these is perhaps the most beautiful of all his songs, Tu vois le feu du soir. The refinement of the piano writing and the simplicity of the vocal line55 are evidence of the economy of means that Matisse inspired in Poulenc. Like many other poems of luard, it contains a litany of poetic images; Poulenc came to believe that this type of poem required an unadorned,
53 54 55
Ibid., 24; Bernac, Francis Poulenc, 64. Poulenc, Diary, 43. le raffinement de lcriture pianistique et la simplicit de la ligne vocale, Poulenc, Journal, 27.
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undisturbed flow of eighth-notes for continuity.56 He avoided monotony by allowing the harmonies to respond freely to the surrealist images evoked by the poem, resulting in an incredible richness of harmony and frequent modulations of key, far richer than any of his piano works. In both its steady pace and its richness of harmony it takes as its model the last song of Tel jour, telle nuit, Nous avons fait la nuit.57 This songs fluidity of key is strong evidence of another habit of Poulencs: when setting a poem, musical settings of isolated poetic lines often came to him over a period of time, which he dutifully notated in the key he thought of them. When it came time to link the phrases up, he never transposed the key in order to make [his] task easier at the expense of the poem.58 Consequently, it follows that [his] modulations sometimes pass through a mouse-hole.59 The abrupt enharmonic modulation arriving at the magical phrase Tu vois un bel enfant (Example 65) is certainly an example of this procedure. While this specific compositional technique belongs only to the mlodies, fluid tonality and abrupt modulations are common in Poulencs style, as we shall see in the Intermezzo in Ab.
56 57 58
je ne transpose jamais, pour rendre ma tche plus aise, le ton dans lequel jai trouv la musique dun vers, au hasard du pome, Poulenc, Journal, 51.
59
Il sen suit que mes modulations passent parfois par le trou dune souris, ibid.
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Poulenc spoke of a pianistic melody [in the accompaniments] that only a true legato style can reveal,60 and nowhere is this more in evidence than in Tu vois le feu du soir. While vocal doubling is still frequent in the right-hand of the piano, the melodies often diverge from each other. The piano melody, for example, is most often a stable line moving in quarter-notes (indicated with tenuto marks) while the vocal line often decorates the piano line in eighth-notes (seen above in Example 65). Other times the piano line takes up the true melody, leaving the vocal line free to a more declamatory style (seen in Example 66).
Two other songs of 1938 must be mentioned here. While both are slow songs, the differences of harmonic language between the two are notable in that they reflect two different personalities of his music: the purely Parisian, sometimes nostalgic, side; and the devout, religious side. La Grenouillre, to a poem by Apollinaire, is filled with rich extended-tertian chords that evoke the sunny warmth of Renoirs Le djeuner des canotiers. Poulenc frequently transposed geographic details in Apollinaire poems to those of his own experience; the nostalgic quality of the music is thus made personal, in that for Poulenc, it evokes the banks of the Marne so dear to my
60
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childhood. It is the bumping together of the boats that motivates the rhythm from beginning to end of this tenderly affecting song.61 The richness and yearning of the harmonies (marked trs las et mlancolique) suggests the same indolence that he would later find in another Apollinaire setting, Htel, from Banalits. Despite a similar tempo, the style and harmonic language of Priez pour paix (FP 95), Poulencs only religious text among his mlodies, is very different. He suggested that it was highly influenced by his first religious choral work, Litanies la vierge noir (FP 82, 1936), and this is confirmed by the oscillating harmonies (Example 67), careful voice leading in the accompaniment, and the sparseness and purity of its chordal accompaniment. The world of Paris is nowhere to be found in this song, for he called it a prayer to be spoken in a country church.62 Poulenc
61 62
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acknowledged these differences in musical language (All my religious music turns its back on my Parisian or suburban aesthetic.63), and the ease with which he switched between the two is another sign of his musical maturity. The first evidence in the piano works of this third-period maturity is found in the eighth Nocturne, written in December of 1938. It is fitting that after his successful experiments with cyclicality in the songs, that he would conclude this set of piano works with a final Nocturne, pour servir de coda au cycle, that bears the influence of both his luard and his choral writing. While Daniel finds here the same graceful, lyrical style as the first piece, the last piece is in fact considerably more refined and reserved than the more youthful first work, composed eight years earlier. The influence of his choral style is seen by the less functional bass line and the stricter voice-leading mirrored in the two hands. Poulenc indicates that the repeated chords should be treated in a similar way to those in his luard settings: Mettre beaucoup de pdales (le chant doucement en dehors, les batteries trs discrtes). The harmonies, while sometimes chromatic, maintain a purity and clarity that is part of his serious style (Example 68). The layering effect that he perfected in his luard mlodies (discussed above) can be seen in mm1724, along with the more functional, sustained bass. Just as the last song of Tel jour, telle nuit recalled the first song, the final measures of the eighth Nocturne employ the same chordal ending as the first. This modest, yet
63
Toute ma musique religieuse tourne le dos mon esthtique parisienne ou banlieusarde, Poulenc, Journal,
27.
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serious work for piano begins to show the influence of his third period maturity and could not have been written before his luard and choral works. Two songs from 1939 show that he could apply his more serious style equally to works of luard and Apollinaire. In the luard setting, Ce doux petit visage (FP 99), after an opening few measures of sonorities that are essentially non-functional and disconnected from any bass line, Poulencs layering effect is used with an abundance of minor-minor-seventh chords. He points out in his Journal a very specific left-hand fingering that he claimed he used often because it firmly balances the bass harmony through the changing of the pedal (Example 69).64 This detail of piano
writing provides further insight into the use of the pedal in Poulencs music. In the second song, Bleuet (FP 102), Apollinaires poem reflects the tragic loss of innocence of a young soldier in World War I. However, the lyricism, harmonic language, and layering effect from Poulencs luard settings effectively transpose the scenario to the present realities that young men of France faced in 1939. The lyrical melody of the final words, O douceur dautrefois, lenteur immmoriale! effectively summarizes the mood of the entire song, and in the brief postlude, a whiff of the Marseillaise is heard in the upper reaches of the piano. This work, as well as later
64
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Apollinaire settings such as Montparnasse, effectively marries the sustained lyricism of luards Tu vois le feu du soir with the melancholy associated with the Apollinaire songs.65 Two years after his first settings of Vilmorin, Poulenc set six of her poems in Fianailles pour rire (FP 101, 1939). This work is not a true cycle, but instead a carefully ordered set of individual songs, where the mood of each piece is established and songs ordered for maximum contrast and to enhance the poetry. Bernac notes that these charming and elegant poems are not comparable in richness and substance to the admirable poems of luard, and that the musical language of the set reflects this difference.66 In the almost frivolous first song, La Dame Andr, the poem questions whether Andrs new lady has a heart for the tomorrows or is just a passing fancy. Every poetic strophe ends with a question, and this is mirrored in the four measures of piano coda that end on an inconclusive Athirteen chord. The style of the second, Dans lherbe, is the most serious of the set and closest to his luard style. Its slow tempo and chromatically shifting harmonies are particularly reminiscent of his choral writing. The third song, Il vole, is marked presto implacable, in the style of an tude for piano, and is another example of a breathless patter song, virtuosic for both singer and pianist. It serves as a trampoline song into the following slow song, Mon cadavre est doux comme un gant, whose text is surrealistically beautiful despite the morbid sentiments (My corpse is as limp as a glove) of a person who is already detached from all human contingencies.67 The final two songs are likewise paired for maximum contrast. In the fifth, Violon, languorous violin double-stops and glissando effects are created in the right hand above a slow waltz-like bass,
65 66 67
Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 237. Bernac, Francis Poulenc, 137. Ibid., 142.
