603 - Francis Poulenc Signed 1938 ‘Three Poems of Louise de Vilmorin’ Sheet Music Booklet (First Edition)

Francis Poulenc Signed 1938 ‘Three Poems of Louise de Vilmorin’ Sheet Music Booklet (First Edition) Renowned French composer (1899-1963) best known for his colorful, energetic keyboard works, art songs, and choral music. First edition sheet music booklet for Francis Poulenc’s Trois poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin (Three Poems of Louise de Vilmorin), seven pages, 10.5 x 13.5, published by Durand & Cie of Paris in 1938. Signed and inscribed by Poulenc on the title page in French, “à Madame...en hommage, Fr. Poulenc.” The score contains the three songs ‘Le garçon de Liège,’ ‘Au delà,’ and ‘Aux Officiers de la garde blanche.’ In very good condition, with paper loss and tape-repaired tears to the covers and spine; the spine had been fully separated and has been reattached with tape. Composed in 1937, Trois poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin, FP 91, marked Poulenc’s first song cycle devoted to the poetry of French writer Louise de Vilmorin. The three settings, ‘Le garçon de Liège,’ ‘Au-delà,’ and ‘Aux officiers de la garde blanche,’ were published by Durand in 1938, the year represented by this first-edition score. The cycle began an important artistic collaboration between Poulenc and Vilmorin, whose poetry he returned to in Fiançailles pour rire in 1939 and Métamorphoses in 1943. Trois poèmes was dedicated to Marie-Blanche de Polignac, a singer and prominent musical patron who belonged to Poulenc’s close artistic circle.