Editing Francis Poulenc (section)

===Early years===
[[File:P1040339 Paris VIII place des Saussaies rwk.JPG|thumb|alt=19th century buildings in Parisian style|Place des Saussaies, Paris, where Poulenc was born]]
Poulenc was born in the [[8th arrondissement of Paris]] on 7 January 1899, the younger child and only son of Émile Poulenc and his wife, Jenny, ''née'' Royer.<ref>Schmidt (2001), p. 3</ref><ref name=grove>Chimènes, Myriam and Roger Nichols. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/22202 "Poulenc, Francis"], Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 24 August 2014 {{subscription}}</ref> Émile Poulenc was a joint owner of [[Poulenc Frères]], a successful manufacturer of pharmaceuticals (later [[Rhône-Poulenc]]).<ref>Cayez, p. 18</ref> He was a member of a pious Roman Catholic family from [[Espalion]] in the [[département]] of [[Aveyron]]. Jenny Poulenc was from a Parisian family with wide artistic interests. In Poulenc's view, the two sides of his nature grew out of this background: a deep religious faith from his father's family and a worldly and artistic side from his mother's.<ref name=grove/> The critic Claude Rostand later described Poulenc as "half monk and half naughty boy".{{refn|"...y a en lui du moine et du voyou."<ref>Roy, p. 60</ref> "Voyou" has no exact English translation, and as well as "naughty boy",<ref>Poulenc (2014), p. 247</ref> it has been variously rendered as "ragamuffin or street-urchin",<ref>Burton, p. 15</ref> "guttersnipe",<ref>Buckland and Chimènes, p. 85</ref> "bad boy",<ref>Ivry, p. 8</ref> "bounder",<ref>Schmidt (2001), p. 105</ref> "hooligan",<ref>Walker, Lynne. [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:TND1&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=1320515913BFD8E0&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "The alchemical brother"], ''The Independent'', 27 January 1999</ref> and "rascal".<ref>Hewett, Ivan. [http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:DST1&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=1453A628B2051590&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA "Part monk, part rascal"], ''The Daily Telegraph'', 23 March 2013</ref>|group= n}}

Poulenc grew up in a musical household; his mother was a capable pianist, with a wide repertoire ranging from classical to less elevated works that gave him a lifelong taste for what he called "adorable bad music".<ref name=h2>Hell, p. 2</ref>{{refn|Jenny Poulenc's favourites ranged from [[Mozart]], [[Schumann]] and [[Chopin]] to popular sentimental pieces by composers such as [[Anton Rubinstein]].<ref name=h2/> Poulenc dedicated his opera ''[[Dialogues des Carmélites]]'' (1956) to "the memory of my mother, who revealed music to me".<ref>''Quoted'' in Schmidt (2001), p. 6</ref>|group= n}} He took piano lessons from the age of five; when he was eight he first heard the music of [[Debussy]] and was fascinated by the originality of the sound. Other composers whose works influenced his development were [[Schubert]] and [[Stravinsky]]: the former's ''[[Winterreise]]'' and the latter's ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'' made a deep impression on him.<ref>Hell, pp. 2–3</ref> At his father's insistence, Poulenc followed a conventional school career, studying at the [[Lycée Condorcet]] in Paris rather than at a music conservatory.<ref>Schmidt (2001), pp. 6 and 23</ref>

In 1916 a childhood friend, Raymonde Linossier (1897–1930), introduced Poulenc to [[Adrienne Monnier]]'s bookshop, the ''Maison des Amis des Livres''.<ref>Poulenc (1978), p. 98</ref> There he met the ''avant-garde'' poets [[Guillaume Apollinaire]], [[Max Jacob]], [[Paul Éluard]] and [[Louis Aragon]]. He later set many of their poems to music.<ref>Schmidt (2001), pp. 26–27</ref> In the same year he became the pupil of pianist [[Ricardo Viñes]]. The biographer [[Henri Hell]] comments that Viñes's influence on his pupil was profound, both as to pianistic technique and the style of Poulenc's keyboard works. Poulenc later said of Viñes:
[[File:Ricardo-vines.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=middle aged man with huge moustache|Pianist [[Ricardo Viñes]], with whom Poulenc studied from 1914]]
<blockquote>He was a most delightful man, a bizarre [[Hidalgo (nobility)|hidalgo]] with enormous moustachios, a flat-brimmed sombrero in the purest Spanish style, and button boots which he used to rap my shins when I didn't change the pedalling enough.<ref>Poulenc (1978), p. 37</ref>&nbsp;... I admired him madly, because, at this time, in 1914, he was the only virtuoso who played Debussy and [[Ravel]]. That meeting with Viñes was paramount in my life: I owe him everything&nbsp;... In reality it is to Viñes that I owe my fledgling efforts in music and everything I know about the piano.<ref>''Quoted'' in Schmidt (2001), p. 20</ref></blockquote>

When Poulenc was sixteen his mother died; his father died two years later. Viñes became more than a teacher: he was, in the words of Myriam Chimènes in the ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', the young man's "spiritual mentor".<ref name=grove/> He encouraged his pupil to compose, and he later gave the premieres of three early Poulenc works.{{refn|The works were ''[[Trois mouvements perpétuels]]'', ''Trois pastorales'' and ''Suite pour piano''.<ref name="Schmidt 2001, p. 21">Schmidt (2001), p. 21</ref>|group= n}} Through him Poulenc became friendly with two composers who helped shape his early development: [[Georges Auric]] and [[Erik Satie]].<ref>Hell, pp. 3–4</ref>

Auric, who was the same age as Poulenc, was an early developer musically; by the time the two met, Auric's music had already been performed at important Parisian concert venues. The two young composers shared a similar musical outlook and enthusiasms, and for the rest of Poulenc's life Auric was his most trusted friend and guide.<ref name=h4/> Poulenc called him "my true brother in spirit".<ref name="Schmidt 2001, p. 21"/> Satie, an eccentric figure, isolated from the mainstream French musical establishment, was a mentor to several rising young composers, including Auric, [[Louis Durey]] and [[Arthur Honegger]]. After initially dismissing Poulenc as a [[bourgeois]] amateur, he relented and admitted him to the circle of protégés, whom he called ''"Les Nouveaux Jeunes"''.<ref>Schmidt (2001), pp. 38–39</ref> Poulenc described Satie's influence on him as "immediate and wide, on both the spiritual and musical planes".<ref>Romain, p. 48</ref> Pianist [[Alfred Cortot]] commented that Poulenc's ''[[Trois mouvements perpétuels]]'' were "reflections of the ironical outlook of Satie adapted to the sensitive standards of the current intellectual circles".<ref name=h4>Hell, p. 4</ref>