Francis Poulenc provides an interesting case of a significant personal loss reigniting religious feelings which inspired important musical works:
The young composer and critic Pierre-Octave Ferroud was one of Poulenc’s closest friends. He was just a few months younger than Poulenc and a composer of some important chamber and orchestral music. But in 1936, Ferroud was crossing a street in Hungary when he was run down by a car and died instantly, aged just 36. Poulenc never recovered from the loss. His immediate response was to visit the famous shrine of Our Lady at Rocamadour in southern France. There, standing before the iconic figure of the Madonna with a young child on her lap, Poulenc experienced a life-changing transformation. He rediscovered and recommitted to the Catholicism that he’d initially learned from his father in the family home.
Immediately upon his return from Rocamadour, Poulenc began to compose his first explicitly religious works. The presence of Ferroud hovered over several of them, including in explicit dedications to his memory. Masterpieces followed — the Mass in G major, the Stabat Mater and Gloria, and the opera Dialogues of the Carmelites. [Martin Buzacott]
The young composer and critic Pierre-Octave Ferroud was one of Poulenc’s closest friends. He was just a few months younger than Poulenc and a composer of some important chamber and orchestral music. But in 1936, Ferroud was crossing a street in Hungary when he was run down by a car and died instantly, aged just 36. Poulenc never recovered from the loss. His immediate response was to visit the famous shrine of Our Lady at Rocamadour in southern France. There, standing before the iconic figure of the Madonna with a young child on her lap, Poulenc experienced a life-changing transformation. He rediscovered and recommitted to the Catholicism that he’d initially learned from his father in the family home.
Immediately upon his return from Rocamadour, Poulenc began to compose his first explicitly religious works. The presence of Ferroud hovered over several of them, including in explicit dedications to his memory. Masterpieces followed — the Mass in G major, the Stabat Mater and Gloria, and the opera Dialogues of the Carmelites. [Martin Buzacott]
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