Francis Poulenc (Oxford Studies of Composers)


Printed:	1995	Author:	Wilfrid Mellers
Publisher:	Oxford University Press	ISBN:	019816338X
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Paperback, 432 pages, (September 1995) Usually ships within 2-3 days.
Amazon Review
Once considered as little more than the froth in the wake of the First World War, a witty boy-hedonist who, in the giddy Twenties, tweaked the noses of moribund establishmentarians, Poulenc has in fact proved unexpectedly durable--more so than any of his colleagues among Les Six, Here is a survey of Poulenc's music, based on careful selection of his works, and written by an authoritative guide. Adopting a broadly chronological approach, Mellers traces Poulenc's development as a composer from enfant terrible to a mature composer both for secular society and for the liturgy of the Catholic Church; in so doing he points to the reasons for the durability and pertinacity of his appeal. Mellers further assesses Poulenc's place in the French tradition, and, in a Postlude, pays tribute to the warm regard with which Poulenc was held by so many of his fellow musicians.