Francis Poulenc [1899–1963] was one of the most prominent French composers of the twentieth century, whose individualistic musical style is oftentimes ascribed to the fact that he was mostly self-taught in areas of harmony and orchestration. His membership in the loosely formed 1920s compositional group “Les Six”—Darius Milhaud and Arthur Honegger were, with Poulenc, the most prominent participants—helped raise public awareness of his early compositions. These six composers, aligned with modernist French painters and writers of the era, collectively believed in creating French art, music and literature that was free of foreign influence.
Poulenc was greatly influenced by Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky and Claude Debussy, and many of his pieces are infused with elements of jazz, and even a touch of surrealism. Harmonically, Poulenc enjoyed stretching the bounds of basic chord structure, challenging his listeners even though most of his music is quite melodious. Throughout his life he wrote a great deal of music for solo piano, as well as chamber pieces with the piano as primary accompaniment. These include a sextet for piano and wind instruments, and sonatas for flute and piano, clarinet and piano, and cello and piano. In 1932 he wrote a concerto for two pianos and orchestra.
His Catholic faith was one factor that propelled him into consideration as one of the most acclaimed composers of church music during his era. Among his choral pieces set to a religious text are Mass in G [1937], Exultate Deo and Salve regina [both 1941], Stabat mater [1950], and Ave verum corpus [1952]. His choral masterpiece, Gloria [1959], is best known for its widespread use of augmented harmonies and a very lively orchestration. Poulenc also wrote several pieces for the organ, including an organ concerto that many music historians consider the finest of the century.
Francis Poulenc composed several works for the stage, including the ballet Les biches, commissioned in 1924by Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes. It is one of the few French ballets to also employ a chorus. His three operas include the surrealistic two-act comic opera Les mamelles de Tirésias [1947], the single-act La voix humaine (“The Human Voice”) [1959], written for a single soprano, and the full-length tragic drama Dialogues of the Carmelites [1957], which relates the story of a group of nuns martyred at a monastery in Compiègne during the French Revolution. The final scene is renown throughout opera for its musical depiction of the nuns’ executions. The guillotine is heard repeatedly as, offstage, the voices of the nuns singing a hymn is reduced, one by one with each descent of the blade, until there is only silence.
University of Utah Singers (with Utah Philharmonic) perform the opening section to Poulenc’s Gloria [2007]:
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