Francis Poulenc Figure humaine
Feb 17, 2022
3 minutes
![f0065-01](https://article-imgs.scribdassets.com/7voq6hxg009jxh44/images/file9UN7LBIE.jpg)
The work
The first mention of a ‘cantata for unaccompanied double choir… on admirable poems by Éluard (currently censored)’ comes in a letter from Poulenc to his friend and patron Marie-Blanche de Polignac in July 1943. Safely settled in Beaulieu-sur Dordogne with his companion Raymond Destouches, Poulenc was thinking about two projects: a violin concerto for Ginette Neveu and a string quartet. Lacking inspiration for either, he turned instead to Paul Éluard’s newest anti-war poems, Poésie et vérité 42 and in just six weeks wrote the 20-minute masterpiece Figure humaine without hesitation or revisions.
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