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evoking the image of a gypsy violinist late at night in a Hungarian restaurant (Example 70).68 Poulenc wrote that the pizzicato A minor ending of the fifth song (chord marked arrach, or ripped) was necessary so that the Db major of Fleurs could create the impression of a harmony that comes from afar.69 As mentioned above, Poulencs output of works for piano solo dropped precipitously after 1936. He seemed to have considerable difficulty in moving beyond the facile works of his second period: I often sought, particularly in the accompaniments of the mlodies, to take into account the lesson [of Matisse]. But alas, why didnt I follow that lesson in my piano works?70 After the
68 69 70
Ibid., 143. impression de ton qui vient de loin, Poulenc, Journal, 32.
Jai souvent cherch, spcialement dans des accompagnements de mlodies, tenir compte de cette leon. Que nai-je, hlas! suivi la leon de Matisse pour mes pices de piano! Poulenc, Entretiens, 172.
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short concluding Nocturne that hinted at this, two larger works for piano finally showed the influence of his serious song style: Mlancolie (FP 105, 1940) and the Intermezzo in Ab (FP 118, 1943). While written three years apart, they may be conveniently considered here together because they are similar in texture, harmonic language, and formal construction. In these graceful, lyrical, charming, and effective works, bravura and brilliance have all but disappeared from Poulencs keyboard style.71 Further, his use of techniques from his second period, including frequent use of seventh chords, the inventive means of arriving at cadences, and the variety and fluidity of modulation,72 are much better synthesized into an organic whole. However, the near-constant use of sixteenth-note motion used effectively in these pieces is less often found among similarly slow and lyrical mlodies, for which he more typically preferred eighth-note rhythms. Despite the more idiomatic pianistic textures and the presence of more charmingly tuneful melodies here than in his recent mlodies, the overall mood of these works is closer to his style for the love lyrics of luard or the nostalgic Parisian verses of Apollinaire. Just as Bleuet was an expression of sadness over the events of the war, Mlancolie was likewise inspired by his recent demobilization and the occupation of Paris by the Germans that led him to seek refuge in Brive-la-Gaillarde, to the north of Paris.73 Schmidt further claims that Poulenc, long insecure over his mostly self-taught compositional skills, felt particularly depressed at this point because the second war served as a reminder that the first world war had deprived him of his musical education.74 While Poulenc was never much of a nationalist, the quasi-programmatic title was clearly a reflection of the miserable state of his country, tinged with nostalgia for her
71 72 73 74
Kent Werner, quoted in Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 188. Ibid., 18889. Schmidt, Entrancing, 268. Ibid., 261.
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earlier glory days, as well as a personal expression of anguish for his own situation in exile from both his beloved city and country home. The Intermezzo in Ab, written three years later, bears no indication of a programmatic response to his personal or countrys condition, but it is similar to Mlancolie in its overall lyric mood. The greater austerity and simplification of the Matisse drawings are only sometimes in evidence in these piano pieces. For example, the section in A minor of the Intermezzo (Example 71), marked very sweet and melancholic, bears a strong resemblance to Tu vois le feu du soir, while the transitory passage beginning at m27 is a juxtaposition of several different pianistic figures more reminiscent of his virtuosic works. It seems likely, therefore, that Poulenc composed these works at least partially at the piano keyboard, but also that he drew significantly from his more serious song style.
Just as in Tu vois le feu du soir, the formal construction of these works is less sectional and more naturally fluid: all aspects of form are used for his melodic gifts; even the transitions are becoming areas of great beauty where the material seems to grow naturally out of the preceding ideas.75 While Mlancolie consists roughly of a ternary form, he is clearly not concerned with maintaining traditional key relationships for such a form. In fact, the main theme, which first occurs in Ab beginning in the first measure, recurs a half-step higher beginning in m15, in G
75
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beginning at m79, and finally in the home key of Db beginning at m87. These non-traditional key relationships result in a certain looseness and variety within the form, while the recurrence of the main theme provides a sense of unity. Poulenc called Mlancolie, un grand morceau de piano.76 Indeed, Tu vois le feu du soir (his longest individual song), Mlancolie (his longest singlemovement piano work), and the Ab Intermezzo are all much longer than is otherwise typical of single movements for Poulenc. Therefore, for the first time it seems that he has developed a compositional technique that is able to more naturally and seamlessly evolve larger forms. Poulenc later said that the Intermezzo in Ab was one of his favorite piano pieces, a significant fact in light of his highly critical attitude toward his body of piano works. Poulenc wrote a set of five songs to texts by Apollinaire in October and November of 1940 as a kind of celebration of his return to Noizay after his exile to the north of Paris. Banalits (FP 107) is clearly not a cycle, but once again shows Poulencs careful attention to the ordering of movements within a larger work. There is a great variety within the set, which was again written for Bernac: each of these songs exploits a particular aspect of the singers voice and a particular aspect of Apollinaires poetry.77 Ironically, Poulenc had long before chosen the two most difficult poems of the set, Fagnes de Wallonie and Sanglots, and only more recently selected the other poems, which he called delicious lines of doggerel.78 The first song, Chanson dOrkenise, uses the recurring opening gesture in the piano as a unifying device for the song, just as he did for LAnguille in 1931 (Example 72). It establishes a light-hearted tone for this brief encounter between the citys guards and two men: a beggar who left his heart in the city, and a cart driver who is coming to the city to be married. The opening section,
76 77 78
Schmidt, Entrancing, 268 Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 269. Poulenc, Diary, 67.
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with its rustic use of modality and predominance of open fourth intervals, is reminiscent of the harmonic world of Ravels Cinq mlodies populaires grecques. However, at the guards admonition to the beggar that the road is grey and to the cart-driver that love is grey, the music changes to sympathetic lyricism reminiscent of Tu vois le feu du soir. The next song, Htel, evokes perfectly the lazy indolence of an afternoon hotel room, with its rich, non-functional harmonies that seem to float aimlessly in space.79 The luxuriant harmonies (Example 73) and softly colored tones are similar to those of La Grenouillre; the
tempos of the two songs are indicated trs calme et paresseux and trs las et mlancolique, respectively. Neither songs accompaniment contains any note value shorter than a quarter note,
79
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but the tempo of Htel is intentionally slower than any other such piece to convey a sense of complete laziness. The richness of harmony is further enhanced by the layered chordal sonorities that encompass more than five octaves of the piano. This sensuous gem contrasts well with the breathless, relentless energy of the following song. While Fagnes de Wallonie is not properly a true transitional song, the constant eighth-note motion and overall nondescript melody (despite a few nice melodic phrases) helps the song serve the difficult, but necessary function of separating Htel from the light-hearted valse-musette that follows it, Voyage Paris. Poulenc wrote, To anyone who knows me it will seem quite natural that I should open my mouth like a carp to snap up the deliciously stupid lines of Voyage Paris.80 For Poulenc, the song expressed his unequivocal joy at having returned to the city he so treasured.81 It also served nicely as an encore at Bernac-Poulenc recitals as a good-natured gibe at the audiences in provincial towns. Of the final song, Poulenc wrote: All that I have written about Tu vois le Feu du soir is valid for Sanglots.82 The harmonic language is fully that of Poulencs serious style, and the expressive leaps in the vocal line at Est mort damour (mm6063) and Et rien sera libre (mm6869) communicate strong emotion. What are unusual, however, are the indications Animer un peu mais trs progressivement and Animer encore un peu which replace the usual admonitions to maintain a strict tempo. This may have been necessitated by the difficult poem that is filled with parenthetical comments. With its great variety of moods, careful ordering, and delicious gems (Htel and Voyage Paris), Banalits is justifiably one of his most popular sets.
80 81 82
Poulenc, Diary, 67. Schmidt, Entrancing, 269. Tout ce que jai crit sur Tu vois le Feu du soir valable pour Sanglots, Poulenc, Journal, 37.
