Francis Poulenc
Encyclopedia
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (fʁɑ̃sis ʒɑ̃ maʁsɛl pulɛ̃k) (7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six
. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music. Critic Claude Rostand, in a July 1950 Paris-Presse article, coined the term "half monk, half thug" (translated by Ivry from "le moine et le voyou"), a phrase that would often be used to describe Poulenc.
in 1899. His father Emile Poulenc was a second generation director of the Poulenc, and later Rhône-Poulenc
, chemical corporation. His mother, an amateur pianist, taught him to play. He was introduced to Ricardo Viñes
in 1914, a champion of the music of Claude Debussy
and Maurice Ravel
, and became his pupil shortly afterwards. He was a capable pianist, and the keyboard dominated his early compositions.
In 1916 a childhood friend, Raymonde Linossier (1897-1930), introduced Poulenc to Adrienne Monnier
's bookshop, the Maison des Amis des Livres. There he met avant-garde poets such as Guillaume Apollinaire
, Max Jacob
, Paul Eluard
and Louis Aragon
. He was to set many of their poems to music.
His first known piece, Rapsodie Nègre (1917), caught Stravinsky
's attention.
Le Bestiaire, ou Le Cortège d'Orphée (also in 1917) is a cycle of melodies on poems by Guillaume Apollinaire
. In 1918 he gave the premiere of his Sonata for piano four hands with a fellow Viñes pupil, Marcelle Meyer
.
Poulenc premiered several of his new pieces - the Sonata for Two Clarinets, the Sonata for Piano Four Hands, a Sonata for Violin and Piano, and Trois movements perpétuels - at a series of concerts held from 1917 to 1920 in painter Émile Lejeune's studio in Montparnasse. There Poulenc met other young composers, and together they formed first Erik Satie
’s Nouveaux jeunes
and then Jean Cocteau
’s Les Six
, a loose-knit group of young French and (one) Swiss composers. Poulenc composed his Valse en ut for L'album des six (1920) and also contributed to Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel
(1921) with Discours du Général and La Baigneuse de Trouville.
During the 1920s, Poulenc's most immediate influences were Chabrier, Debussy, Satie, and Stravinsky, and he generally followed the irreverent, flippant aesthetic stance of Les Six
with melodies in which the influence of Parisian music halls is deeply felt.
Between 1921 and 1925 Poulenc received his first formal musical training when he studied composition with Charles Koechlin
(1921-25). But he mostly remained a self-taught composer.
Diaghilev commissioned ballet music for Les Biches, given by the Ballets Russes
in January 1924, with settings by Marie Laurencin
.
In 1926 he met baritone Pierre Bernac
, who became a very close friend (but not a sexual partner). A great many of the chansons and melodies Poulenc wrote were composed for Bernac. They gave recitals throughout the world together from 1935 until 1959.
In 1927, Poulenc bought « Le grand coteau », a house close to Noizay
, in the Touraine
where he enjoyed the quiet atmosphere he needed to work.
In 1928 he composed the Concert champêtre
, a piece for harpsichord and orchestra commissioned by Wanda Landowska
. It was dedicated to Poulenc's lover, painter Richard Chanlaire.
In the same year Poulenc recorded his Trois mouvements perpétuels and the Trio for piano, oboe and bassoon, and then Le Bestiaire. He also started publishing musical reviews in Les Arts phoniques.
He created his Concerto for two pianos and orchestra with Jacques Février
in 1932. Also in 1932 Le Bal Masqué, a lighter piece, was created privately at the Noailles
.
Poulenc's religious reawakening in 1936 resulted in the creation of his first sacred pieces, Litanies
à la Vierge Noire de Rocamadour (1936) and the Mass in G (1937); this trend toward "new dimensions and greater depth" in the composer's style was solidified by the song cycle Tel jour, telle nuit (1937) and Concerto in G minor for organ, strings, and timpani (1938). The remainder of Poulenc's career consisted of a "gradual deepening and distillation" of his basic style, and featured an increased concentration on sacred music and music for the stage, including Les mamelles de Tirésias
(1947), Stabat Mater
(1950), Dialogues of the Carmelites
(1957), Gloria
(1959), and Sept répons des ténèbres (1962). Among Poulenc's last major works is a series of sonatas for wind instruments and piano. He was particularly fond of woodwinds, and planned a set of sonatas for all of them, yet only lived to complete four: sonatas for flute, oboe, clarinet, and the Elégie for horn.
Poulenc had only one piano student, Gabriel Tacchino
, who has performed and recorded all his piano music.
