풀랑크의 《아폴리네르의 4개의 시 FP.58》 가곡 분석 연구

Abstract

ABSTRACT

A Study on Quatre Poémes de Guillaume Apollinaire , FP.58 by Francis Poulenc

ko. young eun Department of Collaborative Piano Graduate School of Sungshin University

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (1899-1963) is a French composer who was greatly influenced by Chanson, Claudio Monteverdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Frédéric Chopin from the sixteenth century. His experience in composition began with his first lesson with Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) at 22 years old due to Darius Milhaud’s (1892-1974) suggestion. It was after World War I that he took interest in the classical and conventional ways of composing music following Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971). He became famous in the musical world of Paris for his composition of an one-act ballet to music titled Les Biches (“The Does”) written in 1923. This was a period when he began to pursue his own style in music in spite of his respect for classical music style due to his personal connections with Baroque composers and harpsichordist. His composition includes extensive solo pieces accompanied by chorus and chamber music such as vocal songs, operas, and orchestral concert music, but it was a time when he mostly focused on composing songs throughout his career. After the collaborative projects with his fellow composers known collectively as Les Six gradually waned, he wrote a number of songs between 1923 and 1935, from which emerged his distinct musical color. This paper aims to analyze Quatre poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire (“Four poems by Guillaume Apollinaire”), a song written in the same year as Cinq Poèmes de Max Jacob (“Five poems of Max Jacob”) in 1931. Poulenc set various mood for the song by making modulations such as syncopation and dissonance and pursued to create a dynamic piece with irregular accents and staccato sounds. The first song titled L’anguille (“The eel”), is a piece that manifests the egoism and secularism of a human being through the characters. Dissonance and irregular accents are used to give a more dynamic effect, and the contrast between the accompaniment and the melody is one of the key features. Followed by Carte-postale (“Postcard”), the second song has the saddest melody among the four songs, expressing a strong longing for one’s lover by emphasizing the lyrics amidst rhythm imitation. The song, which Poulenc completed at the age of 32 by setting one of nine poems written by Apollinaire, was about Linda, the sister of his friend, for whom Apollinaire showed affection. The heart-rending grief of Apollinaire is well portrayed in the postlude. The third song, Avant le Cinéma (“Before the cinema”), is a poem that takes a comical approach to criticize a person who lost their motivation by comparing it to the life of an artist. In a fast tempo, the song includes notes for short sounds, irregular meter, and variation of accompaniment to create a vigorous and upbeat tone. The last song titled 1904 is a poem set with a strong yet restrained melody with frequent use of accents and leaps to express a man’s growing interest and desire for a woman. According to the analyses of the four songs in Quatre poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire, there were four dominant features that could be found in Poulenc’s songs: First, he used segmental and powerful melodies to render the surrealism poetry. Second, he pursued a clear tonality by returning to the original key after frequent modulations while using chromatic harmony, including non-harmonic tones and dissonance. Third, he represented a subtle musical motif by including multiple instructions. Fourth, he sought to use colorful notes in the piano accompaniment that require a lot of technical skills. This paper looked into Poulenc’s music style and how he set Apollinaire’s poems. The composer and the poet have each portrayed a sense of belonging to their city – Paris – with French musical expressions and surrealistic texts. While Poulenc chose expressiveness over lyricism for the flow of the texts and attempted to highlight the images of the poem through the piano accompaniment, Apollinaire, a poet favored by Poulenc, desired to convey his musical sensitivity in the melancholy mood of his poems.