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Slowdown in Composition After the burst of song activity between the writing of Tel jour, telle nuit and Banalits, Poulencs production in all genres dropped off considerably. This was likely because concerts were a more reliable source of income than royalties,83 for during the German occupation of France, publication of music all but ceased, while concerts continued nearly unabated. Thus, the entire next decade saw only as many songs written as in the previous three years. The songs of this time are not stylistically much different from those discussed above; he basically continued on the same path already struck; this can be seen in the many examples of songs that are similar in mood, texture, or harmony to earlier songs. Two other indications that his compositional activity was at a lull are that there are a number of songs of lesser quality among some truly great songs, and that he took the time to complete a couple of songs that he had contemplated for several years. From 1940 until 1951, he wrote no piano works other than the Intermezzo in Ab (discussed above) and two unremarkable Improvisations. The eleventh Improvisation is a brief harmonic study, understated and with only a nondescript melody. The twelfth is a brilliant waltz, subtitled, Hommage Schubert. The B section of the ternary form, similar to his second period works, is more meandering. Neither bears much import for our present discussion. The Chansons villageoises (FP 117, 1942) on poems by Maurice Fombeure were originally written for orchestra, and bear strong resemblance to parts of his early Chanson gaillardes. Its frequent text repetition, regularity of meter, and sometimes folk-like quality were perhaps inspired by Poulencs stay in a village north of Paris during the previous two years.
83
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The next two sets of songs, Mtamorphoses (FP 121, 1943) and Deux pomes de Louis Aragon (FP 122, 1943), are another example of songs that were written to be performed as part of a larger group in recital. The reason for this is that he felt that Vilmorins poetry in Mtamorphoses was too elliptical to form a group by themselves; and that Paganini in particular, which ends the set, was actually quite mediocre, but suitable as a transitional song.84 Indeed, Poulenc records that after much experimentation with the ordering, he and Bernac premiered themwith the addition of Tu vois le feu du soiras a group of six songs in this sequence: Tu vois le feu du soir Reine des mouettes Cest ainsi que tu es Paganini (Mtamorphoses) C Ftes galantes (Deux pomes)85 It is clear that Poulenc felt no qualms about mixing poets for his recital groupings (here luard, Vilmorin, and Aragon), despite the fact that all of his published sets of songs are grouped by poet. His recital groupings were arranged according to tempo and mood so as to best display them as a set. The piano texture of the first song of the Vilmorin set, Reine des mouettes, contains an effective balance of lyricism and rhythmic impulse. The tempo indication, trs vite et haletant, is supported by the syncopated accompaniment and flurry of notes in the voice, while the melody is doubled in the piano with longer note values that assist to sustain and stabilize the voice (Example 74). Thus the piano texture both assists in creating the desired breathless quality, but also helps prevents the songs from becoming frantic. The piano continues its melodic importance in Cest ainsi que tu es, which resembles Carte postale (1931) for its sinuous and continuous melody
84 85
trop elliptiques pour former un groupe eux seuls, ibid., 41. Poulenc, Journal, 41.
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joined by the voice. In the postlude, Poulenc requests the pianist to scrupulously respect his given fingering and pedal indications, which he says are essential for the legato (Example 75).86 This is another example of Poulencs insistence on effective use of the pedal for both sustained legato and clarity, with the four independent lines in the piano texture.
C and Ftes galantes, were published clandestinely by Louis Aragon, poet of the French Resistance. They are both reflections of the German invasion and occupation, yet their moods, and Poulencs musical settings, are extremely different. The first, a nostalgic recollection of the flight of the French population across the Bridge de C before the advancing German soldiers, opens with
86
respecter scrupuleusement, and indispensable pour le legato, Poulenc, in a footnote to Cest ainsi que tu
es.
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a pictorial representation of the bridge in the single left-hand line (Example 76). The title derives from the fact that every line of the poem ends with the sound of the syllable c.
The piano part, nostalgic in the key of Ab minor, is very difficult because of the subtlety of pedals and the repeated eighth notes that must be blurred.87 Poulencs former teacher, Koechlin, wrote that he appreciated the intense and noble emotion of Les Ponts de C, in which breathes the very soul of our wounded Fatherland.88 Ftes galantes is a true patter song, with its vivid and farcical poetic images and frantic musical setting that reflect the difficult, crazy, and sometimes absurd days of the occupation. As Bernac writes, Is it not typically French to be ready to laugh at everything for fear of being obliged to weep?89 The buoyant, surface gaiety of Poulencs musical figures for these images is couched in a popular style, which Poulenc indicates, incroyablement vite, dans le style des chansons-scies de caf-concert. Not far below the surface, however, is Aragons poignant description of occupied Paris.90 In a rare departure from his usual practice, Poulenc chose to end this recital grouping with a fast patter song, instead of the more typical slow, lyrical songs that end
87 88 89 90
est trs difficile cause du jeu des pdales et des batteries de croches estomper, Poulenc, Journal, 42. Letter to Poulenc, April 27, 1945; Correspondence (Buckland), 154. Bernac, Francis Poulenc, 189. Schmidt, Entrancing, 292.
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most of his published cycles. Poulenc must have felt this song the best way to comment on the darkest days of the occupation. Poulencs interest in the poetry of luard, never long dormant in his third period, was manifest again in two important choral works and two individual songs. The more significant achievements are two cantatas for unaccompanied voices: Figure humaine (FP 120, 1943) and Un soir de neige (FP 126, 1944). During the summer of 1943, while Poulenc was staying in Beaulieusur-Dordogne, he decided to compose a clandestine work to be prepared and published in secret, to be performed on the day of liberation, so long awaited.91 Poulenc drew on his song-writing experience, particularly that of Tel jour, telle nuit:
Figure humaine also consists of short poems, with the difference that they were intended to form a sequence, and are capped by an epilogic poem of some length. Poulenc, with his experience as a writer of song-cycles, finds no problem in making the cantatas short sections cumulative, and sustains momentum through the long consummatory poem of some length.92
This final poem in litany form, appropriately entitled, Libert, was distributed secretly during the war, and is a further example of Poulencs enchantment with luards poems of this form. The unaccompanied double-choral writing is extremely difficult, but this choral cycle stands as the culmination of his wartime works, his pice de rsistance.93 The two luard songs, Main domine par le coeur (FP 135, 1946) and mais mourir (FP 137, 1947), are among the better songs of the period, for the effective piano figurations contain countermelodies that are supportive of the vocal line. The former is a light, fleeting song, trs allant, with a charming and effective piano figuration. The sixteenth notes create motion but
une uvre secrte quon pourrait diter, prparer clandestinement pour la donner le jour, tant attendu, de la libration, Poulenc, Entretiens, 104.
92 93
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hidden within them is a true chant du piano et son accompagnement propre,94 providing a linear counterpoint to the voice (Example 77). The flexible and fluid modulations were necessary to connect phrases he had already conceived. Poulenc notes its similarity to an earlier luard song: Honestly, I must note that the first measures are derived from one of my first mlodies of luard, Plume deau claire.95 mais mourir was dedicated to the memory of luards wife, Nush. It is a touching, tender song in the flowing compound-meter style associated with Au-del,96 with its gently repeated chords in the right hand. The flowing countermelodies, nearly always present in the piano,
94 95
Honntement, je dois noter que les premires mesures sont issues directement dune de mes premires mlodies dluard, Plume deau claire, ibid., 5152.
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are used particularly effectively in the short postlude, passing from the right hand into the left (Example 78).
Deux mlodies de Guillaume Apollinaire (FP 127, 1941-45) followed the completion of his comic opera, Les Mamelles de Tirsias (FP 125, 1939-44), based on the 1917 play by the same poet.97 There is little in common with the opera in the tender, lyrical, song, Montparnasse, which Poulenc thought was probably one of my best mlodies.98 It is the archetypal example of his tendency to set individual phrases before attempting to stitch them all together into a complete song. In this case, Poulenc tells us that the whole process occurred over four years: he happened on the magnificent musical phrase for Un pote lyrique dAllemagne (Example 79) in 1941, the setting
Poulencs advice to his humorous works is again in evidence: Therefore it is essential to sing Les Mamelles from beginning to end as if it were by Verdi. It will perhaps not be easy to make this understood by interpreters who generally stick to the outward appearance of things, Poulenc, Journal, 79.
