Friday, May 24, 2013
About Mars Hill Audio
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| Ted Libbey, regular guest on NPR's "Performance Today," speaks about the music of Francis Poulenc. Poulenc as a French composer of religious pieces transformed the austere and serious into the playful. Poulenc returned to the Catholicism of his childhood but never ventured into the realm of the austere and abstract; instead, his music captures the earthy reality of existence. As a composer in the twentieth century, Poulenc received criticism for his style which did not conform to the modernist musical taste. He did not eschew traditional musical forms but incorporated them with the musical language of the twentieth century and attempted direct communication with his audience. Libbey argues that his conservation of traditional form gave him the freedom to bring his faith into his music, leave a legacy, and make sense of his world. |  Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) |
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| Ted Libbey has contributed to multiple editions of the Journal; click here for his record. | Music--Composers Poulenc, Francis |