Biography
Germaine Tailleferre distinguished herself as the sole woman within Les Six, the postwar assembly of French composers, and continued to sustain a visible though somewhat remote presence in music circles long after the group dissolved in the mid- to late-1920s. At her death in 1983, aged ninety-one, she left an extensive catalog documenting nearly seventy years of steady creative work.
Born on the outskirts of Paris on April 19, 1892, she grew up in a household that introduced her to music at an early age, yet her parents regarded the pursuit as unsuitable for a young woman. Only at twelve did she persuade them to enroll her at the Paris Conservatoire, where she earned first prizes in accompaniment, harmony, and counterpoint; after completing her studies she received occasional informal instruction in orchestration from Maurice Ravel.
While still a student she met Auric, Milhaud, and Honegger. Following the 1918 premiere of her String Quartet she joined the Nouveaux Jeunes, whose members aligned themselves with the aesthetic of Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau; once Durey and Poulenc were added, the circle became known as Les Six, a designation the composers themselves did not choose. She married twice: a 1926 union with American author Ralph Barton ended quickly, after which she wed French lawyer Jean Lageat. In 1974 she published the autobiography Mémoires à l'emporte pièce.
Her early-1920s advocacy of progressive musical ideas brought her a degree of notoriety among the Parisian establishment, yet her language never abandoned the traditional French lineage extending from Fauré through Ravel. Cocteau summed up the graceful character of her work by comparing it to the paintings of Marie Laurencin. Both the Chansons françaises for voice and piano (1930) and the well-known Overture for orchestra (1932) reveal a sparkling, quintessentially French lightness in their playful deployment of modernist gestures. In later decades she explored serialism, though these pieces have received less attention than her earlier output.
Born on the outskirts of Paris on April 19, 1892, she grew up in a household that introduced her to music at an early age, yet her parents regarded the pursuit as unsuitable for a young woman. Only at twelve did she persuade them to enroll her at the Paris Conservatoire, where she earned first prizes in accompaniment, harmony, and counterpoint; after completing her studies she received occasional informal instruction in orchestration from Maurice Ravel.
While still a student she met Auric, Milhaud, and Honegger. Following the 1918 premiere of her String Quartet she joined the Nouveaux Jeunes, whose members aligned themselves with the aesthetic of Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau; once Durey and Poulenc were added, the circle became known as Les Six, a designation the composers themselves did not choose. She married twice: a 1926 union with American author Ralph Barton ended quickly, after which she wed French lawyer Jean Lageat. In 1974 she published the autobiography Mémoires à l'emporte pièce.
Her early-1920s advocacy of progressive musical ideas brought her a degree of notoriety among the Parisian establishment, yet her language never abandoned the traditional French lineage extending from Fauré through Ravel. Cocteau summed up the graceful character of her work by comparing it to the paintings of Marie Laurencin. Both the Chansons françaises for voice and piano (1930) and the well-known Overture for orchestra (1932) reveal a sparkling, quintessentially French lightness in their playful deployment of modernist gestures. In later decades she explored serialism, though these pieces have received less attention than her earlier output.
Albums
