[3][n 1] He was a slow and painstaking composer, and the piece took him two years to complete. Title Composer Poulenc, Francis: Opus/Catalogue Number Op./Cat. Les Biches besteht aus einer Ouvertüre und fünf Bildern, deren Handlungen teilweise von einem Chor kommentiert werden: Dieser Artikel behandelt das Ballett; zum gleichnamigen Spielfilm von Claude Chabrol siehe, Marie-Françoise Christout: Les Biches, Internetseite der Dossiers pédagogiques, https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Les_Biches&oldid=189844637, „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“. The cantata is written for a double mixed choir and twelve real parts[M 1] and is divided into eight chants: This first song is of a duration of 2 minutes 40. [H 3], According to biographer Henri Hell, it is in the choral domain that Francis Poulenc wrote his most accomplished works,[note 2] leaning more to a cappella works than to accompanied ones[H 4] and describes Figure humaine as one of the most striking works of contemporary choral music,[H 5] "wonderfully polyphonic, rich and complex sound texture". [13] Roger Nichols (2020) concurs and considers the most striking feature of the Trio is its depth of feeling, "especially in the central Andante where, in his favourite B flat major and over a continuously pulsing quaver movement, he gives full rein to his lyrical gifts". A young audience cherished the unsophisticated fresh charm, and the composer received commissions in the wake of the success. Die Fassade dieser Menschen ist oberflächlicher Genuss, hinter der Kultiviertheit verbergen sich jedoch dunklere Gedanken und Intrigen.[2]. Entsprechend ist seine Musik in Les Biches voller Anspielungen auf die traditionelle Musik des 19. Bagatelle in D minor for violin and piano. Élégie (en accords alternés), for 2 pianos, This page was last edited on 3 October 2020, at 15:02. Del balletto esiste anche una suite orchestrale, comprendente solo 5 movimenti del balletto originale e priva del coro, rielaborata dallo stesso compositore nel 1939 in versione finale. Some consider this piece a milestone in ballet history. [11] Nevertheless, many years after the work was written, Poulenc told Claude Rostand: In a 1998 study of Poulenc, Keith Daniel suggests that this ex post facto analysis by Poulenc was to some extent myth-making – something he was given to. [17] The presto (minim =104) begins with a classically double-dotted theme for the bassoon in B-flat minor, echoed by the oboe, a semitone higher. IFP 9 Movements/Sections Mov'ts/Sec's: 1 act Year/Date of Composition Y/D of Comp. . Les biches Alt ernative. Beeinflusst wurde Poulencs Musik durch die Surrealisten der 1920er Jahre, die in Literatur und Kunst das Traumhafte und Unwirkliche darstellten. [JM 2] Éluard was the only surrealist writer who tolerated music,[J 1] and the musicologist Peter Jost listed the works of Georges Auric and Francis Poulenc on his texts: six for Auric and 34 for Poulenc, augmented by three choral works including Figure humaine. 36b 1939-40 Les biches (Suite) orchestral from FP 36a 36c 1923 Les biches (Suite) orchestral from FP 36 37 1923 Clarinet Quintet chamber lost or destroyed 38a 1924-5 Poèmes de Pierre Ronsard. Population. Mellers comments that this finale has affinities with a baroque French gigue, an Offenbach galop, and – "in the tight Stravinskian coda – the acerbity of post-war Paris".[18]. A one-act ballet Les Biches ['Les Demoiselles' was once a proposed alternate title] depicts a contemporary house party for singles, with music to 'entertain' by Francis Poulenc. FP 36 I-Catalogue Number I-Cat. Poulenc, who initially was urged to study business by his parents, came to music late, without much formal education. [M 1] The French premiere took place at the Concerts de la Pléiade [fr] in Paris on 22 May 1947. Les biches, ballet (1922/23) by Poulenc; Le Bal Masqué, cantate profane sur des poèmes de Max Jacob (Baritone, ensemble) (1932) by Poulenc; Scaramouche by Milhaud; Le bœuf sur le toit by Milhaud; Sonate pour violon seul by Honegger; Danse de la chèvre (Dance of the Goat) for solo flute by Honegger; Sonate champêtre for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Piano by Tailleferre; See also. The opening theme, in B-flat major is a gentle 48 tune. 1924-01-06 in Monte Carlo First Pub lication. By 1924 the 25-year-old Poulenc had become fairly well known in France, and to some extent elsewhere. 1924 Les Biches com música de Francis Poulenc, cenários e costumes de Natalia Goncharova e Marie Laurencin 1924 Les Fâcheux com música de Georges Auric , cenários e costumes de Georges Braque 1924 Le Train Bleu com música de Darius Milhaud , costumes de Henri Laurens e Coco Chanel , cenários de Pablo Picasso L'organico richiede 2 flauti con ottavino, 2 oboi con corno inglese, 2 clarinetti con clarinetto basso, 2 fagotti con controfagotto, 4 corni, 3 trombe, 3 tromboni, tuba, timpani, percussioni, celesta, arpa e archi. Del balletto esiste anche una suite orchestrale, comprendente solo 5 movimenti del balletto originale e priva del coro, rielaborata dallo stesso compositore nel 1939 in versione finale. Les biches is a ballet by Francis Poulenc, premiered by the Ballets Russes in 1924. [M 4], This second song has an execution time of about 2 minutes. A true hymn to "freedom," or according to Henri Hell of the "litanies of Liberty",[H 6] this song based on the poem by Éluard which includes 21 stanzas of four verses built on the model of the first: It is only after the last stanza that the word Liberté breaks out, as if to emphasize it better. They express the "suffering of the people of France" reduced to silence and the hope of the "final triumph of freedom over tyranny". 1939–40, 1947 First Perf ormance. [21] The impetus continues unflaggingly throughout: Poulenc instructs the players not to slow down in the closing bars ("sans ralentir"). [1], The composition, Poulenc's only symphonic work,[1] is in four movements:[4][5], The work is light and full of dance rhythms,[4][5] at times satirical. While there he met Igor Stravinsky who gave him some good advice ("quelques bons conseils") that helped him with the final version of the first movement of the new piece. Critics have praised the work's depth of feeling, noting touches of Mozartian flavour and echoes of other composers' styles. Figure humaine (Human Figure), FP 120, by Francis Poulenc is a cantata for double mixed choir of 12 voices composed in 1943 on texts by Paul Éluard including "'Liberté". [18] The oboe has a melody of "melancholy grace". [H 6] A long silence introduces the eighth and last part of the cantata, Liberté. It was first performed in French in 1946 in Brussels, then in Paris on 22 May 1947.