Francis Poulenc

Source: The Musical Times , Mar., 1963, Vol. 104, No. 1441 (Mar., 1963), p. 205
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/949032

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 OBITUARY

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Francis Poulenc (right)

with Lennox Berkeley

FRANCIS POULENC, the composer and pianist, and it is sad to think that they are as yet so little
died in Paris on Jan 30, aged 64. He was born in known in this country.
Paris in 1899, and was musically self-taught apart Apart from his songs, his most significant
from some study with Ricardo Vifies and Koechlin. compositions are perhaps his religious works. He
His music was first heard publicly at a concert, was deeply attached to the Christian faith, and
organized by Satie, in 1918-the year he composed religious texts stimulated his imagination. His only
the Mouvements Perpetuels. Le Bestiaire (Apollinaire) full-scale opera is based on a religious theme, and
and Cocardes (Cocteau), both 1919, were the first such works as the Litanies de la Vierge Noire, the
of many song-cycles which form the heart of Mass, the Four Motets and the Stabat Mater are
Poulenc's output. From 1936 these were devised among his major compositions. His very harmonic
for his close artistic association with the baritone style (counterpoint plays hardly any part in his
Pierre Bernac. Outstanding among later sets is music) gives a curious character to his choral
Tel jour telle nuit (Eluard). writing, and presents some difficulty in the matter
His instrumental music includes piano suites of intonation, but it remains effective. There are
and keyboard concertos-for harpsichord (1927-8), many passages in his religious music that are
two pianos (1932) and organ (1938). The ballet strangely haunting-moments that reveal a touch-
score Les Biches (1924) and the opera-bouffe Les ing tenderness and simplicity of heart, and that
Mamelles de Tiresias (1947) display the ironic remain in the memory.
self-awareness contained in the aesthetic of Les The gaiety and frivolity of much of his early
Six, of whom Poulenc was one. Under the music gained him a reputation as a wit and parodist,
sophisticated manner often lay simple, serious but his music of this period was written at a time
intent, made explicit in the liturgical a cappella of reaction against romanticism and impressionism,
works. Poulenc's most ambitious work, the opera and represents only one side of his musical character;
Dialogues des Carmilites, commissioned by Ricordi nevertheless, the exuberance and vitality of some
for La Scala, was produced there in 1957 and of these early pieces have kept them alive. Later we
quickly reached other opera houses-Covent find more frequently a prevailing mood of serene
Garden in 1958. contentment, varied by a gentle nostalgia, and a
reaching towards a wider emotional range, but he
Lennox Berkeley writes: lacked the power of large-scale musical construction,
By the death of Francis Poulenc we lose a composer and wrote little symphonic music.
To those of us who knew him well, his death
of a type that is rare today, for his talent was above
deals a double blow, for apart from his music, he
all natural and spontaneous. He never sought to
was a most lovable character and a very loyal
bring anything new to music other than the novelty
of his own personality, and wrote unashamedlyfriend.
as Moreover he was very good company, he
had immense charm, gaiety, and a zest for life that
he felt, paying little heed to musical fashion in
was infectious. As in his music, he was uninhibited
so far as his own work was concerned. All through
in conversation, and his social gifts enabled him
his life, he was content to use conventional harmony,
to carry off any situation with ease. Unlike some
but his use of it was so individual, so immediately
recognizable as his own, that it gave his musicartists, he was genuinely interested in other people's
freshness and validity. It was as a song-writerwork, and surprisingly appreciative of music very
that he was at his best. He wrote something in far removed from his. I remember him playing me
the region of 150 songs; in them his melodic the records of Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maitre
invention, his power of expressing subtle and with which he was already familiar when that
intimate feeling, together with a natural ability work was much less well-known than it is today.
for the musical treatment of words and prosody, Poulenc was fond of England, he had many
are everywhere in evidence; also the fact that he friends here, and used to come regularly to give
was an excellent pianist enabled him to make his concerts with Pierre Bernac. Though a Parisian by
piano parts exceptionally interesting and effective. birth, Touraine was the part of France he loved
His favourite poets for setting to music were best, and he spent part of every year in his house
Apollinaire, with whom he had a special affinity, near the banks of the Loire, attracted, one feels, to
Eluard and Louise de Vilmorin. Even his best this peaceful and fertile countryside by qualities that
in some ways resembled his own.
songs are too numerous to refer to individually,
205

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