The influence of Parisian popular entertainment on the piano works of Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc
McKinney, David Conley (Creator), NC DOCKS at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Creator)
The purpose of this document was to show the influence of Parisian popular entertainment on the piano works of Erik Satie (1866-1925) and Francis Poulenc (1899- 1963). These two prolific and inventive composers incorporated a wide range of popular styles into their writing, from Parisian cafe-concert, music-hall, and cabaret songs, to the popular chanson and music for the circus. Both composers frequented popular establishments throughout their lives and introduced characteristic aesthetic principles such as diversity, parody, banality, and nostalgia into their piano writing, features all founded in Parisian popular entertainment. A myriad of books has been written on Parisian entertainments but the focus of these studies has not been Satie or Poulenc. The objective of the present study was to pull together all of these seemingly disparate constituents. Chapter I focuses on the motivations for a popular sensibility inftn-de-siècle Paris, Satie and Poulenc's ties to Parisian popular entertainment, and the personal relationship between the two composers. Chapter II comprises a brief history of the popular institutions that flourished in Paris at the tum of the century
Downloadable Archival Material, English, 1996