98
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for Donnez-moi, pour toujours, une chambre la semaine in 1943, the entire second half of the song later in 1943, and the first two lines in 1944. He did not attempt to piece all these fragments together until 1945.99 The affection felt by the poet for this district of Paris (and by the composer for his beloved city) resonates through the tender musical setting, with its uncluttered textures, poignant harmonies and delicious modulations. The second song, Hyde Park, along with several songs that followed, including Le pont and Un pome (FP 131, also by Apollinaire) and Trois chansons de Garcia-Lorca (FP 136, 1947), are less distinctive and successful. Le pont is another song that Poulenc wrote phrase by phrase over a couple of years. Most peculiar of all his later songs, Un pome seems to have been an experiment in near-atonality, with nontertian trichords, many sevenths and tritones, and a jagged melodic line, appropriately dedicated to Dallapiccola.100 Poulenc lamented the GarciaLorca settings as having little importance among my vocal works, despite his passion for the poetry.101
99
Ibid., 4243. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 273. peu de poids dans mon uvre vocale, Poulenc, Journal, 53.
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A Final Apollinaire Cycle The final cycle from his third period was much more successful than the single songs discussed above. A final major work to the poetry of Apollinaire, Calligrammes (FP 140, 1948) is both the summation and culmination of all of his settings of the poet. It includes aspects of all his earlier styles, here integrated into a mature whole. More than just a set of songs, this is a true cycle because of an overriding tonal architecture, carefully planned order and specifically indicated pacing between songs, and a placid piano postlude to the last song, which concludes and prolongs the final sentiment in the same way as in Tel jour. Unique among the cycles is the tonal structure, which Poulenc outlined in a letter to Bernac midway through its composition:
In Calligrammes I have truly found what I was looking for. Even more carefully constructed than Tel jour, this cycle has a true internal structure. Since you are in charge of the programs, here are the titles: CALLIGRAMMES seven mlodies on poems by Apollinaire I II III IV V VI VII LEspionne (F# minor) Mutation (Eb major) Vers le sud (E major) Il pleut (B major) La grce exile (E major) Aussi bien que les cigales (Eb major) Voyage (F[#] minor)
As you will notice, the keys are very precisely balanced, with B major (IV) serving as the turning point.102
For Poulenc, whose attention to key rarely exceeded the mood inherent in it or key relationship from one song to the next, such a careful large-scale tonal organization for a cycle is rare, indeed unique among the mlodies.
Jai vraiment trouv dans les Calligrammes ce quil me fallait. Encore plus construit que Tel jour ce cycle a une vraie armature interne Comme cest vous qui vous occupez des programmes en voici les titres; Comme vous pouvez constater les tons sont quilibrs trs exactement, si majeur (IV) servant de charnire, Letter to Pierre Bernac, July 18, 1948; Correspondance (Chimnes), 647.
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The cycle takes its name from Apollinaires collection, entitled Calligrammes: Pomes de la Paix et de la Guerre (1913-1916).103 This collection is particularly interesting because a number of the poems in it are calligrammes (that is, ideograms): a poem or arrangement of words on the page pictorially representing the subject. For example, the letters of Il pleut are written vertically in five lines down the page, intended to represent the falling rain. Of the seven poems used in this cycle, three are printed as ideograms: Voyage, Aussi bien que les cigales, and Il pleut. This must have had some import for Poulenc as he composed their settings, because he always emphasized that he attached great importance to the layout of the poem on the page.104 Amusingly, Bernac had the opposite opinion: It must be confessed that this is a puerility that adds nothing to the value of the poems but merely makes them more difficult to read.105 Poulenc was always sympathetic to Apollinaires Parisian poetry, but it seemed to hold especially nostalgic meaning for him as he approached his fiftieth birthday: All of these poems from 1913 to 1915 have brought back a flood of memories from my Nogentais past and from the time of the 1914 war. This is why they are dedicated to my childhood friends.106 Stylistically, the cycle contains little that is innovative or new, but rather represents a maturity and synthesis of all his earlier approaches to his Apollinaire settings. The gently syncopated rhythm of LEspionne is the same as that used in Montparnasse and some of his luard settings, and his favorite, layered texture appears in the same song at mm1316. However,
Guillaume Apollinaire, uvres Potiques dApollinaire, ed. Marcel Adma and Michel Dcaudin ([Paris]: Gallimard, 1965), 163.
104 105 106
103
Tous ces pomes de 1913 15 ont fait surgir un jeu dimages de mon pass nogentais et du temps de la guerre de 14. Do des ddicaces aux amis denfance, letter to Pierre Bernac, July 18, 1948; Correspondance (Chimnes), 647.
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the harmonic language is different, more sensual here than lyric.107 He was particularly proud of the prosody of Mais la vois-tu cette mmoire / Les yeux bands prte mourir (Example 80), which was regular but broken one of my most exact prosodies.108 To support and compensate for the halting, sequential vocal phrase, the harmonies travel the circle of fifths by minor-seventh and half-diminished chords: Bb, Eb, G# (Ab), C#, F#, B, E.
The second song, Mutation, employs a device not seen since his second period: the repetition of antecedent/consequent phrases transposed up a minor third (Example 81). However, the sequence is not an exact repetition as it usually was in his earlier works, but merely serves as a subtle reminder of the technique. This faster song, with its clatant writing, stands in contrast to the first and third songs it separates. Vers le sud, in a flowing compound meter, employs effective major-minor ambiguity to suggest longing for happier days.109 He even allows himself a bit of text painting by sounding the call of the nightingale at the mention of the word rossignol (m13). Such specific musical imagery was last seen in his mlodies in the Cinq pomes de Max Jacob (1931).
plus sensuel ici que lyrique, Poulenc, Journal, 55. rgulier mais hach une de mes plus exacte prosodies, ibid. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 275.
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The text painting continues in the fourth song, about which Poulenc explains,
From the technical point of view, it is in the area of refinement of the piano writing that I was exploring, attempting to achieve in Il pleut a kind of musical calligramme.110
Thus, the piano texture depicts musically what Apollinaire attempted to depict in words and graphically on the page through the layout of the words (Example 82).
Du point de vue technique, cest dans le domaine du raffinement de lcriture pianistique que jai pouss laventure, essayant dans Il pleut dobtenir une manire de calligramme musical, Poulenc, Journal, 54.
110
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The fifth song, La grce exile, is another lyrical song in compound meter, this time bearing the influence of the caf-concert song, another influence from his earlier styles. Aussi bien que les cigales is a full-blooded song halfway between a chanson (gaillarde or villageoise) and a true mlodie.111 Its piano writing is among the fullest of any song, ending in a passage of full chords marked fff (Example 83). In a note following the song, Poulenc requested that the performers wait for a long time before beginning the next, and final, song.
111
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and to make the piano sing as intensely and as sweetly as the voice. For me, the end is like the silence of a July night, when from the terrace of my childhood home in Nogent, I could hear the trains in the distance. 112
An eighth-note rhythm persists throughout, but the piano writing accommodates various additional countermelodies, exquisite changes of harmonies, and rich textures, including brief imitation between the hands (mm1719)113 and his favorite layered texture (mm2932). The harmonies are rich and melodies lyrical. The cycle concludes with a ppp piano postlude of seven measures (Example 84) employing only bare octaves in counterpoint. The tonally ambiguous, chromatic lines are intended to be very blurred and distant in a haze of pedals, the changing of which are
Certainement une des deux ou trois mlodies auxquelles je tiens le plus. Cest une de mes mlodies les plus mues, les plus vcues et, du fait de mon exprience technique actuelle, les mieux diriges. Trs suprieur Sanglots dont certaines incidentes me pseront toujours, par le truchement des modulations trs imprvues et trs sensibles, Voyage va de lmotion au silence en passant par la mlancolie et lamour. Il faut laccompagner avec beaucoup de pdale; estomper, comme je lai sans cesse rpt, les batteries, et chanter aussi intensment, aussi doucement au piano qu la voix. La fin, cest pour moi le silence dune nuit de juillet lorsque, de la terrasse de ma maison denfance de Nogent, jcoutais, au loin, les trains, Poulenc, Journal, 55.
