Klarinet Archive - Posting 000883.txt from 1995/05

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: Biographical information needed on Jean Francaix
Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 22:47:05 -0400

>On Wed, 31 May 1995, Stephen Cranefield wrote:
>
>> I need some biographical information on Jean Francaix for program
>> notes (I'm playing his trio for clarinet, viola and piano). All we could
>> find out was his birth date and the fact that he studied under Nadia
>> Boulanger.
>>
>> Can anyone tell me anything else?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> Stephen
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Stephen Cranefield Phone: +64 3 479 8083
>> Department of Information Science Fax: 479 8311
>> University of Otago
>> Dunedin, New Zealand E-mail: scranefield@-----.nz
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>

Here are a couple of relevant paragraphs from my program notes to
"Moonflowers, Baby!", a CD of mine on Crystal Records that contains a work
by Jean Francaix (Theme & Variations). As of August of last year I know
that Mssr. Francaix was alive and well because he wrote me a very nice
letter telling me of his exploits traveling, recording, composing, and the
like. He was 82 at the time, so perhaps he is 83 now.

"Born into a musical family, Francaix composed his first work at the age of
six. After graduating with the first prize in piano from the Paris
Conservatory in 1932, he went on to study composition with Nadia Boulanger
and was considered a brilliant piano virtuoso in the middle of this
century. A prolific 20th century French composer, Francaix has written
works in all forms large and small, but has become especially well known
for his wind instrument solo and chamber works, which include a major
clarinet concerto, the famous woodwind quintet, and this piece [Theme &
Variations] among others.

Francaix's music is known for its essentially post-impressionist French
nature, which goes beyond his use of chromatic and whole-tone harmonies.
His music tends to be bright, fluid, fast and highly ornamented, stretching
the technical limits of the instrument. There is no doubt that this whole
school of French music, of which Francaix and Bozza are prominent examples,
was influenced by the pioneering climate for wind instruments in Paris over
the last century. Many of the great wind instrument and equipment
manufacturers are based in Paris including Buffet and Vandoren."

Also, Phillipe Cuper recently recorded a CD including the Francaix concerto
that Francaix supervised. There are some notes in that CD jacket too that
may be helpful to you. Good luck.

----------------------
Jonathan Cohler
cohler@-----.net