Poulenc was a featured pianist in recordings, including some of his own songs (with Pierre Bernac
, recorded in 1947; and Rose Dercourt) and the Concerto for Two Pianos (recorded in May 1957). He supervised the 1961 world premiere recording of his Gloria, which was conducted by Georges Prêtre
. His recordings were released by RCA Victor and EMI
. Poulenc's Perpetual Motion No. 1 (1918) is used in Alfred Hitchcock
's Rope
(1948).
Poulenc's music is fundamentally tonal; although he made use of harmonic innovations such as pandiatonicism, chromatically altered chords, and even 12-tone rows (in a few of his last works), Poulenc never questioned the validity of traditional tonic-dominant harmony. Lyrical melody pervades his music and underlies his important contributions to vocal music, particularly French art song.
gay
composers. His first serious relationship was with painter Richard Chanlaire, to whom he wrote on his Concert champêtre
score: "You have changed my life, you are the sunshine of my thirty years, a reason for living and working". He also once said, "You know that I am as sincere in my faith, without any messianic screamings, as I am in my Parisian sexuality." However, Poulenc's life was also one of inner struggle. Having been born and raised a Roman Catholic, he struggled throughout his life between coming to terms with his "unorthodox" sexual "appetites" and maintaining his religious convictions.
In 1923, Poulenc was "unable to do anything" for two days after the death from typhoid fever of twenty-year-old novelist Raymond Radiguet
, Jean Cocteau
's lover. However, two weeks later he made lewd jokes about a male ballet dancer to Sergei Diaghilev
at the rehearsals of Les Biches. Then in 1930 came the death of Raymonde Linossier, a woman to whom he had proposed a marriage of convenience in 1928 and had remained a "cherished friend" until her death. In 1936, Poulenc was profoundly affected by the death of another composer, Pierre-Octave Ferroud
. This led him to his first visit to the shrine of the Black Virgin of Rocamadour
. Here, before the statue of the Madonna with a young child on her lap, Poulenc experienced a life-changing transformation. Thereafter, he produced a sizeable output of liturgical music or compositions based on religious themes.
In 1949, Poulenc experienced the death of a friend, the artist Christian Bérard
, for whom he composed his Stabat Mater
(1950).
Poulenc died of heart failure in Paris on 30 January 1963 and is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery
.
Les Six
Les six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1920 by critic Henri Collet in an article titled "" to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against the musical style of Richard Wagner and impressionist music.-Members:Formally, the Groupe des...
. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music. Critic Claude Rostand, in a July 1950 Paris-Presse article, coined the term "half monk, half thug" (translated by Ivry from "le moine et le voyou"), a phrase that would often be used to describe Poulenc.
Career
Poulenc was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1899. His father Emile Poulenc was a second generation director of the Poulenc, and later Rhône-Poulenc
Rhône-Poulenc
-History of the company:The Company was founded in 1928 through the merger of Société des Usines Chimiques du Rhône from Lyon and Établissements Poulenc Frères from Paris founded by Étienne Poulenc, a 19th century Parisian apothecary and brought to prominence by his second and third sons Emile...
, chemical corporation. His mother, an amateur pianist, taught him to play. He was introduced to Ricardo Viñes
Ricardo Viñes
Ricardo Viñes was a Spanish pianist. He first publicly performed many important works by Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Manuel de Falla, Déodat de Séverac and Isaac Albéniz. He was also the piano teacher of composer Francis Poulenc and pianist Léo-Pol Morin.He was born in Lleida,...
in 1914, a champion of the music of Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
and Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
, and became his pupil shortly afterwards. He was a capable pianist, and the keyboard dominated his early compositions.
In 1916 a childhood friend, Raymonde Linossier (1897-1930), introduced Poulenc to Adrienne Monnier
Adrienne Monnier
Adrienne Monnier was a French poet, bookseller and publisher and an important figure in the modernist writing scene in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.-"La Maison des Amis des Livres":...
's bookshop, the Maison des Amis des Livres. There he met avant-garde poets such as Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire
Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
, Max Jacob
Max Jacob
Max Jacob was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic.-Life and career:After spending his childhood in Quimper, Brittany, France, he enrolled in the Paris Colonial School, which he left in 1897 for an artistic career...
, Paul Eluard
Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
and Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...
. He was to set many of their poems to music.
His first known piece, Rapsodie Nègre (1917), caught Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's attention.
Le Bestiaire, ou Le Cortège d'Orphée (also in 1917) is a cycle of melodies on poems by Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire
Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
. In 1918 he gave the premiere of his Sonata for piano four hands with a fellow Viñes pupil, Marcelle Meyer
Marcelle Meyer
Marcelle Meyer was a French pianist.Marcelle Meyer was born in Lille, France on 22 May 1897. She was taught piano from the age of five by her sister Germaine, and entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1911....
.
Poulenc premiered several of his new pieces - the Sonata for Two Clarinets, the Sonata for Piano Four Hands, a Sonata for Violin and Piano, and Trois movements perpétuels - at a series of concerts held from 1917 to 1920 in painter Émile Lejeune's studio in Montparnasse. There Poulenc met other young composers, and together they formed first Erik Satie
Erik Satie
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...
’s Nouveaux jeunes
Les Six
Les six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1920 by critic Henri Collet in an article titled "" to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against the musical style of Richard Wagner and impressionist music.-Members:Formally, the Groupe des...
and then Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
’s Les Six
Les Six
Les six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1920 by critic Henri Collet in an article titled "" to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against the musical style of Richard Wagner and impressionist music.-Members:Formally, the Groupe des...
, a loose-knit group of young French and (one) Swiss composers. Poulenc composed his Valse en ut for L'album des six (1920) and also contributed to Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel
Les mariés de la tour Eiffel
Les mariés de la tour Eiffel is a ballet to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, choreography by Jean Börlin, set by Irène Lagut, costumes by Jean Hugo, and music by five members of Les six – Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre. The score calls for two...
(1921) with Discours du Général and La Baigneuse de Trouville.
During the 1920s, Poulenc's most immediate influences were Chabrier, Debussy, Satie, and Stravinsky, and he generally followed the irreverent, flippant aesthetic stance of Les Six
Les Six
Les six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1920 by critic Henri Collet in an article titled "" to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against the musical style of Richard Wagner and impressionist music.-Members:Formally, the Groupe des...
with melodies in which the influence of Parisian music halls is deeply felt.
Between 1921 and 1925 Poulenc received his first formal musical training when he studied composition with Charles Koechlin
Charles Koechlin
Charles Louis Eugène Koechlin was a French composer, teacher and writer on music. He was a political radical all his life and a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things as medieval music, The Jungle Book of Rudyard Kipling, Johann Sebastian Bach, film stars , travelling, stereoscopic...
(1921-25). But he mostly remained a self-taught composer.
Diaghilev commissioned ballet music for Les Biches, given by the Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...
in January 1924, with settings by Marie Laurencin
Marie Laurencin
Marie Laurencin was a French painter and printmaker. -Biography:Laurencin was born in Paris, where she was raised by her mother and lived much of her life. At 18, she studied porcelain painting in Sèvres...
.
In 1926 he met baritone Pierre Bernac
Pierre Bernac
Pierre Bernac was a French baritone.Born Pierre Bertin in Paris on January 12, 1899, he studied with Reinhold von Wahrlich in Salzburg. he came to music relatively late and gave his first recital in 1921....
, who became a very close friend (but not a sexual partner). A great many of the chansons and melodies Poulenc wrote were composed for Bernac. They gave recitals throughout the world together from 1935 until 1959.
In 1927, Poulenc bought « Le grand coteau », a house close to Noizay
Noizay
Noizay is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France....
, in the Touraine
Touraine
The Touraine is one of the traditional provinces of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, the Touraine was divided between the departments of Indre-et-Loire, :Loir-et-Cher and Indre.-Geography:...
where he enjoyed the quiet atmosphere he needed to work.
In 1928 he composed the Concert champêtre
Concert champêtre
Concert champêtre is a harpsichord concerto by Francis Poulenc, which also exists in a version for piano solo with very slight changes in the solo part....
, a piece for harpsichord and orchestra commissioned by Wanda Landowska
Wanda Landowska
Wanda Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist whose performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century...
. It was dedicated to Poulenc's lover, painter Richard Chanlaire.
In the same year Poulenc recorded his Trois mouvements perpétuels and the Trio for piano, oboe and bassoon, and then Le Bestiaire. He also started publishing musical reviews in Les Arts phoniques.
He created his Concerto for two pianos and orchestra with Jacques Février
Jacques Février
Jacques Février was a French pianist and teacher.Jacques Février was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the son of the composer Henry Février. He studied with Édouard Risler and Marguerite Long at the Paris Conservatoire, taking a premier prix in 1921...
in 1932. Also in 1932 Le Bal Masqué, a lighter piece, was created privately at the Noailles
Noailles
Noailles is the name of several communes in France:* Noailles, Corrèze, in the Corrèze département* Noailles, Oise, in the Oise département* Noailles, Tarn, in the Tarn département* Noailles, a neighborhood of Marseilles and its metro station...
