Born in Paris in 1899 and died there in 1963; Francis Poulenc composed songs, chamber music, stage works and sacred music. He received piano lessons from Ricardo Vines and deepened his compositional knowledge with Charles Koechlin; from 1920 he belonged to the Groupe des Six. A large part of his vocal music was written for the song duo founded in 1935 with the baritone Pierre Bernac, its texts coming from Guillaume Apollinaire and Paul Éluard among others. His renewed turn towards the Catholic faith led in 1936 to the “Litanies à la Vierge noire” and shaped his sacred output. His works include the operas “Dialogues des Carmélites” and “La Voix humaine”, the “Gloria” and the late sonatas for wind instruments. On the Cybele album Il Ritratto dell’amore (1999) he is represented as a composer.
Francis Poulenc
Composer / Piano
