Scholarly record

MODERN RECEPTION OF THE MUSICIAN FRANCIS POULENC

L. V. Iatesen

Abstract

What Francis Poulenc means for today’s listener? Successful musician of the 20th century, having a huge success with the public, the French artist, who was brought up and created in a fascinating musical and cultural environment, and whose sources of inspiration, creative directions, genres, styles, concepts of creative thought impress both professionals and the general audience. If we access the official website dedicated to his personality, we are provided with an overall view on the huge documentation around Poulenc personality and phenomenon (biographical and compositional information, photographs, studies written by singers, musicologists, musical or literary critics, articles about events, thematic festivals, as well as an excellent systematization of audio-video materials). Moreover, his most famous biographer – professor of musicology Hervé Lacombe – in his monograph Francis Poulenc, published in 2013 by the famous publishing house Fayard, in his 1104 pages describes in detail both the man and the artist. I mentioned a few hypotheses of this research that will discuss several ideas that contribute to musician’s modern reception. Starting from a systematic presentation of bibliography and providing a few significant facts, we believe that Francis Poulenc is the artist who foresaw the post-modern elements by means of several features in his creation: timbre diversity or sound intensity; contrast of means of expression, characters, thematic profiles; mix, association or overlapping of academic, folklore and pop music; aesthetic conception presented in the antinomical manner including the use of opuses or their metamorphoses, beginning with the use of ludic elements for tragic categories and ending with the inclusion of sacred works, etc. It is that neo-Romantic attitude that includes neo-Classical features of various shades due to composer’s French background, his openness towards the new dominated by the spirit of improvisation. These are just a few reasons that I believe prove that Francis Poulenc is still a rich source of inspiration for modern artists.

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