.
Poulenc's religious reawakening in 1936 resulted in the creation of his first sacred pieces, Litanies
Litany
A litany, in Christian worship and some forms of Jewish worship, is a form of prayer used in services and processions, and consisting of a number of petitions...
à la Vierge Noire de Rocamadour (1936) and the Mass in G (1937); this trend toward "new dimensions and greater depth" in the composer's style was solidified by the song cycle Tel jour, telle nuit (1937) and Concerto in G minor for organ, strings, and timpani (1938). The remainder of Poulenc's career consisted of a "gradual deepening and distillation" of his basic style, and featured an increased concentration on sacred music and music for the stage, including Les mamelles de Tirésias
Les mamelles de Tirésias
Les mamelles de Tirésias is a surrealist two-act opéra bouffe by Francis Poulenc, based on the play of the same title by Guillaume Apollinaire, which was written in 1903 but first performed in 1917...
(1947), Stabat Mater
Stabat Mater (Poulenc)
Stabat Mater is a musical setting of the Stabat Mater sequence composed by Francis Poulenc in 1950. Poulenc composed the piece in response to the death of his friend, artist Christian Bérard; he considered writing a Requiem for Bérard, but, after returning to the shrine of the Black Virgin of...
(1950), Dialogues of the Carmelites
Dialogues of the Carmelites
Dialogues of the Carmelites , is an opera in three acts by Francis Poulenc. In 1953, M. Valcarenghi approached Poulenc to commission a ballet for La Scala in Milan; when Poulenc found the proposed subject uninspiring, Valcarenghi suggested instead a screenplay by Georges Bernanos, based on the...
(1957), Gloria
Gloria (Poulenc)
The Gloria by Francis Poulenc , scored for soprano solo, large orchestra, and chorus, is a setting of the Roman Catholic Gloria in excelsis Deo text. One of Poulenc's most celebrated works, the Gloria was commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation in honor of Sergei Koussevitzky and his wife...
(1959), and Sept répons des ténèbres (1962). Among Poulenc's last major works is a series of sonatas for wind instruments and piano. He was particularly fond of woodwinds, and planned a set of sonatas for all of them, yet only lived to complete four: sonatas for flute, oboe, clarinet, and the Elégie for horn.
Poulenc had only one piano student, Gabriel Tacchino
Gabriel Tacchino
Gabriel Tacchino is one of the premier post-war French classical pianists; he also teaches piano.Tacchino was born in Cannes. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1947 to 1953, where his teachers included Jacques Février and Marguerite Long...
, who has performed and recorded all his piano music.
Poulenc was a featured pianist in recordings, including some of his own songs (with Pierre Bernac
Pierre Bernac
Pierre Bernac was a French baritone.Born Pierre Bertin in Paris on January 12, 1899, he studied with Reinhold von Wahrlich in Salzburg. he came to music relatively late and gave his first recital in 1921....
, recorded in 1947; and Rose Dercourt) and the Concerto for Two Pianos (recorded in May 1957). He supervised the 1961 world premiere recording of his Gloria, which was conducted by Georges Prêtre
Georges Prêtre
- Biography :He was born in Waziers , and attended the Douai Conservatory and then studied harmony under Maurice Duruflé and conducting under André Cluytens among others at the Conservatoire de Paris. Amongst his early musical interests were jazz and trumpet. After graduating, he conducted in a...
. His recordings were released by RCA Victor and EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
. Poulenc's Perpetual Motion No. 1 (1918) is used in Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's Rope
Rope (film)
Rope is a 1948 American thriller film based on the play Rope by Patrick Hamilton and adapted by Hume Cronyn and Arthur Laurents, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by Sidney Bernstein and Hitchcock as the first of their Transatlantic Pictures productions...
(1948).
Poulenc's music is fundamentally tonal; although he made use of harmonic innovations such as pandiatonicism, chromatically altered chords, and even 12-tone rows (in a few of his last works), Poulenc never questioned the validity of traditional tonic-dominant harmony. Lyrical melody pervades his music and underlies his important contributions to vocal music, particularly French art song.
