Cifelli Plays Poulenc

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2006
Dr. Chad Stebbins
(417) 625-9736

Dr. Cheryl Cifelli

JOPLIN (SNS) – Dr. Cheryl Cifelli, assistant professor of music at MSSU, will present a recital of the works of Francis Poulenc at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 5 in Webster Hall Auditorium at Missouri Southern State University. The performance is free and open to the public.

 

Dr. Cifelli’s concert consists of chamber works by Francis Poulenc, including the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Sonata for Clarinet and Bassoon, Trio for Clarinet, Bassoon and Piano, and the Sonata for Two Clarinets. A reception will follow the concert.

 

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc, born Jan. 7, 1889, was a French composer and a member of the French Group Les Six.

 

Poulenc contributed to the perceived style of Les Six in pieces inspired by popular music such as Cocardes (1919), though he would later write profoundly religious works. He embraced the Dada movement's techniques, creating melodies that would have been appropriate for Parisian music halls. For Poulenc at this time, a charming vulgarity replaced any sort of romantic sentiment.

 

Among Poulenc's last series of major works is a series of works for winds and piano. He was particularly fond of the woodwind instruments, and planned a set of sonatas for all of them, yet only lived to complete four: the Flute Sonata (1956), the Oboe Sonata (1962) the Clarinet Sonata (1962) and the Elégie for Horn and Piano (1957).

Francis Poulenc died in Paris in 1963 and was interred in Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris.