Jean Françaix
(1912–1997)
Who Was
Jean Françaix?
A Brief Introduction
Elegant and pleasurable, Jean Françaix’s music is also irresistibly French—a tradition that includes the works of Camille Saint-Saëns, Maurice Ravel, Francis Poulenc, and, most of all, Emanuel Chabrier, whose piano pieces he orchestrated. In a creative life spanning more than six decades, he produced a large output strongly weighted towards chamber music and concertos: genres he favored in response to demands from performers, who found his music as appealing as audiences did.
Unlike most of his contemporaries, including Benjamin Britten and Witold Lutosławski, he remained oblivious to the whims of modernism, except in his moderated application of Igor Stravinsky’s neoclassicism. His brand of wit and charm found no use for atonality, or twelve-tone composition. “My interest is not primarily attracted by the freeways of thought,” he said, “but more the paths through the woods.”
Early Years: A Flying Start
Françaix had the advantage of a musical and supportive family. His mother was a singer, his father the director of the conservatoire in Le Mans, the French town where Jean was born. Parental tuition, coupled with attendance at concerts and rehearsals, was followed by formal training with Nadia Boulanger, starting at the age of ten. At the same time, he continued his piano studies with Isidor Philipp, the leading piano professor in Paris. Two of the earliest works in his catalogue (both from 1932) were dedicated to these teachers: his Concertino for piano and orchestra, to Boulanger; his Scherzo for piano, to Philipp.
Françaix: Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello
Soon he was drawn into the world of ballet, and was working with some of the most notable choreographers of the period: first Léonide Massine (Scuola di ballo, or The Dance School, 1933), then Serge Lifar (Le roi nu, or The Naked King, 1935; after the Hans Christian Andersen tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”). For Scuola di ballo, he based his score on themes by Luigi Boccherini. Le roi nu shows original traits that were to remain characteristic in Françaix’s oeuvre: catchy tunes, suave dance rhythms, and clear, sometimes piquant, orchestration. If this was light music, it was light music of a high caliber.
In 1937 Françaix wrote his first opera, Le diable boiteux (The Devil on Crutches): a comedy over and done with inside 20 minutes. Commissioned by the Princesse de Polignac for her salon, the piece enjoyed international success. A performance at Carnegie Hall in 1950 was applauded so vigorously that the whole opera was repeated.
In 1937, Françaix also produced his first film score—for Sacha Guitry and Christian-Jaque’s The Pearls of the Crown—followed by ten more through the early 1960s, several of them again in collaboration with Guitry. As with the ballets, orchestral suites and piano arrangements gave much of his film music further life.
Françaix was still in his 20s when, in 1939, he completed the work he regarded all his life as his crowning achievement: the oratorio L’apocalypse selon St. Jean (The Apocalypse according to St. John)—his only sacred work. It received its first performance in 1942 in Paris, but revivals have been infrequent, and rarely outside France or Germany.
Middle Period: At the Peak, and Staying There
Françaix’s output does not fall readily into periods, for the essence of his style was already formed when he was in his early 20s, and nothing about his music changed much. There was also no alteration in his preference for wind instruments—in groups or as soloists in concertos—and his delight in ballet. He remained, too, as productive as ever he was. His works tended to be short, but even so, it was remarkable that he maintained an output of several compositions a year—representing around an hour of music—and went on doing so. The only period when this record faltered was during the German occupation (a fact which argues against any suspicion that he was an active collaborator).
Françaix: L’heure du berger for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, and Piano
Though instrumental music was always his strength, he avoided the standard genres. He wrote his single symphony in 1953, for the Musical Arts Orchestra of La Jolla, and his lone Piano Sonata in 1960, for İdil Biret. The sonata is in a normal three-movement form, but lasts a total of just eight minutes.
Whether writing for orchestra or piano, Françaix continued to prefer projects that would offer some kind of narrative, image, or character—for example the piano duets Quinze portraits d'enfants d'Auguste Renoir (Fifteen Portraits of Children by Auguste Renoir, 1971) and the symphonic poem La ville mystérieuse (The Mysterious City, 1973), after the Jules Verne novel. As before, ballet and film scores would often become the sources of pictorial suites, whether for orchestra or piano.
When it came to concertos, Françaix was happy to use the generic title, and alongside concertos for the more usual instruments, he wrote concertos for double bass (1974) and two harps (1978). His most popular, however, is one whose six movements depict different flowers: L’horloge de Flore (The Flower-Clock, 1959) for oboe and orchestra.
Late Period: Homages and Farewells
Françaix did not slow down as he passed the age of 70. There were, however, other signs that he had entered a late period—in particular, a growing number of homages. Hommage à l'ami Papageno (Homage to Our Friend Papageno, 1984) was one of several tributes to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, scored for piano and ten wind players and based on themes from The Magic Flute. That same year Françaix composed Musique pour faire plaisir (Music to Please) for a similar wind formation, drawing on three of Poulenc’s piano pieces. There was later, for a similar instrumentation, Célestes Schubertiades (1996), based on themes by Franz Schubert—another favorite composer.
His final concerto was for accordion (1993), and, among his last chamber compositions, there was a second Quintet for flute, harp, and string trio (1989), 55 years after the first.
Legacy
History seems to have agreed with Françaix: his talent was for finding paths through the woods—paths through the woodwinds, one might say, since the works that continue to be played are predominantly those featuring wind instruments.
Watching and Listening
The Digital Archive includes videos of two early works by Françaix—his String Trio (1933) and Quintet No. 1 for flute, harp, and string trio (1934), both displaying his vitality and gentle sentiment—as well as L’heure du berger (The Shepherd’s Hour, 1947), a humorous routine for wind quintet and piano.