Personal life
Some writers consider Poulenc one of the first openlyComing out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
composers. His first serious relationship was with painter Richard Chanlaire, to whom he wrote on his Concert champêtre
Concert champêtre
Concert champêtre is a harpsichord concerto by Francis Poulenc, which also exists in a version for piano solo with very slight changes in the solo part....
score: "You have changed my life, you are the sunshine of my thirty years, a reason for living and working". He also once said, "You know that I am as sincere in my faith, without any messianic screamings, as I am in my Parisian sexuality." However, Poulenc's life was also one of inner struggle. Having been born and raised a Roman Catholic, he struggled throughout his life between coming to terms with his "unorthodox" sexual "appetites" and maintaining his religious convictions.
Raymond Radiguet
Raymond Radiguet was a French author whose two novels were noted for their explicit themes and writing style and tone.-Early life:...
, Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
's lover. However, two weeks later he made lewd jokes about a male ballet dancer to Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev , usually referred to outside of Russia as Serge, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise.-Early life and career:...
at the rehearsals of Les Biches. Then in 1930 came the death of Raymonde Linossier, a woman to whom he had proposed a marriage of convenience in 1928 and had remained a "cherished friend" until her death. In 1936, Poulenc was profoundly affected by the death of another composer, Pierre-Octave Ferroud
Pierre-Octave Ferroud
Pierre-Octave Ferroud was a French composer of classical music.He was born in Chasselay, Rhône, near Lyon. He went to Lyon, to Strasbourg where he studied with Guy Ropartz, and again to Lyon where he was for a time an associate and "disciple" of Florent Schmitt, and a pupil of Georges Martin...
. This led him to his first visit to the shrine of the Black Virgin of Rocamadour
Rocamadour
Rocamadour is a commune in the Lot department in south-western France. It lies in the former province of Quercy.Rocamadour has attracted visitors for its setting in a gorge above a tributary of the River Dordogne, and especially for its historical monuments and its sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin...
. Here, before the statue of the Madonna with a young child on her lap, Poulenc experienced a life-changing transformation. Thereafter, he produced a sizeable output of liturgical music or compositions based on religious themes.
In 1949, Poulenc experienced the death of a friend, the artist Christian Bérard
Christian Bérard
Christian Bérard , also known as Bébé, was a French artist, fashion illustrator and designer.Bérard and his lover Boris Kochno, who directed the Ballets Russes and was also co-founder of the Ballet des Champs-Elysées, were one of the most prominent openly homosexual couples in French theater during...
, for whom he composed his Stabat Mater
Stabat Mater (Poulenc)
Stabat Mater is a musical setting of the Stabat Mater sequence composed by Francis Poulenc in 1950. Poulenc composed the piece in response to the death of his friend, artist Christian Bérard; he considered writing a Requiem for Bérard, but, after returning to the shrine of the Black Virgin of...
(1950).
Poulenc died of heart failure in Paris on 30 January 1963 and is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France , though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement, and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the...
.
Books
- Francis Poulenc, Moi et mes amis, confidences recueillies par Stéphane Audel. Paris: La Palatine Ligugé, 1963, 206pp.
- Francis Poulenc Echo and Source. Selected Correspondence 1915-1963, translated and edited by Sidney Buckland. London: Gollancz, 1991, 448pp.
- Francis Poulenc, Journal de mes mélodies. Cicero, 1993, 160pp.
- Francis Poulenc, Correspondence 1910-1963, éditée par Myriam Chimènes. Paris: Fayard, 1994, 1128pp.
- Francis Poulenc, À bâtons rompus (écrits radiophoniques, Journal de vacances, Feuilles américaines), écrits édités par Lucie Kayas. Arles: Actes Sud, 1999.
- Simon Basinger, Les Cahiers de Francis Poulenc. Paris/collectif de l'Association F.Poulenc, 2008.
- Pierre Bernac, Francis Poulenc et ses mélodies. Paris: Buchet-Chastel, 1978, 220pp.
- Francine Bloch, Phonographie de Francis Poulenc. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1984.)
- Sidney Buckland and Myriam Chimènes, eds. Poulenc: Music, Art and Literature. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999, 409pp.
- Richard Burton, Francis Poulenc. Absolute Press, 2002, 114pp.
- Henri Hell, Francis Poulenc. Paris: Fayard, 1978, 391pp.
- Renaud Machart, Poulenc. Paris: Seuil, 1995, 252pp.
- Alban Ramaut, Francis Poulenc et la voix. Lyon: Symétrie, 2005, 336 p.
- Jean Roy, Francis Poulenc. Paris: Seghers, 1964, 191pp.
- Carl B. Schmidt, Entrancing Muse: A Documented Biography of Francis Poulenc. London: Pendragon Pr, 2001, 621pp.