The pilgrimages of Francis Poulenc

No. 382 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT  series of audio montages is this week's Friday Blog and Podcast. It can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast382

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Blogger’s Note: As we review our many musical shares from our musical forum activities under our ongoing “222 Day Binge Challenge”, the Friday Blog and Podcast will revisit some themes from past forum posts; today’s montage is part of that exercise. The Once or Twice a Fortnight post in question was issued on February 29th, 2012. The below commentary is taken almost verbatim from the original post.

Today’s post focuses on the sacred and secular works of spiritual inspiration by French composer Francis Poulenc. Poulenc’s life has its many paradoxes – Poulenc is an early 20th century “born again Catholic” who happened to live an openly gay lifestyle in a rather liberal Parisian artistic entourage. This paradox leads, in my personal opinion, to some inner turmoil which also manifests itself in Poulenc’s output; something critic Claude Rostand coined in the expression «moine ou voyou» (monk or punk).

There are two specific notewirthy losses in Poulenc’s life that were followed by pilgrimages to the well-known French shrine of the Black Virgin at Rocamadour: the passing of composer and critic Pierre-Octave Ferroud in 1935, and that of fellow gay artist Christian Bérard in 1949. Biographers suggest that the 1935 Rocamadour pilgrimage also was the beginning of Poulenc’s re-embracing of his Catholic faith (which he’d more or less put aside after his father’s death in 1917).

Though one selection from the original OTF post is part of today’s playlist, the majority of the pieces on the montage are settings of latin sacred text sung a capella. The one piece that harkens back to the original share, and the only set with musical accompaniment, is his Stabat Mater, composed in 1950 and dedicated to Bérard.

I think you will love this music too