ABSTRACT
Francis Poulenc's compositional creativity was profoundly related to his attraction to artistically gifted women. Keith Clifton has explored the appeal of the 'feminine' for Poulenc, placing the composer's close relationships with women in the tradition of the homosexual-straight woman 'bond', in which the intimately beloved female acts as 'surrogate sister, mother, or confidant'. Poulenc's mourning for Linossier is potently and characteristically expressed in the 'profane cantata' Le Bal masque. Jeremy Cox identifies Poulenc's technique of generating 'interference patterns', surprises and 'subversive' outbursts, musical parallels to what Jacob called 'ricochets imprevus'. Poulenc's piano piece is representative of much of his output in its portrayal of a pastoral world which incorporates both the pleasures of childish, innocent games and the fear of mortality. Two of Poulenc's Jacob settings will exemplify how pastoral nostalgia, mourning and melancholy emerges as the bedfellow of parody in the procreation of a desired, redemptive voice.