113
112
The melody used imitatively here was used eleven years later for the opening choral motive in his Gloria.
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meticulously indicated in the score. In this manner, Poulenc returns to the key of the opening song, bringing the cycle full circle. This work represents the culmination of his efforts with the poems of Apollinaire. After this cycle, Poulenc was to write only two more, small songs to his poetry. As he wrote in his Journal:
It represents for me the culmination of a wide range of experiments in translating Apollinaire into music. The more I leaf through his volumes, the more I feel I can no longer graze in that pasture. I have the impression that I have exhausted all that is suitable for me.114
Il reprsente pour moi laboutissement de tout un ordre de recherches quant la transposition musicale dApollinaire. Plus je feuillette les volumes dApollinaire, plus je sens que ny trouve plus ma pture. Jai limpression que jai puis tout ce qui my convenait, ibid., 54.
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In 1950, Poulenc wrote, I have written so many mlodies, up to now, that I have lost my taste for them and I will doubtless write fewer and fewer.1 Indeed, in his final period from 1950 until his last mlodies in 1960, Poulenc wrote only three song cycles (La fracheur et le feu, FP 147, 1950; Le travail du peintre, FP 161, 1956; and La courte paille, FP 178, 1960) and a half-dozen other individual songs. Nor did he evidently retain much interest in writing for solo piano, writing only one major piano work, the Thme vari (FP 151, 1951), his last three Improvisations, and a third Novelette. His final stylistic period is not marked by any great technical achievement, but rather by a complete synthesis of all his earlier techniques and styles. The style of the mlodies does not differ much from the previous period, but is a continued distillation of the poetry into the most economical musical means: as Poulenc wrote about the luard cycle La Fracheur et le feu, The piano is economical in the extreme. There is nothing superfluous. I thought once again of Matisse.2 The cycles demonstrate a tendency toward greater organization, and there now appears a unity of pianistic style between the mlodies and much of the piano writing in the solo works. In particular, the musical mood and piano texture of the thirteenth Improvisation closely mirrors the sparser style of his song accompaniments. The first work of Poulencs final period, La Fracheur et le feu (FP 147, 1950), has not enjoyed the same popularity as many of his other cycles, but has the distinction of being his most
Jai tant crit de mlodies, jusqu ce jour, que le got men est pass et que jen crirai sans doute de moins en moins, Poulenc, Journal, 56. Le piano galement est dcant lextrme. Ici, aucun superflu. Pens une fois de plus Matisse, Poulenc, Journal, 56.
2
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unified and tightly organized cycle. Poulenc wrote that he was interested in the technical challenge of crafting a cycle out of one single poem, set to music in separate sections, exactly as the poem was printed;3 the poem in this case was one long, sectional poem by luard, entitled Vue donne vie. He described the techniques that unify the cycle:
A rhythmic unity (two tempos: one fast, one slow) is the basis for its construction. Similar rhythmic figures confirm the impression of an overall unity. Since the poem progresses admirably like a crescendo, it was easy for me to take the litanies of love in the penultimate song (Homme au sourire tendre) as the culminating point. These mlodies are terribly difficult to perform well. The timing of the pauses between songs must not be left to chance. The metronome markings are unalterable.4
All the songs are short and their tempos and moods are carefully contrasted and ordered to mirror the crescendo that Poulenc found inherent in the poem. Far from leaving the pauses between the songs to chance, Poulenc specifically communicated his intentions through such score markings as court silence, trs long silence, and attaquer de suite. Daniel also observes that there is an overall tonal architecture (Fm, F, A, D, A/C, F#, Fm).5 The return to the opening key at the end of the cycle and the repetition of the first songs introduction in the final songs piano postlude help to ensure the cycles unity. The accompaniment of the first song, Rayon des yeux, is a good example of Poulencs desire to create a maximum effect with a minimum of means. It is written in a fast tempo (Allegro molto emport) consisting primarily of a single line of sixteenth notes, but the first sixteenth of each beat is also beamed as a quarter note with a tenuto. This figure creates both rhythmic activity and melodic interest using a bare minimum of notes (Example 85). The piano melody,
3 4
un seul pome mis en musique, par tronons spars, exactement comme le pome est imprim, ibid.
Une unit rythmique (deux tempi: un rapide, un lent) est la base de la construction. Une identit de figures rythmiques confirme limpression dunit densemble. Le pome progressant admirablement, dos comme crescendo, il ma t facile de prendre, comme point culminant, ces litanies damour quest lavant-dernire mlodie (Homme au sourire tendre). Ces mlodies sont terriblement difficiles bien excuter. Les temps de pauses, entre les mlodies, ne sont pas laisss au hasard. Les mouvements de mtronome sont implacables, ibid.
5
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unsurprisingly, often doubles the vocal line; however, the vocal doubling in this song is not nearly as strict as in previous songs. Phrases are set off in contrast from each other through the use of terraced dynamics. The second and fourth songs, Le matin les branches attisent and Dans les tnbres du jardin, are both short, trampoline songs with identical metronome indications (132 beats per minute). The great variety of figuration and frequently changing dynamicsranging from pp to f create instability that contrasts well with the slower, third song (marked trs calme). The structure of the second poem, with its contrast between le matin and le soir is reflected in the gradual slowing of the tempo in the second half of the song and the modal ambiguity in the coda (this device was used as early as Plume deau claire in the Cinq pomes dluard; compare Example 86 and Example 87). Similar alternation between major and minor thirds also expresses the poetic contrast between homme and femme in the coda of the fifth song.
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Poulenc acknowledged that the entire third song (particularly the first three measures) was based on a cadential pattern from Stravinskys Srnade in A. The borrowing of a limited amount of harmonic material results in a song with predominantly static harmonies, except for a passage (mm1924) that proceeds around a circle of fifths: C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, C# (Db). The piano writing is again very sparse, consisting mostly of single lines of eighth notes in each hand (Example 88).
At the end of the slow, stately fifth song ending in C major, Poulenc indicates the performers should wait for a long silence before beginning the following song, Homme au sourire tendre, which begins in F# major.6 The long pause and the tritone relationship between the keys help to prepare for the intimate, quasi-religious style of the song that stands as the musical climax of
This is similar to the instruction he gave between Violon (A minor) and Fleurs (Db major) in Fianailles pour rire that was intended to create the impression of a sound that comes from far away.
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the cycle. The rich harmonies (seventh chords) and oscillation of harmonies were inspired by the litany form of the poem (alternating poetic lines: Homme au Femme aux Homme aux, etc.; see Example 89). He wrote, A certain litanist aspect of luard (Libert is the most admirable example) blends with my own religious and mystical feeling. There is also a mystical purity in luards poetry.7 It is notable that this poem serves as the climax of the cycle just as Libert, also in litany form, did in Figure Humaine.
The final song, La grande rivire qui va, employs the same sixteenth-note figures as in the first song and repeats the cycles first measures in the final postlude (techniques similar to those used in Tel jour). This was not Poulencs original intention however; Bernac describes how the piano coda evolved:
The coda for piano of the last song of La Fracheur in Poulencs original version ended rather lamely. It was [Marie-Blanche de Polignac] who, when we performed the cycle for her, suggested to Poulenc that he should repeat the first bars of the cycle, thus giving a logical conclusion and a unity to the whole.8
This is a difficult cycle overall, but it represents Poulencs most tightly organized cycle according to the principles he developed throughout his career: careful attention to the progression and contrast of tempos and moods, striving to achieve the maximum effect with an economy of musical means,
Un certain ct litanies chez luard (Libert en est le plus admirable exemple) rejoint chez moi mon sens religieux et mystique. Il y a dailleurs une puret mystique chez luard, Poulenc, Journal, 56.
