Poulenc: A Biography

by Roger Nichols

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300226508
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	06/09/2020
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	795,498
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Roger Nichols is a leading British authority on modern French music and a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. His publications include Ravel, The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris, 1917–1929, and volumes on Debussy and Messiaen.

Table of Contents

List of Plates viii

Acknowledgements x

Preface xii

I Overture and Beginners: 1899-1918 1

II 'Now We Are Six': 1919-1924 29

III Dreaming of Maturity: 1924-1928 62

IV Depression and Recovery: 1929-1934 85

V Surrealism and Faith: 1934-1939 112

VI The Years of Darkness: 1939-1944 142

VII 'Liberty, I Write Your Name': 1944-1952 172

VIII Mad about Nuns: 1952-1956 215

IX Joy, Suffering and Farewell: 1957-1963 249

Appendix 292

Envoi 294

Endnotes 295

Chronology 322

Catalogue of Works 347

Select Bibliography 353

Index 359

Editorial Reviews

Absorbing . . . Nichols gives an assured overview of Poulenc’s life and work, applying a light touch that is appropriate to the subject’s man-about-town façade.”—Alex Ross, New Yorker

“A rich scholarly biography of the prolific French composer”—Kirkus Reviews

“[A] superb biography . . . [Nichols] treats Poulenc’s life sympathetically while detailing the genesis of his works. A highly cultivated listener with a keen musical memory, Nichols is able to enumerate instances of the composer’s self-quotations and his allusions to pieces by other composers. Having previously translated Poulenc’s writing, he brings to his work a thorough familiarity. When he passes judgment, he does so with authority and discretion.”—John Check, New Criterion

“Nichols honors Poulenc with a spare, yet never slapdash, prose style. Amusing, culturally literate, perceptive, and humane, Nichols admits the composer’s character faults and artistic misfires while conveying on each page his essential affection for the music.”—R. J. Stove, American Conservative

“An excellent biography [that] will send readers to listen again to Poulenc's music.”—S. C. Pelkey, Choice

“Nichols is the perfect biographer for Poulenc. He has the same light touch, the same urbane charm and wit, and he knows everything there is to know about French music, its sources, its context and its psychology.”—Stephen Walsh, author of Debussy

“Packed with entertaining detail and engagingly written, Nichols’ biography is essential reading for anyone interested in French music of the 20th century.”—Caroline Potter, author of Erik Satie

“A fluent biography, written with sensitivity and compelling enthusiasm for the composer's music. Readers are guided to the poetry behind the music and the theology behind his Carmelites, all in the context of the highs and lows of the life of this fascinating man.”—Professor Richard Langham Smith, Royal College of Music

“It is with great expectation that we should welcome the release of this book about the quintessential French musician Francis Poulenc; all the more so for being written by Nichols who is such an authority on the subject.”—Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor and violinist

From the Publisher

2020-04-12
A rich scholarly biography of the prolific French composer.

Nichols, who has written previous volumes about Ravel, Debussy and Messiaen—returns with a densely detailed account of the life and music of Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), who seems barely to have drawn an idle breath throughout his illustrious career. A gifted pianist, Poulenc began composing as a teen and would continue throughout his life. As the author reveals, Poulenc wrote songs—often based on poems of those whom he admired, like Apollinaire—orchestral pieces, works for piano and other instruments (oboe, harpsichord), and film scores and opera, one of which, Dialogues des Carmélites (1957), was popular throughout the Western world and is a work to which Nichols devotes a dozen pages of musical and dramatic analysis. The author’s structural design is not surprising: chronology, family background, quotations from numerous letters and other sources, mentions of many pieces—and some accounts of others so detailed that only musicians and/or theorists will follow with much comprehension. Nichols also occasionally tells us, without judgment, about Poulenc’s romantic life: He never married, and though he was gay, he sired a child; also, until near the end of his life, he engaged in relationships with younger men. We also learn about his friendships, his professional associations (Stravinsky was a favorite), and his personal struggles (fear of death was prominent). The tone throughout is decidedly serious, though the author occasionally waxes ironic. Poulenc briefly considered an opera based on the story of Oedipus. “Not many jokes there,” quips the author. He is almost uniformly positive about Poulenc’s work, and some readers will be frustrated by the decision not to translate the French titles of the pieces under discussion. Like Graham Johnson’s Poulenc, this one likely won’t interest general readers.

Deeply diligent, intelligent research underlies a work for classical musicians and fans.

Kirkus Reviews

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