Francis Poulenc

Banalités

For as long as there are poets there will be songs. If someone was to put on my tomb: 'Here lies Francis Poulenc, musician to Apollinaire and Éluard': that really would be my finest claim to fame, ' the composer declared in 1945. Right from boyhood his attraction to poetry was practically equal to his love of music. And in fact the young Poulenc took to song-writing quite naturally, starting in 1919. Poulenc compiled a catalogue of 150 songs, a body of works of consistently high quality, containing great diversity, that marks him out as the last major exponent in this genre. These editions belong to 'Musique vocale française', a series devoted to French vocal repertoire both in original and transposed key designed for students and teachers as well as professionals: they include original poems and English translations.