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meticulous indications of tempo and pacing between the songs, the use of a poem in litany form as a musical climax, and the recurrence of musical material in the last song to create a truly cyclical form. The following year, Poulenc completed his last major piano piece, Thme vari (FP 151, 1951), which he called a serious work but I hope not boring.9 It consists of an original theme followed by eleven character variations, each of which preserves the general contours of the melody, phrasing, and harmonic structure.10 This classical conception of a theme and variation set is similar to Faurs Thme et variations (1895), which also emphasizes melody through its eleven variations.11 Unlike the Faur work, which largely remains in C# minor throughout, Poulencs variations progress through a sequence of keysAb, E, C, A, Db, F, A, F#, Eb, Ab, and Abthat seems designed to highlight the different moods of each variation. The key relations between movements generally favor the interval of a third; thus, despite the contrast, there is often a common tone shared between successive keys. This represents an expansion of Poulencs fondness for using this technique in successive musical phrases that was discussed above. There do not seem to be any new musical styles represented in the variations; rather, each bears strong similarity to earlier styles of writing. Additionally, Poulenc labeled each variation with an adjective describing its mood: Joyeuse, Noble, Pastorale, Sarcastique, Mlancolique, Ironique, Elgiaque, Volubile, Fantasque, Sybilline [sic], and Finale. The second, Noble, uses double-dotted patterns similar to Hymne from Trois pices and the stately neoclassic atmosphere of the Concert champtre (Example 90).12 The third, Pastorale, in C
Letter to Henri Sauget, August 15, [1951]; Correspondence (Buckland), 191. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 19091. Sloan, Study of the Piano Works, 77. Daniel, Francis Poulenc, 177.
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major, exactly reflects his sunny use of the key in earlier piano works, particularly the first Novelette (Example 91). The fifth, Mlancolique, recalls the Mlancolie in key, richness of harmonies, and arpeggiated style, although here it is much slower than in the earlier piece. The sixth, Ironique, has the same lightness and scampering style as many works from his second period. Daniel identifies the seventh, Elgiaque, as similar to his religious music for its slow, tender, slightly dissonant style.13 The slow, dissonant tenth variation, marked Sybilline [sic], is similar to his earlier clatant style.
Daniel writes that the finale is a microcosm of the problems inherent in the piece, for it combines, rather incongruously, obvious pomposity and passages that are, once again, too pianistic, with a simple, clever passage in the middle and a coda that presents the theme in disguised retrograde.14 The work remains, overall, quite uneven in quality, but is most notable
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because Poulenc seemed to create a virtual catalog of all his various styles by subjecting a single theme to each in succession. The descriptors therefore provide a veritable Rosetta Stone for Poulencs most typical musical styles. It is surprising that the connections between his earlier styles and the descriptive adjectives given to these variations have not been more fully explored by scholars. As Poulenc predicted, his output of songs did indeed slow down in the last decade of his life. After the major luard cycle in 1950, Poulenc did not return to writing mlodies until 1954; this four year lapse was by far the longest he had ever gone without writing songs since 19191924. During this time he began the opera Dialogues des Carmlites (FP 159), which was to occupy his attention for three full years. He did take the time in 1954 to write three songs: Parisiana (FP 157), which consists of a pair of settings of Max Jacob, and Rosemonde, a single song to a text by Apollinaire. The Jacob songs are well contrasted: the first is a slow, tender song and the second a fast patter song imbued with a popular flavor. The first, Jouer du bugle, was to have been included in Le bal masqu, except that Poulenc felt that the surrealist poetic sentiments would have duplicated La Dame aveugle.15 The prosody of the first three stanzas is very straightforward and syllabic, nearly every phrase beginning squarely at the beginning of the measure; this directness accords perfectly with the coarseness of the language and sordid poetic images. The accompaniment of the first section is strongly harmonically directed, and the quarter-note bass notes are marked with staccatos, but indicated doucement ponctu mais avec beaucoup de pdale. This distinguishes the piano texture from that used for Apollinaire or luard, as if Poulenc wanted the piano to establish some degree of ironic detachment, belying the indication given to the singer: sans ironie, trs potique (Example 92). In the
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published version of the poem, following the first three stanzas, Jacob wrote the word Signature, and then a self-reflexive final stanza, as at the end of a ballad.16 Instead of literally setting the word signature to music, in a three-measure interlude, Poulenc introduces a new melody that continues to the end of the song. This helps establish a more lyrical mood for the final section; Bernac suggests that it incites the interpreters to sudden poetic nostalgia.17 The second Jacob song, Vous ncrivez plus? is a true patter song in a tuneful style little changed from that of the early Chansons gaillardes. The Apollinaire style of Rosemonde is audible from the very first measures minor-seventh harmony through every modulation and lyrical
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turn of phrase. The musical styles used in these three songs reaffirm Poulencs distinct approach to the poetry of Jacob and Apollinaire. Poulencs final luard set dates from 1956. Le travail du peintre (FP 161) is a set of seven songs based on poetry from an anthology entitled Voir: pomes[,] peintures[,] desseins,18 which interspersed poetry about various contemporary artists among prints of their paintings. luards poetry was always remarkably visual, but in this set, the visual elements are necessarily of utmost importance. Given that Poulenc was also avowedly hopelessly visual,19 it is not surprising that he was enticed to set this poetry to music; in addition, it gave him an opportunity to pay tribute to many of his favorite painters and reflect on their influence on his work, including Picasso, Chagall, Braque, Gris, Klee, Mir, and Villon. Two of Poulencs favorite artists did not appear in the anthology, however. Poulenc asked luard to write a Matisse poem, but the poet evidently did not share the composers enthusiasm for the painter. Poulenc was forced to change his plan of ending the cycle with the joy and sunshine of Matisse to ending it lyrically and gravely with Villon instead.20 The other painter that Poulenc often said he felt an affinity for was Raoul Dufy, the artist whose woodcuts appeared in Apollinaires collection of poetry, Le Bestiaire ou le Cortge dOrphe. His brightly colored paintings, such as Canotiers aux bords de la Marne, evoked happy childhood memories for Poulenc, and he equated these paintings with his Nogent style.21 It is very likely that Poulenc did
18 19 20
Dans mon esprit, Matisse devait clore le cycle dans la joie et le soleil. Aujourdhui, Villon, le termine lyriquement et sombrement, Poulenc, Journal, 58. Poulenc wrote, While walking with a German music critic in the streets of Berlin this morning, I was wondering how to explain to him the evocation in my music of Parisian suburbia, when suddenly I caught sight in a bookshop window of a big reproduction of a celebrated picture by Dufy: Boatmen on the Banks of the Marne. Look, I said, that is my Nogent music. I have always thought, moreover, that Dufy and I had more than a little in common; Poulenc, Diary, 109.
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not ask luard for a Dufy poem because he felt that luard would have been completely inappropriate for this style; without a doubt, Poulenc would have preferred Apollinaire for this task. Poulencs initial interest in the cycle began in 1952. He planned to dedicate it to Bernac and premiere it in a concert for the twentieth anniversary of our association,22 but work on Dialogues prevented its completion in time for the event. Bernac was anxious to see the finished work, so he approached the American soprano, Alice Esty, for a commission in hopes of hastening its completion. In accepting the commission, Poulenc wrote to Esty, You know that I havent written songs for a long time. I have simply written too many. There now must be something exceptional to give me an appetite for them.23 Finally, on August 26, 1956, Poulenc wrote to Esty: I have good news: your songs are finished and I am very happy with them.24 In this set we find a great variety of moods and expressions inspired by the progression of images in the texts. It begins with Picasso, set in C major with strength and intensity; he said it recalls the opening of Tel jour, telle nuit, but the difference being that many years later this key no longer signifies peaceful happiness.25 The double-dotted introduction and opening clatant vocal line reaffirm the style described above in many earlier works. The sturdy first song cedes to the headlong scampering of Chagall, a sort of runaway scherzo inspired by the strange progression of disparate images (see Example 93).26 It functions as a trampoline song into the next,
Poulenc: jaimerais en donner la premire audition dans un concert pour le vingtime anniversaire de notre association, quoted in Schmidt, Catalogue, 452. Poulenc: Vous savez que, depuis longtemps, je nai pas crit de mlodies. Jen ai trop compos et il me faut maintenant quelque chose dexceptionnel pour me mettre en apptit, in a letter to Alice Esty, June 2, [1955]; Correspondance (Chimnes), 819. Poulenc: Voici une bonne nouvelle: vos mlodies sont finies et jen suis trs content, in a letter to Alice Esty, August 26, 1956; ibid., 850.
