Helena Kean - Music and Images

  Maurice Ravel 1875-1937 The distinctive style of Ravel’s work has granted him a lasting popularity. His innovative piano style, orchestral genius and sophisticated harmonies also made him one of the most eminent composers of his own time. This scrupulous craftsman was a talented decorative artist, as well as a conductor, pianist, and teacher of a select few pupils.   Joseph Maurice Ravel was born in Ciboure, near Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the Basque region of France. His mother was Basque and his father, an engineer, was of Swiss decent. The family moved to Paris in June 1875, soon after Maurice’s birth, and it was here that he spent most of his childhood. His family encouraged his musical talents and sent him to study in the preparatory piano class at the Paris Conservatoire in 1889.   That year, when Ravel was 14 years old, Paris hosted the World Exhibition. He was a constant visitor to the performances of oriental and exotic music on the Champ de Mars. Javanese gamela...

  Francis Poulenc 1899-1963   “The musical setting of a poem should be an act of love, never a marriage of convenience”.   Parisian born Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc composed more than 146 songs, ranging from the sophisticated to the elegantly simple, from playful to serious. He combined his love of poetry and the human voice with his music, finding the natural tempo, breathing places and inflections.   The Poulenc family originated from Aveyron in the south and were wealthy pharmaceutical manufacturers; founders of the now multi-national Rhône-Poulenc-Rorer. His father was a regular concert and opera-goer, but Francis received his musical gifts from his mother, Jenny Royer, an accomplished amateur pianist, who recognized his talent and gave him lessons from the age of 5. Her brother was a ‘man about town’, an amateur painter, theatre-goer and friend of celebrated actors and singers. Uncle Papoum fascinated the young Francis with his outrageous stories.   The hol...

  Darius Milhaud 1892-1974 Milhaud was born in Aix-en-Provence into one of oldest Southern-French Jewish families, which could trace their ancestry back to the C10th. His father, an almond exporter, was the accompanist for the Aix Music Society and his Italian mother was a professionally trained contralto, who understood the discipline required to make a career in music.   At the age of 7 Milhaud began studying the violin. He had wanted to start sooner but doctors were prescribing rest and tranquillity for his ill health, which would always be part of his life. His mother instilled in him the strong self-disciplined needed to be a musician, and supervised his homework and practising. Both his parents supported his musical aspirations and sent him to classes at Paris Conservatoire. He went to live in Paris in 1909 but returned to Aix regularly.   He loved to listen to the hum of conversation and songs of the workers in the field. He found his first inspirations at his gra...

Gabriel Fauré 1845-1924 Born in 1845 in Ariège, Gabriel Urbain Fauré was to become the most advanced composer of his generation. His harmonic and melodic innovations would profoundly influence many early C20th composers. He anticipated Impressionism creating a unique and identifiable style, a personal musical language. His mother’s family were minor aristocrats and his father was the director of a teacher training college at Montgauzy, near Foix. During the first four years of his life, Fauré was sent to a nurse in a neighbouring village. On his return he found his mother and father were generally too busy to spend much time with him or his siblings and were very strict. His main solace was the large garden at Montgauzy, where he could escape from the austere family house into a world of Mediterranean trees – pines, cypresses, magnolias, cedars, and beautiful flowers, which made a lasting impression on him. Montgauzy’s “Jardin Clos” was a priest’s garden, with sweet-smelling flow...