Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Du Langage au Style: Singularités de Francis Poulenc ed. by Lucie Kayas, Hervé Lacombe

2018; Volume: 65; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/fam.2018.0004

2471-156X

Keith E. Clifton,

Musicology and Musical Analysis

Reviewed by: Du Langage au Style: Singularités de Francis Poulenc ed. by Lucie Kayas, Hervé Lacombe Keith E. Clifton Du Langage au Style: Singularités de Francis Poulenc. Edited by Lucie Kayas and Hervé Lacombe. Paris: Société française de musicologie, 2016. [400 p. ISBN 978-2853-572-552. €38] The product of a January 2013 conference undertaken to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s death, this volume provides an overview of recent Poulenc scholarship and glimpses into areas for future research. Organised under the auspices of the Association des Amis de Francis Poulenc, the twenty essays represent the first of a two-part colloquium, the second having taken place later the same year with proceedings edited by Lacombe and Nicolas Southon (Actes du Colloque de Novembre 2013: Fortune de Francis Poulenc: Diffusion, Interpretation, Réception [Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016]). The present essays explore a wide array of topics, including Poulenc’s approach to form, relationship to artistic models, harmonic language, and selected sketch studies. Throughout, an uneasy balance between old and new, sacred and secular, monk and vagabond (“moine et voyou” in the composer’s often-cited phrase), is palpable, as shown by Alain Corbellari’s chapter focused on the mélodies. In the past decade, Poulenc scholarship has grown exponentially. Hervé Lacombe’s exhaustive biography (Francis Poulenc [Paris: Fayard, 2013]) and Nicholas Southon’s collection of the composer’s writings, lectures, and interviews (Francis Poulenc: Articles and Interviews-Notes From the Heart [Farnham: Ashgate, 2013]) provide two key examples. These resources support distinguished previous contributions by Sidney Buckland, Richard Burton, Myriam Chimènes, Henri Hell, and Carl B. Schmidt. Divided into four sections, the essays in the present volume are divided into four parts and encompass “Langage” (Language), “Modèles et Influences” (Models and Influences), “Du Profane au Sacré” (From the Profane to the Sacred), and “Nouveaux Territoires” (New Frontiers). In a wide-ranging introduction, Lacombe highlights the composer’s focus on instinct as a guiding force, his rejection of traditional analytical tools, and a reverence for selected composers. Lacombe’s comment that “en général, chez Poulenc, ce n’est pas la raison qui décide, mais l’oreille” (in general, with Poulenc, it is not reason which decides but the ear; p. 29), could apply to his entire output, despite occasional forays into musical experimentation. A summation of the composer as “bricoleur” (jack-of-all-trades; p. 39), drawing from many traditions and styles is wholly accurate. Attempting to define Poulenc’s complex role in modern music, Karol Beffa highlights a rejection of accepted trends (atonality, polytonality) in favor of independent paths, which included nods to modality (“Chanson d’Orkenise” from Banalités) and jazz (“Hôtel” from the same cycle). Despite excursions to remote key areas, his broader approach most often reveals an expansion of traditional tonic-dominant relationships. In a related chapter, Marc Rigaudière applies techniques of Schenkerian analysis to selected works, especially the Sonate pour flûte et piano. Acknowledging the challenge of establishing a fundamental structure (Ursatz) in a work with frequent changes of register, Rigaudière concludes that the composer’s avoidance of traditional tonal relations reveals an expansion of classical and romantic models, although I wish the author had considered in more detail what those might be. Philippe Cathé’s knotty exploration of harmonic vectors—centered on dominant and sub-dominant progressions in the late wind sonatas—is complemented by Jean-Claire Vançon’s more accessible study of the early sonatas composed just as Les Six was earning recognition in the 1920s. Beyond mere juvenile works, they reveal thoughtful approaches to counterpoint and a singular use of harmony based on thwarting expectations. Franck Ferraty’s chapter on Aubade—often considered the first large work of the composer’s maturity—demonstrates a combination of lyricism, major/minor mode duality, quasi-atonality, and interplay between tragedy and comedy. Amplifying the question of influence, Jean-Pierre Bartoli asks to what extent Poulenc’s music was informed by the clarity and syntax of [End Page 30] the classic era. Again, the example of Mozart, whom the composer called “Dieu le Père” (God the Father...