#poulenc
Poulenc-Les soirées de Nazelles(1936)
Something that has been on my mind lately is how we perceive and evaluate music. I was born near the end of the cutoff for the “millennial” generation, so for me music is something that exists in the environment, it radiates as an MP3 from a computer, played on CDs, and then streamed digitally. For me, music is something that I can conjure with my phone and take anywhere. This personal and mobile music gives us a way to perceive the world that is so different from humans before the 21st century (really, before recording technology) that we often take for granted how special music is. At least before records, you had to physically be present where the music was being created. It was something that exists in that moment, and then once the music is done, you’ve “heard” it. You don’t always get to play it again. It’s why music was, and still is, a communal experience. This piece by Poulenc is a set of variations that are based on improvisations he played at the piano during vacations with friends at his country estate. Each variation is a little musical picture of a different friend, much like Elgar’s more famous Enigma Variations. Poulenc shows off his pianistic brilliance and his ear for textures throughout from moments like the opening slam into the bass, or the delicate and hazy “Le goût du malheur” with hints of Satie and Ravel. The mix of playfulness and severity in these variations is typical of his neoclassical style. Here as piano variations it makes me think of French Baroque keyboard suites. The music is still good without any program information or knowing which friend is referenced when, but still I love the picture of him creating music in the moment for a small group to appreciate in the moment of its creation. We can experience music as the personal digital soundtrack to our lives, and we can still experience it traditionally as a spontaneous act of creation for the limited number of listeners who are there to experience it.
Movements:
Preamble
1. Le comble de la distinction
2. Le cœur sur la main
3. La désinvolture et la discrétion
4. La suite dans les idées
5. Le charme enjôleur
6. Le contentement de soi
7. Le goût du malheur
8. L'alerte vieillesse
Cadence
Final
Poulenc-Les soirées de Nazelles(1936)
Something that has been on my mind lately is how we perceive and evaluate music. I was born near the end of the cutoff for the “millennial” generation, so for me music is something that exists in the environment, it radiates as an MP3 from a computer, played on CDs, and then streamed digitally. For me, music is something that I can conjure with my phone and take anywhere. This personal and mobile music gives us a way to perceive the world that is so different from humans before the 21st century (really, before recording technology) that we often take for granted how special music is. At least before records, you had to physically be present where the music was being created. It was something that exists in that moment, and then once the music is done, you’ve “heard” it. You don’t always get to play it again. It’s why music was, and still is, a communal experience. This piece by Poulenc is a set of variations that are based on improvisations he played at the piano during vacations with friends at his country estate. Each variation is a little musical picture of a different friend, much like Elgar’s more famous Enigma Variations. Poulenc shows off his pianistic brilliance and his ear for textures throughout from moments like the opening slam into the bass, or the delicate and hazy “Le goût du malheur” with hints of Satie and Ravel. The mix of playfulness and severity in these variations is typical of his neoclassical style. Here as piano variations it makes me think of French Baroque keyboard suites. The music is still good without any program information or knowing which friend is referenced when, but still I love the picture of him creating music in the moment for a small group to appreciate in the moment of its creation. We can experience music as the personal digital soundtrack to our lives, and we can still experience it traditionally as a spontaneous act of creation for the limited number of listeners who are there to experience it.
Movements:
Preamble
1. Le comble de la distinction
2. Le cœur sur la main
3. La désinvolture et la discrétion
4. La suite dans les idées
5. Le charme enjôleur
6. Le contentement de soi
7. Le goût du malheur
8. L'alerte vieillesse
Cadence
Final
Poulenc-Organ Concerto
After his earlier harpsichord concerto [”Concerto champêtre”] and double piano concerto, Poulenc opted away from the lighthearted and cheery for something a bit more ambitious and boarder-line spiritual. This went against Princess Edmond de Polignac’s wishes when she commissioned the work, though being a lover of music and patron to several French composers at the time, I’m sure she still loved the final product. This work may have also been inspired by the restoration of Poulenc’s Christian faith, a faith he had come back to after his close friend, Pierre-Octave Ferroud, passed away. After that tragic accident, Poulenc took a pilgrimage to the Black Virgin of Rocamadour. This trip also inspired him to start writing religious music, and the tone of these sacred works can be felt in this concerto, along with the grandiose drama of the organ, and juxtaposing the theatric and spiritual with lighthearted Parisian street dances.
The concerto is in one continuous movement with tempo indicators:
1. Andante
2. Allegro giocoso
3. Subito andante moderato
4. Tempo allegro. Molto agitatio
5. Très calme: Lent
6. Tempo de l'allegro initial
7. Tempo d'introduction: Largo
Poulenc | Flute & Piano Sonata
Listening to this work by Poulenc, one might be tempted to think it’s rather too lovely to be really “sad.” Yet, written just after the liberation of Paris in World War II, it was clearly meant to embody the sense of loss Poulenc and many others were feeling as the war ended. Rather, I tend to sense that very real French refusal to succumb to grief. I get that same feeling from Debussy’s Violin Sonata, the work of a man struggling with colon cancer, and not too long to live, but refusing to submit to self-pity. The beauty of Poulenc’s work is maquilage, meant to hide the pain.
