Composer Portraits Francis Poulenc

The Composer Portraits series offers unique and original monographs on individual composers. Text and music introductions written by experts are combined with carefully chosen selections of newly-engraved music for the Piano to give a concise but informed overview of the life and work of each composer. This edition focuses on the life and works of the French composer and pianist Francis Poulenc, with notes by Jon Paxman. Pieces: - L'histoire de Babar le petit éléphant (excerpts) - Française d’après Claude Gervaise - Five Impromptus - II. Allegro vivace - Mouvements Perpétuels - II. Trés modéré - Nocturnes No.7 (from 8 Nocturnes) - Trois Novelettes - No.3 in E Minor - Andantino tranquillo - Pièce brève sur le nom d'Albert Roussel - Trois Pièces - I. Pastorale - Promenades - VIII. En Chemin De Fer - Suite pour Piano - III. Vif

This collection of essays provides vivid new insights into Poulenc‘s world, his particular rapport with painters, writers and fellow musicians, and with the socialte who promoted his music through their salons. Contributions from international Poulenc scholars include the influence of various artists on his music, the nature of his affinity for Eluards poetry, his response to texts by Cocteau and Bernanos, and his constant search for suitable libretti. New light is thrown on two friendships, the first with his childhood friend Raymonde Linossier who introduced him to the world of books, the second to his teacher Charles Koechlin who greatly influenced his choral style. A detailed study is also provided of Poulenc‘s four choral works with orchestra. Finally, the reader is allowed a rare view of Poulenc at the microphone, not as interviewee but as radio presenter, in his 1947-1949 series of programmesA bâtons rompus.

The work of Poulenc in the context of his colourful personal life.

Lavishly illustrated, the volume includes a complete discography, and an exhaustive summary of Poulenc's concert tours, as well as a list of portraits and drawings."--Jacket.

Life and music of the 20th century French composer. Catalog of works and discography. Portraits.

An authoritative account of the life and work of Francis Poulenc, one of the most prolific and striking figures in twentieth-century classical music "An assured overview of Poulenc's life and work."--Alex Ross, New Yorker "Essential reading for anyone interested in the French musical culture of Poulenc's time. This is the biography the composer deserves."--Christopher Dingle, BBC Music Magazine, Named one of the Best Books on Classical Music in 2020 by BBC Music Magazine Francis Poulenc is a key figure in twentieth-century classical music, as well as an unorthodox and striking individual. Roger Nichols draws upon Poulenc's music and other primary sources to write an authoritative life of this great artist. Although associated with five other French composers in what came to be called "Les Six", Poulenc was very much sui generis in personality and in his music, where he excelled over a wide repertoire--opera, songs, ballet scores, chamber works, piano pieces, sacred and secular choral works, orchestral works and concertos. This book fully covers this wide range, while also describing the vicissitudes of Poulenc's life and the many important relationships he had with major figures such as Satie, Ravel, Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Cocteau and others.

In the fifty years since his sudden death in January 1963, a wealth of memoirs has accumulated about Francis Poulenc, and almost every one of these has something new to tell: the composer himself recognised the existence of 'Janus-Poulenc', to which Darius Milhaud's widow Madeleine responded by saying that two sides did not do him justice. Drawing on a wealth of source material, Roger Nichols presents an invaluable and accessible portrait of the 'irresistible, insupportable, dear Poulenc'.

The name of Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) was first brought to prominence in the 1920s as a member of Les Six, a group of young French composers encouraged by Satie and Cocteau. His subsequent fame spread well beyond France, and he is coming to be regarded as one of this century's most significant composers. His compositions are heard constantly in concert halls the world over, and numerous recordings, including complete sets of songs and piano music, have been released. Books, articles and more than a dozen doctoral dissertations have discussed his music. Carl Schmidt's catalogue of Poulenc's works represents the first comprehensive attempt to list an oeuvre which numbers approximately 185 compositions written from his teenage years until his death at the age of 63. The Catalogue indentifies a number of unpublished works, and adds a small group of compositions to his musical canon for the first time. Each work, whether complete or unfinished, published or unpublished, is described fully. Catalogue entries list and describe all known printed editions (including reprints) and manuscript copies of each work. In addition, they provide detailed compositional histories based on numerous letters, documents, and press accounts, many of which have not been published previously. Russian interest in Poulenc's music, manifested in press runs exceeding one million copies, is also revealed for the first time.

The Composer Portraits series offers unique and original monographs on individual composers. Text and music introductions written by experts are combined with carefully chosen selections of newly-engraved music to give a concise but informed overview of the life and work of each composer. This edition focuses on the life and works of the English composer Richard Rodney Bennett, with notes by Anthony Meredith. Songlist: - Eustace And Hilda (Theme) - Excursions - II. Andante lento - Impromptu on the name of Haydn - Little Elegy - Memento - Partridge Pie - VIII. Eight Maids a-Milking - Rosemary's Waltz (from Tender Is The Night) - Tango After Syrinx - Three Romantic Pieces - III. Andante semplice