25 26 24 23
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about which Poulenc wrote that Braque is the most subtle and elaborate of the set. It is perhaps too mannered, but that is how I feel about Braque.27
Poulenc requested a long silence before the voice alone begins the quietly lyrical Juan Gris. It uses the most economical writing of the set, with sparse lines in the piano and vocal phrases of limited range (see Example 95, below, for a comparison with the thirteenth Improvisation, also in A minor). Its quiet melancholy required a trampoline song to follow; Paul Klee, is the only dramatic song of the set. The final song, Villon, was one of Poulencs favorites because of the litanist quality of the poem (the repetition of en dpit). He wrote that the prosody of the litany Laube lhorizon leau / Loiseau lhomme lamour provides a human relaxation to this strict and violent poem.28 This is achieved by a C pedal that supports the chords that chromatically descend into a C dominant-
Braque est la mlodie la plus subtile, la plus fouille du recueil. Il y a peut-tre trop de got, mais cest ainsi que je sens Braque, ibid. La prosodie de laube, lhorizon, leau, loiseau, lhomme, lamour donne une dtente humaine ce pome si strict et violent, ibid.
28
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seventh harmony. The set ends with strong contrast of dynamics (Example 94); Bernac says that the violence and intensity of the poems opening now gives way to pity and to hope in humanity.29
Of Le travail du peintre, Poulenc wrote all that I have already said about the interpretation of my mlodies is valid here. It is more than ever a duo where the material, vocal and pianistic, is closely integrated. There is no question of an accompaniment.30 These comments are reflected in the vocal writing, which is generally less tuneful than in his earlier works. Daniel observes that this set is strongly influenced by the music of Dialogues des Carmlites. There are now many more
29 30
Tout ce que jai dj dit pour linterprtation de mes mlodies est valable ici. Cest plus que jamais un duo o les matires, vocale et pianistique, sont troitement malaxes. Il nest pas question dun accompagnement, Poulenc, Journal, 59.
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repeated notes, scalar fragments, and oscillations between two notes.31 This set shows a true maturity and synthesis of style across all genres; it is clear that Poulenc has mastered the musical style for luard that he first sought in 1935. Poulenc wrote about Le travail, I know well that people dont like mlodies any more, and that, alas, we no longer have [Marya] Freund, [Claire] Croiza, or Gille [?], but never mind.32 This may partially explain his reluctance to write more songs, perhaps feeling there was nothing more to be done with the genre and that popular or critical opinion was moving away from mlodies entirely. Nevertheless, he did write several separate songs between 1956 and 1960, including La souris and La puce (Apollinaire), Nuage (Laurence de Beyli), Dernier pome (Robert Desnos), and Une chanson de porcelaine (luard). There is nothing new or particularly remarkable about any of these songs. If in Poulencs final period we find his song style little changed, we do find the most coherent synthesis of his luard style in the seamless texture of a few piano works, such as the thirteenth and fifteenth Improvisations (FP 170, 1958, and FP 176, 1959) and the third Novelette (FP 173, 1959). These piano works are finally written with the same assurance and economical piano writing that he previously was only able to consistently find in the vocal works. The thirteenth Improvisation employs a simple melodic contour, bare chordal texture, and a simple but seamless structure. It closely resembles Juan Gris from Le travail du peintre in mood, key, style and musical material (see Example 95 and Example 96). Both works employ sparse arpeggiated figures accompanying interwoven melodic lines. Even specific musical details are strikingly similar: the rising minor third motive at the beginning, the surprise use of a G# dominant-
31 32
Poulenc: Je sais bien quon naime plus les mlodies et quhlas il ny a plus de Freund, de Croiza, de Gille, mais tant pis, quoted in Schmidt, Catalogue, 453.
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seventh chord to modulate from A minor to C# minor, the more chordal passages in F minor, and the diminuendo over the dominant-thirteenth chord that draws us into the coda. It is notable that what some see as Poulencs archetypal mature piano work borrows the most from song.33 The third Novelette is based on a theme by Manuel de Falla from El Amor Brujo, quoted in the first four measures of the piece (Example 97). The modest, flowing quality is lyrical but unpretentious. The entire work of seventy-seven measures is imbued with the same melancholic harmonies as the Ab Intermezzo and Mlancolie from his third period, but a further indication of the
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composers maturity is that he did not feel the need to incorporate a contrasting middle section. It ends in a serene coda with chromatic, oscillating harmonies, ending on an E major chord with a dominant-thirteenth extension (Example 98). These traits, borrowed from his religious choral music and second period piano works, respectively, do not seem at all out of place, but instead are fully synthesized into his mature style.
The final, fifteenth Improvisation is an homage to Edith Piaf, written in the style of a nostalgic popular song in a flowing 9/8 compound meter. The melody employs frequent sequences, such as the passage in mm610 with a bass line that travels around the circle of fifths: C, F, Bb, Eb,
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Ab, D, G, and C. The frequent tempo changes (there are twenty tempo indications in its sixty-four measures) are probably intended to replicate the valse rubato of the famous chanteuse. Poulencs final cycle was La courte paille (FP 178, 1960), to texts by Maurice Carme, were written for Denise Duval, or more exactly, for Denise Duval to sing to her little, six-year-old boy.34 They may be properly considered a cycle due to the careful alternation of slow and fast tempos and the similarity between the first and last songs. He used the melody from the fifteenth Improvisation in the third song, La reine du cur. Poulenc noted: These sketches, by turn melancholy and mischievous, are unpretentious. They must be sung tenderly. That is the surest way of touching a childs heart.35 Even if Poulenc had lived beyond 1963, it is doubtful that he would have written more songs. Shortly before writing his final song cycle Poulenc wrote in his Journal: I turn the pages of this Journal with some melancholy. The time for mlodies is over, at least for me. I believe I have drawn all that I could from luard, Apollinaire, Max Jacob, etc.36
Final conclusions We have noted the numerous influences that Francis Poulenc drew upon in writing for the piano, including the simplicity of Satie and Les Six, popular music from the circus, music hall, and caf-concert, nostalgic qualities from his childhood, the melancholic associations and sometimes sordid qualities of his beloved Paris, the lesson of simplicity from Matisse, and the seriousness of
Ou, plus exactement, pour que Denise Duval les chante son petit garon, g de six ans, Poulenc, Journal, 62. Ces croquis, tour tour mlancoliques ou malicieux, sont sans prtention. Il faut les chanter avec tendresse. Cest la plus sre faon de toucher le cur des enfants, ibid. Je feuillette ce Journal avec quelque mlancolie. Le temps nest plus aux mlodies (du moins pour moi). Jai tir je crois tout ce que je pouvais dluard, Apollinaire, Max Jacob, etc., ibid., 61.
