Editing Francis Poulenc (section)

===1940s: war and post-war===
Poulenc was briefly a soldier again during the [[Second World War]]; he was called up on 2 June 1940 and served in an anti-aircraft unit at [[Bordeaux]].<ref>Schmidt (2001), p. 266</ref> After France [[Battle of France|surrendered to Germany]], Poulenc was demobilised from the army on 18 July 1940. He spent the summer of that year with family and friends at [[Brive-la-Gaillarde]] in south-central France.<ref>Schmidt (2001), p. 268</ref> In the early months of the war, he had composed little new music, instead re-orchestrating ''Les biches'' and reworking his 1932 [[Sextet (Poulenc)|Sextet]] for piano and winds. At Brive-la-Gaillarde he began three new works, and once back at his home in Noizay in October he started on a fourth. These were ''[[L'Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant]]'' for piano and narrator, the [[Cello Sonata (Poulenc)|Cello Sonata]], the ballet ''[[Les Animaux modèles]]'' and the song cycle ''[[Banalités (Poulenc)|Banalités]]''.<ref name="Hell, pp. 60–61"/>

[[File:Paris Opera full frontal architecture, May 2009.jpg|alt=Exterior of grandiose 19th-century theatre|thumb|The [[Paris Opera|Opéra]], Paris, where ''Les Animaux modèles'' was premiered in 1942]]
For most of the war, Poulenc was in Paris, giving recitals with Bernac, concentrating on French songs.{{refn|Poulenc recalled later that they performed only French songs, but his recollection was inaccurate: German songs, notably those of [[Schumann]], were included in some programmes.<ref name=fancourt/><ref>Ivry, p. 119</ref>|group= n}} Under [[German military administration in occupied France during World War II|Nazi rule]] he was in a vulnerable position, as a known homosexual (Destouches narrowly avoided arrest and deportation), but in his music he made many gestures of defiance of the Germans.<ref name=fancourt>[[Daisy Fancourt|Fancourt, Daisy]]. [http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/resistance-and-exile/french-resistance/les-six/ "Les Six"], Music and the Holocaust, retrieved 6 October 2014</ref> He set to music verses by poets prominent in the [[French Resistance]], including Aragon and Éluard. In ''Les Animaux modèles'', premiered at the [[Paris Opera|Opéra]] in 1942, he included the tune, repeated several times, of the anti-German song "Vous n'aurez pas l'Alsace et la Lorraine".<ref>Poulenc (2014), pp. 207–208</ref><ref name=simeone>Simeone Nigel. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25434357 "Making Music in Occupied Paris"], ''The Musical Times'', Spring, 2006, pp. 23–50 {{subscription}}</ref>{{refn|This song, "You shall not have [[Alsace-Lorraine#World War II|Alsace and Lorraine]]", was a popular patriotic French ditty dating from the [[Franco-Prussian War]], when the Germans defeated France and annexed much of [[Alsace]] and [[Lorraine]]. France regained them after the First World War, but at the time of ''Les Animaux modèles'' they were once again under German control.<ref name=simeone/>|group= n}}  He was a founder-member of the [[National Front (French Resistance)|Front National]] (pour musique) which the Nazi authorities viewed with suspicion for its association with banned musicians such as Milhaud and [[Paul Hindemith]].<ref>Schmidt, p. 284</ref> In 1943 he wrote a [[cantata]] for unaccompanied double choir intended for Belgium, ''[[Figure humaine]]'', setting eight of Éluard's poems.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Barbedette|first=Leïla (under the supervision of Marie-Hélène Benoit-Otis)|date=31 August 2021|title=1943. "Figure humaine" : renaître de l'Occupation|url=https://emf.oicrm.org/nhmf-1943|journal=in Nouvelle histoire de la musique en France (1870-1950)|language=fr}}</ref> The work, ending with "Liberté", could not be given in France while the Germans were in control; its first performance was broadcast from a BBC studio in London in March 1945,<ref>"Broadcasting Review", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 24 March 1945, p. 3</ref> and it was not sung in Paris until 1947.<ref>Hell, p. 67</ref> The music critic of ''[[The Times]]'' later wrote that the work "is among the very finest choral works of our time and in itself removes Poulenc from the category of ''petit maître'' to which ignorance has generally been content to relegate him."<ref>[[William Mann (critic)|Mann, William]]. "Poulenc's Choral Masterpiece", ''The Times'', 8 March 1963, p. 15</ref>

