composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodies, solo piano
works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral
concert music. Among his frequently performed pieces are the piano suite
Trois mouvements perpétuels (1919), the ballet Les biches (1923), the
Concert champêtre (1928) for harpsichord and orchestra, the opera
Dialogues des Carmélites (1957), and the Gloria (1959) for soprano,
choir and orchestra. Largely self-educated musically, he studied with
the pianist Ricardo Viñes and was influenced by the avant-garde
composer Erik Satie. Initially composing light-hearted and irreverent
works, he also wrote serious, sombre and religious pieces beginning in
the 1930s. He was an accomplished pianist, and toured Europe and America
performing with the baritone Pierre Bernac and the soprano Denise Duval.
One of the first composers to see the importance of the gramophone, he
recorded extensively from 1928 onwards. This century has seen many new
productions worldwide of his serious works, including Dialogues des
Carmélites and La Voix humaine.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Poulenc>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1558:
Francis, Duke of Guise, retook Calais, England's last
continental possession, for France.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calais>
1782:
The Bank of North America opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
as the United States' first de facto central bank.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_North_America>
1979:
The People's Army of Vietnam captured Phnom Penh, deposing Pol
Pot and the Khmer Rouge, which marked the end of large-scale fighting in
the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian%E2%80%93Vietnamese_War>
1989:
Representatives of Ruhollah Khomeini delivered a letter to
Mikhail Gorbachev, inviting him to consider Islam as an alternative to
communism, and predicting the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khomeini%27s_letter_to_Mikhail_Gorbachev>
2015:
The offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie
Hebdo in Paris were attacked by a branch of Al-Qaeda, leaving twelve
people dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Hebdo_shooting>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
pantechnicon:
1. (chiefly Britain) A building or place housing shops or stalls where all
sorts of (especially exotic) manufactured articles are collected for
sale.
2. (chiefly Britain) Originally pantechnicon van: a van, especially a large
moving or removal van.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pantechnicon>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will
not.
--Millard Fillmore
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Millard_Fillmore>
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