Germaine Tailleferre: A Bio-Bibliography
By (Author) Robert Shapiro
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Greenwood Press
22nd November 1993
United States
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
Art music, orchestral and formal music
Biography: arts and entertainment
Bibliographies, catalogues
780.92
Hardback
304
Width 156mm, Height 235mm
567g
The name of Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983), commonly brings to mind the intriguing group of French composers, referred to in the 1920s as "iconoclasts," and known as Les Six (with Poulenc, Auric, Durey, Milhaud and Honegger). To envision her solely in this most brief of lights, however, does not bring a sense of justice to her legacy, for Tailleferre leaves behind a large and diverse body of musical work that span 70 years, writing for more than a half-century after the precarious summit of Les Six. Although she was well acquainted with many influential 20th century artists, from Picasso to Stravinsky to Charlie Chaplin, she remains a curiously mysterious, if not absent, figure in biographical studies and in studies of the times of which she was an integral part.
ROBERT SHAPIRO is an independent researcher, film-maker, and writer, presently specializing in the personages and music of Les Six. Shapiro resides in Tucson, Arizona, and is at work on A Les Six Companion, to be published by Greenwood Press.