In January 1945, commissioned by the French government, Poulenc and Bernac flew from Paris to London, where they received an enthusiastic welcome. The [[London Philharmonic Orchestra]] gave a reception in the composer's honour;<ref>"Court Circular", ''The Times'', 5 January 1945, p. 6</ref> he and [[Benjamin Britten]] were the soloists in a performance of Poulenc's [[Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (Poulenc)|Double Piano Concerto]] at the [[Royal Albert Hall]];<ref>"Albert Hall", ''The Times'', 8 January 1945, p. 8</ref> with Bernac he gave recitals of French ''[[mélodie]]s'' and piano works at the [[Wigmore Hall]] and the [[National Gallery]], and recorded for the BBC.<ref>"National Gallery Concert", ''The Times'', 10 January 1945, p. 8; and Schmidt (2001), p. 304</ref> Bernac was overwhelmed by the public's response; when he and Poulenc stepped out on the Wigmore Hall stage, "the audience rose and my emotion was such that instead of beginning to sing, I began to weep."<ref>Schmidt (2001), p. 303</ref> After their fortnight's stay, the two returned home on the first boat-train to leave London for Paris since May 1940.<ref>"The Paris Boat-Train", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 16 January 1945, p. 4</ref>

In Paris, Poulenc completed his scores for ''L'Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant'' and his first opera, ''[[Les mamelles de Tirésias]]'' (The Breasts of [[Tiresias]]), a short [[opéra bouffe]] of about an hour's duration.<ref name=sams/> The work is a setting of Apollinaire's play of the same name, staged in 1917. Sams describes the opera as "high-spirited topsy-turveydom" concealing "a deeper and sadder theme&nbsp;– the need to repopulate and rediscover a France ravaged by war".<ref name=sams>Sams, p. 282</ref> It was premiered in June 1947 at the [[Opéra-Comique]], and was a critical success, but did not prove popular with the public.{{refn|The piece was not produced in the US until 1953, and did not reach Britain until 1958, when Britten and Pears presented it at the [[Aldeburgh Festival]].<ref name=sams/> It remains by a considerable margin the least popular of Poulenc's three operas; ''[[Dialogues des Carmélites]]'' and ''[[La Voix humaine]]'' each received more than four times as many productions worldwide between 2012 and 2014.<ref>[http://www.operabase.com/oplist.cgi?id=none&lang=en&is=&by=Francis+Poulenc&loc=&stype=abs&sd=7&sm=10&sy=2012&etype=abs&ed=&em=&ey= "Francis Poulenc"], Operabase, retrieved 6 October 2014</ref>|group= n}} The leading female role was taken by [[Denise Duval]], who became the composer's favourite [[soprano]], frequent recital partner and dedicatee of some of his music.<ref>Schmidt (2001), pp. 291 and 352</ref> He called her the nightingale who made him cry (''"Mon rossignol à larmes"'').<ref>Poulenc (1991), p. 273</ref>

[[File:Pierre-Bernac-1968.jpg|alt=Image of bald late middle-aged man|thumb|[[Pierre Bernac]] (1960s photograph)]]
Shortly after the war, Poulenc had a brief affair with a woman, Fréderique ("Freddy") Lebedeff, with whom he had a daughter, Marie-Ange, in 1946. The child was brought up without knowing who her father was (Poulenc was supposedly her "godfather") but he made generous provision for her, and she was the principal beneficiary of his will.<ref name="Johnson, p. 15"/>

In the post-war period Poulenc crossed swords with composers of the younger generation who rejected Stravinsky's recent work and insisted that only the precepts of the [[Second Viennese School]] were valid. Poulenc defended Stravinsky and expressed incredulity that "in 1945 we are speaking as if the aesthetic of twelve tones is the only possible salvation for contemporary music".<ref name=moore/> His view that Berg had taken serialism as far as it could go and that Schoenberg's music was now "desert, stone soup, ersatz music, or poetic vitamins" earned him the enmity of composers such as [[Pierre Boulez]].{{refn|Despite their musical differences, Poulenc and Boulez maintained amicable personal relations: exchanges of friendly letters are recorded in Poulenc's published correspondence.<ref>Poulenc (1994), pp. 818, 950 and 1014</ref>|group= n}} Those disagreeing with Poulenc attempted to paint him as a relic of the pre-war era, frivolous and unprogressive. This led him to focus on his more serious works, and to try to persuade the French public to listen to them. In the US and Britain, with their strong choral traditions, his religious music was frequently performed, but performances in France were much rarer, so that the public and the critics were often unaware of his serious compositions.<ref name=moore/><ref name=h74/>{{refn|In 1949, thrilled by a new American recording of his 1936 Mass conducted by [[Robert Shaw (conductor)|Robert Shaw]], Poulenc exclaimed, "At last the world will know that I am a serious composer.<ref name=moore/>|group= n}}

In 1948 Poulenc made his first visit to the US, in a two-month concert tour with Bernac.<ref name=h74>Hell, p. 74</ref> He returned there frequently until 1961, giving recitals with Bernac or Duval and as soloist in the world premiere of his [[Piano Concerto (Poulenc)|Piano Concerto]] (1949), commissioned by the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]].<ref name=grove/>