The Study about "La courte paille" of Francis Poulenc

by Pan, Szu-hua

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) was an excellent French composer in the twentieth century. He composed about 146 songs during his life. La courte paille was his last song cycle which included seven songs. These songs were in the mother¡¦s and child¡¦s point of view to describe the surprising and amusing stories. This study explored the close connection between literature and music by analyzing the poetry and music of these songs. This study mainly contains four parts: the biographical information about Francis Poulenc, the characteristics of Poulenc¡¦s mélodie, a brief introduction of poet Maurice Carême, and a performance analysis of La courte paille. Poulenc employed a wide variety of figures both in the vocal phrases and in the accompaniment with a great harmonic extension, which made this work interesting.