36 35
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his religious choral music and luard settings. Poulenc drew widely from these influences as he acquired new styles and techniques throughout his career. While these techniques were not always immediately incorporated gracefully into the piano writing, particularly the solo piano works, Poulenc never completely abandoned his earlier aesthetics in pursuit of new ones. Even his most serious religious works co-existed peacefully beside works influenced by popular music or written with intentional banality or indecency. This ability to retain and integrate earlier compositional techniques throughout his career is a significant reason why there exists a recognizable Poulenc sound. Poulenc explained that he liked to set to music poetry that evoked an image; he consequently found it easy to craft piano accompaniments for his mlodies to reflect the mood and the careful prosody of the text. He found writing in abstract forms without programmatic associations to be more difficult, something done more easily while seated at the piano. This meant that he frequently drew on improvised, pianistic figurations for many solo piano works, particularly those of his second period. This led to his overall frustration with his body of piano works, occasionally causing him to casually dismiss them all out of hand. By the time of Poulencs final maturity, however, the musical techniques and styles that he had found through the song accompaniments and his religious choral music were so well engrained that he could easily draw on them in his solo piano writing, even in such non-programmatic works as the thirteenth Improvisation. The simplicity and austere lyricism of the best works from his final period represent a true synthesis and culmination of all of his earlier styles.
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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary Sources Apollinaire, Guillaume. Oeuvres Potiques dApollinaire. Edited by Marcel Adma and Michel Dcaudin. [Paris]: Gallimard, 1965. Bernac, Pierre. Francis Poulenc, the Man and His Songs. Translated by Winifred Radford. New York: Norton, 1977. Jourdan-Morhange, Hlne. Mes amis musiciens. Paris: diteurs franais runis, 1955. Milhaud, Darius. Notes sans Musique. Paris: R. Julliard, [1963]. Poulenc, Francis. A btons rompus: crits radiophoniques; prcde de Journal de vacances, et suivi de Feuilles amricaines. Edited by Lucie Kayas. [Paris]: Actes Sud, 1999. _____. Correspondance, 19151963. Collected by Hlne de Wendel. Paris: ditions du Seuil, 1967. _____. Francis Poulenc: Correspondance, 19101963. Collected and edited by Myriam Chimnes. [Paris]: Fayard, 1994. _____. Francis Poulenc: Echo and Source: Selected Correspondence 19151963. Translated and edited by Sidney Buckland. London: Victor Gollancz, 1991. _____. Journal de mes mlodies. Notes by Renaud Machart. Paris: Cicero / ditions Salabert, 1993. _____. Journal de mes mlodies (Diary of My Songs). Bi-lingual edition, translated by Winifred Radford. London: Victor Gollancz, 1985. _____. Mes matres et mes amis. Confrencia: Journal de lUniversit des Annales 29 no. 2 (15 Oct. 1935): 52129. _____. Mes mlodies et leurs potes. Confrencia: Journal de lUniversit des Annales 36 no. 12 (15 Dec. 1947): 507513. _____. Moi et mes amis. Conversations assembled by Stphane Audel. Paris: ditions La Palatine, 1963. _____. My Friends and Myself. Conversations assembled by Stphane Audel. Translated by James Harding. London: Dobson, 1978. Poulenc, Francis and Claude Rostand. Entretiens avec Claude Rostand. Paris: R. Julliard, 1954. Rostand, Claude. Francis Poulenc; hier et demain. Le figaro litteraire 9 (Feb. 1963): 17.
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Biographical and Analytical Sources Berry, Richard. Francis Poulencs Settings of Poems of Paul luard for Solo Voice and Piano: A Reflection of French Artistic Moods from 1920 to 1960. D.M.A. doc., University of Missouri, Kansas City, 1985. Berry, Richard. Poulenc and the Twentieth Century: The Songs on Poetry of Paul luard. Ars Musica Denver 2, no. 1 (Fall 1989): 111. Branger, Jean-Christophe. Massenet, miroir des contradictions et des doutes de Poulenc. Revue musicale de Suisse romand 55, no. 1 (2002): 4665. Brody, Elaine. Paris: The Musical Kaleidoscope, 18701925. New York: G. Braziller, 1987. Buckland, Sidney and Myriam Chimnes, eds. Francis Poulenc: Music, Art, and Literature. Aldershot; Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 1999. Burton, Richard. Francis Poulenc. Bath, England: Absolute Press, 2002. Card, P. Catherine. A comparison-study of Poulenc's Deux pomes de Guillaume Apollinaire and Deux pomes de Louis Aragon. M.M. thesis, Bowling Green State University, 1986. Chisholm, Rose Marie. The Poulenc Sonata Cantilena: A Vocal Connection. The Flutist Quarterly 17, no. 1 (Winter 1992): 2526. Clifton, Keith. The Vilmorin Songs of Francis Poulenc. Journal of Singing 55, no. 3 (Jan.Feb. 1999): 713. Corbellari, Alain. Les sept pches capitaux de Francis Poulenc. Revue musicale de Suisse romande 56, no. 1 (Mar. 2003): 4151. Daniel, Keith W. Francis Poulenc: His Artistic Development and Musical Style. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1982. Elson, James. The Songs of Francis Poulenc. NATS Journal 36, no. 2 (1979): 1420. Hargrove, Guy Arnold. Francis Poulenc's settings of poems of Guillaume Apollinaire and Paul luard. Thesis, University of Iowa, 1971. Hell, Henri. Francis Poulenc. Translated by Edward Lockspeiser. New York: Grove Press [1959]. _____. Francis Poulenc, musicien franais. Paris: Fayard, 1978. Hore, Arthur. Ldition musicale: Musique pour piano. La Revue musicale 16 (JulyAug. 1935): 15354. Ivry, Benjamin. Francis Poulenc. London: Phaidon, 1996. Keck, George Russell. Francis Poulenc: A Bio-bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. 146
Kimball, Carol. Poulenc's Le Travail du Peintre: A Synthesis of the Arts. The NATS Journal 44, no. 2 (Nov.Dec. 1987): 511, 24. Kimball, Carol. Unity from Contrast: Poulencs La Fracheur et le Feu. The NATS Journal 44, no. 5 (MayJune 1988): 59, 36. Machart, Renaud. Francis Poulenc. [Paris]: Editions du Seuils, 1995. Mas, Josiane, ed. Centenaire Georges Auric Francis Poulenc. [Montpellier]: Centre d'tude du XXe sicle, Universit Paul Valry, Montpellier III, 2001. McKinney, David Conley. The influence of Parisian popular entertainment on the piano works of Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc. D.M.A. thesis, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1994. Mellers, Wilfrid Howard. Francis Poulenc. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Middaugh, Bennie. Poulenc: Tel Jour Telle Nuit: A Stylistic Analysis. NATS Bulletin 25, no. 2 (Dec. 1968): 28, 11. Nelson, Jon Ray. The Piano Music of Francis Poulenc. Ph.D. thesis, University of Washington, 1978. Nichols, Roger. The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris, 19171929. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Orledge, Robert. Satie Remembered. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1995. Orledge, Robert. Satie the composer. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Perloff, Nancy. Art and the Everyday: Popular Entertainment and the Circle of Erik Satie. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. Ramaut, Alban and Isabelle Bretaudeau. Francis Poulenc et la voix: texte et contexte. SaintEtienne, France: Publications de lUniversit de Saint-Etienne, 2002. Rorem, Ned. Francis Poulenc. In A Ned Rorem Reader. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. Roy, Jean. Francis Poulenc: lhomme et son oeuvre. [Paris]: Seghers, 1964. Schmidt, Carl B. Entrancing Muse: A Documented Biography of Francis Poulenc. Lives in Music Series, no. 3. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2001. _____. The Music of Francis Poulenc (18991963): A Catalogue. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995; reprint, New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Shattuck, Roger. The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant Garde in France, 1885 to World War I. New York: Vintage Books, 1968. 147
Sloan, Timothy Bruce. A Study of the Piano Works of Francis Poulenc. M.M. thesis, University of Cincinnati, 1981. Trickey, Samuel Miller. Les Six. Ph.D. thesis, North Texas State College, 1955. Microform. Werner, Warren Kent. The Harmonic Style of Francis Poulenc. Thesis, University of Iowa, 1966 (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1966). Wood, Vivian Lee Poates. Poulencs Songs: An Analysis of Style. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 1979.
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