AN EXPLORATION OF SELECTED VOCAL WORKS BY GERMAINE TAILLEFERRE (1892-1983)

Abstract

French composer and pianist Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) is commonly known as the sole female member of the French music collective Les Six, however her prolific career and abundance of compositions encompass a range of artistic endeavors and compositional expertise beyond this customary title. Important primary sources detailing her inspirations, compositional philosophies and artistic insights include a short, self-dictated memoir, letters, contemporary articles, critical reviews, interviews and music scores. Many of her manuscripts have remained unpublished or lost amid the destruction of World War II. And though a large number of her works enjoyed performances during her lifetime on Radio-France, archive recordings are unavailable to the public and subsequent performances have been rare by both French and international institutions. The vocal works of Tailleferre therefore offer fertile ground for further analysis, exploration and consideration for standard repertoire and academic discussion.The first performance event features a lecture introducing the life and works of Germain Tailleferre, similar in format and content to a higher education song or opera literature lecture. The discussion includes biographical information, compositional characteristics and analysis and performances of two song sets and operatic excerpts. The second and third performance events share the U.S. premiere of the complete operatic cycle Quatre opéras bouffes: petite histoire lyrique de l’art français, du style galant au style méchant. The Part 1 performance features La fille d’opéra and Le bel ambitieux and the Part 2 performance features La pauvre Eugénie and M. Petitpois achète un château. Supplemental materials accompanying this dissertation project include video recordings of each performance event and the complete supertitle files created with original translations and utilized during the performances of Quatre opéras bouffes.