RHYTHMIC, PHRASING, AND DRAMATIC CONCERNS IN POULENC'S TEL JOUR, TELLE NUIT

Abstract

Tel jour, telle nuit, a song cycle set to nine poems by Paul Éluard from his collections Les yeux fertiles and Facile, is a hallmark of Francis Poulenc’s mature style and was for the 20th-century mélodie cycle what Fauré’s La Bonne Chanson was for the previous generation. Musicologist and critic Roland Manuel compared Poulenc’s monumental cycle with Schubert’s Die Winterreise and Schumann’s Dichterliebe (Bernac 1977, 97). This work marked a change in the composer’s style, is unique in his output as a true cycle, and is a triumphant marriage of poetry and music. Tel Jour, telle nuit is a true cycle—rather than a collection of songs—from which individual songs cannot be excerpted. Although most of Poulenc’s mélodies are parts of cycles or collections, it is not until Tel Jour, telle nuit that we see evidence of song cycle elements in the Schumann and Schubert tradition, including the collocation of moods, tempi, and keys, the use of transitional songs, shared material and an extended piano postlude (Daniel 1982, 264-265). The varied design of the individual songs for the purpose of function within the cycle as a whole and the shared spirit of interdisciplinary artistic collaboration in both composer and poet sets this work apart as a masterpiece of twentieth-century song literature. In a journal entry Poulenc uses the term mélodies tremplin to identify transitional songs whose function is merely to act as a springboard into the next song. The composer also identifies other songs in Tel Jour, telle nuit as mélodies de cycle, songs he felt could not function outside of the parameters of the cycle (Poulenc 1985, 77). The cycle’s carefully-constructed rhythmic structure is a good candidate for an Edward Cone-style rhythmic analysis, which I believe would support the composer’s suggestion that a song cycle must contain a hierarchy of songs based on cyclical function. This study is an analysis of the hypermeter, key relationships, and distinct musical character changes of each song. I will offer specific interpretive suggestions derived from the analyses, including the dramatic relationship to the poetry.