Francis Poulenc: Music, Art, and Literature (review)

Francis Poulenc: Music, Art and Literature. Edited by Sidney Buckland and Myriam Chimènes. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 1999. [xix, 409 p. ISBN 1-85928-407-8. $83.95.]

In many ways, Francis Poulenc (1899- 1963) remains a delightful paradox. For instance, with training limited to private lessons in piano and harmony, how did the young composer of Trois mouvements perpétuels for piano (1919) and the ballet Les biches (Sergey Dyagilev, 1924) develop such a distinctive musical style? Or how could someone responsible for the saucy and surreal opera Les mamelles de Tirésias (1944) also produce some of the twentieth century's most sincerely religious music, like the Mass in G (1937) and Gloria (1959)? And what is to be made of a man who never married, yet forever treasured the memory of a young woman who rejected his proposal--a man who fathered a daughter in 1946, only to suffer debilitating depression in the fifties over a deteriorating relationship with a traveling salesman?

Francis Poulenc: Music, Art and Literature begins to unravel the paradox. A diverse collection of essays interspersed with some little-known documents and previously unpublished photographs, this book offers a revealing portrait of the musician once described by Arthur Honegger as a "born composer."

In their introduction, editors Sidney Buckland and Myriam Chimènes highlight several themes that run through the various essays, including the notions of ambiguity, masks and concealment, and the "myth of facility" (pp. 5-6). Preeminent, however, is the theme of artistic interchange: "Both literature and painting served Poulenc not merely as a source of comparison but also as a source of inspiration. Constant in his life was this fertile interchange with the other arts, enabling him to assert with conviction: 'Musicians teach me technique. It is writers and artists who provide me with ideas'" (p. 4). The content and organization of the book reflect this creative philosophy.

The first two chapters address musical technique. Chapter 1, Robert Orledge's "Poulenc and Koechlin: 58 Lessons and a Friendship," seems particularly well placed, for after several readings, it still strikes me as the most enlightening of the entire book. Orledge presents a close examination of the harmonic instruction the young Poulenc received between 1921 and 1925 from composer Charles Koechlin. Using chorale exercises Poulenc submitted to his teacher and the latter's corrections and recompositions, Orledge offers insight into the development of one of the twentieth century's most personal styles. Keith W. Daniel's chapter, "Poulenc's Choral Works with Orchestra," focuses on Sécheresses (1937), the Stabat mater (1950), the Gloria, and Sept répons des ténèbres (1961). While all four compositions certainly deserve greater renown, it is regrettable that Daniel's inquiry rarely exceeds superficial description. References to "wrenching modulations," "biting dissonances," and "neo-renaissance" qualities are of little help in understanding this music, as are roman-numeral harmonic analysis, jazz-style harmony labels, and the never-defined concept of "cellular construction" (p. 58). Unquestionably, Poulenc's musical language and approach to structure will continue to engage analysts in the foreseeable future.

Chapters 3-5 explore the role of literature in Poulenc's life. Sophie Robert's "Raymonde Linossier: 'Lovely soul who was my flame'" examines Poulenc's relationship with the young woman who spurred his interest in literature and encouraged the development of his youthful artistic tastes. Chapter 4, "'My ideal library,'" reproduces Poulenc's response to a questionnaire that circulated in 1950 among two hundred French intellectuals asking respondents to list 100 works "'every self-respecting man ought to have read'" (p. 140). The exuberant Poulenc returned a list of 138 authors and books he admired and even appended a list of 11 authors whose books he would "hate to own" (p. 140)! Sidney Buckland's "'The coherence of opposites': Eluard, Poulenc, and the Poems of Tel jour telle nuit" explores the apparent contradictions between Poulenc and the poet he once characterized as his "spiritual brother" (p. 146).

Themes from the...