Basic Repertoire List - Poulenc. Francis Poulenc (January 7, 1899 - January 30, 1963) had his first major successes as an 18-year-old composer without a single composition lesson. Despite some study, he remained largely self-taught. In fact, his music is so individual, it's remained largely self-taught. In fact, his music is so individual, it's difficult to imagine what anyone could have taught him. The music is eminently tuneful – his major strength. Poulenc behaved like a sophisticated eccentric (he once chatted up a stupefied Cannes bartender about an ingenious harmonic progression he managed to pull off that morning), and the eccentricity not surprisingly showed up in his music. In the Thirties, after the death of a friend, Poulenc's Catholic faith re-awoke. Some composers, like Beethoven, aim at a Titanic profundity. Poulenc's concerti are all twentieth-century landmarks. Poulenc excelled in chamber music as well. Poulenc wrote three operas.
Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963. Francis Poulenc. Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (French: [fʁɑ̃sis ʒɑ̃ maʁsɛl pulɛ̃k]; 7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist, associated with the French group Les Six. He composed art songs, solo piano music, chamber music, oratorios, choral music, operas, ballet music, and orchestral music. Early life and education[edit] Poulenc was born in Paris in 1899.[1] His father Émile Poulenc was a second-generation director of the Poulenc, and later Rhône-Poulenc, chemical corporation.[2] His mother, an amateur pianist, gave him his first lessons on the instrument. In 1914 he was introduced to the Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes, a champion of the music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Poulenc became his pupil shortly afterwards[3] and developed into a capable pianist[4] whose early compositions were dominated by the keyboard. Career[edit] Early works and Les Six[edit] Le bestiaire, ou Le cortège d'Orphée (1917) is a cycle of mélodies on poems by Guillaume Apollinaire.
World War II[edit]