Jean Françaix, by Jean Françaix… In a short biography he was asked to write in 1989 Jean Françaix wrote: “It will be of little interest to learn that I was born in Le Mans, the venue of the 24-hour car race, except perhaps to note that the city is watched over by a magnificent cathedral which inspired me to write a Fantasy Oratorio “The Apocalypse according to St. John”. My father had the calm and obstinacy of people from northern France; my mother, though also from Le Mans, was volcanic, and could trace some of her ancestry to Lorraine. From the two of them I duly inherited a volcano lighting up the tranquil landscape of my soul.” “I was brought up a Catholic in a city with a splendid cathedral and grew to know every stone in that edifice, which drove me by some mysterious force to compose a religious work which has remained unique among my compositions till this day. My choice of subject was influenced by the approach of the Second World War and the associated forebodings of yet more apocalyptic events. But when I read the Book of the Apocalypse seriously for the first time in 1937, I was far from imagining I would find in it a magnificent subject neglected by previous composers as well as an answer to nearly all the big questions on my mind at that time. I started studying the text very closely, helped first by a very elderly friend, paradoxically a total non-believer and a former pupil of the Ecole des Chartes, then by the monks of the Abbey of Solesmes of Rabelais fame…” “My dodecaphonic “friends” will tell you I am an extinct volcano, and I would be reluctant to take issue with them. The only seal of approval I have is a qualification from the Paris conservatoire; I have a few ribbons on my chest, as do many others in France. My composition teacher Nadia Boulanger never managed to teach me harmony or counterpoint, let alone fugue. To save her reputation, she used to tell everyone I had mastered all these things at an instinctive level. But if the truth be known, elegant theories are the last things on my mind when I compose. I am more interested in winding forest paths off the beaten track of theory. But lovers of straight lines should rest assured: I am quite able to play and conduct my own works in Carnegie Hall, Munich or Rome, and to follow many an eminent baton, from old Keilberth to the young Klaus Rainer Schöll, not to mention a rendition of my “Concertino” with a gentleman by the name of Karajan…” “But since early childhood I have borne in me the composing virus. The experience of creating something, starting from a blank sheet of paper, has always intoxicated me. It has helped me to break out of the prison of my own person. I have nothing to lose: if my works are found to be bereft of value, I will not be around any more to face this fact on earth … And the Lord will comfort me, if He is kind enough to take me in …”

A concise biography of Jean Françaix...	The music of Jean Françaix...	Clarinet Concerto...
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