Francis Poulenc's Banalités
Katherine L. Ellis♦
Dr. Jacqueline Collett, Faculty Mentor
Francis Poulenc made substantial contributions to Mélodie, a vocal music genre characterized by a close and dependent relationship between French text and melody. Poulenc was a member of Les Six, a group of six French composers that were friends and mentees of Erik Satie. Les Six was formed in response to Richard Wagner and impressionism. Poulenc composed the Banalités or Interests, five songs set to texts by Guillaume Apollinaire, in 1940. I studied the compositional techniques he employed to unite the melodies and texts of Hôtel and Voyage à Paris. I will discuss the texts and melodies and perform both selections.
Keywords: Poulenc, Mélodie, Banalités
Topic(s):Music
Presentation Type: Performance Art
Session: 23-4
Location: OP Performance Hall
Time: 10:15