Les Biches (; The Hinds or The Does, or The Darlings) is a one-act ballet to music by Francis Poulenc, choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska and premiered by the Ballets Russes on 6 January 1924 at the Salle Garnier in Monte Carlo. Nijinska danced the central role of the Hostess. The ballet has no story, and depicts the random interactions of a group of mainly young people in a house party on a summer afternoon.
The ballet was seen in Paris and London within a year of its premiere, and has been frequently revived there; it was not produced in New York until 1950. Nijinska directed revivals of the ballet for several companies in the four decades after its creation. Les Biches, with recreations of Marie Laurencin's original costumes and scenery, remains in the repertoire of the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet and other companies. The music has been used for later ballets, although they have not followed Nijinska's in gaining a place in the regular repertoire.
The music for the original ballet contains three choral numbers. Poulenc made the choral parts optional when he revised the score in 1939–1940, and the work is usually given with wholly orchestral accompaniment. The composer extracted a five-movement suite from the score, for concert performance. The suite has been recorded for LP and CD from the 1950s onwards.
Background
Sergei Diaghilev, proprietor of the Ballets Russes, contacted Poulenc in November 1921 with a proposed commission. The original plan was that Poulenc should write music for a ballet scenario with the title Les Demoiselles, written by the fashion designer Germaine Bongard. The following July it became clear that Bongard did not wish to go ahead; Poulenc wrote to his friend and fellow member of Les Six, Darius Milhaud, that instead "I will probably write a suite of dances without a libretto."Moore, p. 305 At about the same time he told Igor Stravinsky that after consulting Diaghilev and the designer, Marie Laurencin, "I have a clear conception of my ballet which will have no subject – simply dances and songs."Schmidt, p. 124
The titles of the numbers in the score indicate that Poulenc followed this plan, but he nonetheless retained two important features of Bongarďs proposed work: a choral element, with unseen singers giving a commentary on the action, and the "demoiselles". In an analysis published in The Musical Quarterly in 2012, Christopher Moore describes the former as reminiscent of Stravinsky's Pulcinella, and the latter as "a corps de ballet of flirtatious young women". For the words, Poulenc spent a considerable amount of time in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, seeking out texts for the choral interjections.Schmidt, pp. 124–125 He found what his biographer Carl B. Schmidt describes as "some slightly obscene eighteenth-century texts", which he used in three of the numbers in the score.Schmidt, p. 125
Poulenc struggled to find the right name for the ballet, and eventually had the idea of calling it Les Biches, echoing the title of the classic ballet Les Sylphides. His chosen title is, as he admitted, untranslatable into any other language. The word biche is usually translated as "doe", an adult female deer; it was also used as a slang term for a coquettish woman. Moore expands on the definition: "As has been often noted, the word biches is itself pregnant with double entendre, referring most obviously to does, but also, in the underworld of Parisian slang, to a woman (or ironically, a man) of deviant sexual proclivities."Moore, p. 319
By the middle of 1923 Poulenc had completed the first version of the score, after some help with details of orchestration from his teacher, Charles Koechlin.Schmidt, p. 103 In late October, at Diaghilev's request, he travelled to Monte Carlo to help supervise the production. The composer was delighted with the work of the choreographer, Nijinska, which he described as "ravishing"; he wrote to Milhaud that she had truly understood his score.Moore, pp. 305 and 335 Between November 1923 and the premiere in January 1924, Poulenc, together with Nijinska, oversaw, by his estimate, "at least 72 rehearsals or close to 250 hours of work". Les Biches was an immediate success, first in Monte Carlo in January 1924 and then in Paris in May, under the direction of André Messager and has remained one of Poulenc's best-known scores.Hell, pp. 24–28 Poulenc's new celebrity after the success of the ballet was the unexpected cause of his estrangement from Erik Satie, of whom he had been a protégé: among the new friends Poulenc made was Louis Laloy, a writer whom Satie regarded with implacable enmity.Schmidt (2001), p. 136 Poulenc's friend, Georges Auric, who had just enjoyed a similar triumph with a Diaghilev ballet, Les Fâcheux, was also repudiated by Satie for becoming a friend of Laloy.
Music Poulenc revised the orchestration comprehensively in 1939–1940 (published 1947). He extracted a five-movement suite from the full ballet score (1948), omitting the overture and the three choral movements. The suite is dedicated to Misia Sert.Poulenc (1948), p. 1 The published score specifies the following instruments: woodwind: 1 piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 1 cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 1 contrabassoon; brass: 4 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba; percussion: percussion bass drum, field drum, glockenspiel, snare drum, suspended cymbal, tambourine, tenor drum, triangle; celeste, glockenspiel; and strings.Poulenc (1948), pp. 1, 19 and 36
The score of Les Biches is sometimes described as neoclassical.Moore, Christopher. "A Perfect Accord: Music and Gesture in Francis Poulenc's Les Biches", Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique, September 2012, p. 97 The form of the piece – an overture followed by a number of unlinked movements – follows 18th-century musical practice, and Poulenc set out to follow classical precedent in his tonal and harmonic writing. He wrote to Milhaud:
The analyst Gérald Hugon writes that other influences on the young composer's score are French eighteenth-century song (in the Rondeau), ragtime (in the Rag-Mazurka) and composers ranging from the classical era (Mozart and Schubert) to contemporaries such as Stravinsky and Prokofiev, via Tchaikovsky: Hugon quotes Claude Rostand's comment that according to Poulenc the Adagietto was inspired by a variation from The Sleeping Beauty.Hugon. Gérald. Notes to Naxos CD 8.573170 (2014) Poulenc's biographer Henri Hell finds the score "irresistibly evoking the art of Domenico Scarlatti".
The complete ballet score comprises an overture followed by eight movements. The second (Chanson dansée), fourth (Jeu) and seventh (Petite chanson dansée) contain parts for unseen chorus. The published score stipulates a minimum of twelve singers (four sopranos, four tenors, four baritones), although it also seems to indicate that at the premiere there was only one voice to each part. When Poulenc revised the score he made the vocal parts optional.Harrison, Max. "Period Piece", The Times, 26 September 1981, p. 15
Ouverture The overture begins quietly, in time in C major with a slow duet, marked tranquillo, for flute and bass clarinet. After about one minute the rest of the orchestra enters, the key changes to E major and the tempo to allegro vivace.Poulenc (1924), pp. 1–2 After several changes of time signature the overture ends with a reprise, at a faster tempo, of the opening theme.Poulenc (1924), pp. 10–11 The playing time is about 3 minutes and 30 seconds.Notes to EMI CD set 5099997216551, "Poulenc Integrale: Edition du 50e anniversaire 1963–2013", 2013
Rondeau After a three bar introduction marked "very slow", the Rondeau switches to an energetic allegro molto in F major. The movement is dominated by a theme for trumpet which recurs throughout. The central section, marked "très calme", is quieter and slower. The boisterous first theme returns to round off the movement.Poulenc (1948), pp. 1–18
Chanson dansée
Men's voices only.
Qu'est-ce qu'Amour, le connais-tu, Grégoire? Qu'est-ce qu'Amour, dis-moi, le connais-tu? Tra la la la la. L'Amour est un chat qui te guette et t'attrapera. L'Amour est un chat qui t'attrapera. A bon chat bon rat, je sais/tu peux boire Les chats et les Amours aiment à folâtrer, et sitôt qu'on les flatte font patte de velours Buveurs gardez-vous de la patte, de la patte de l'amour. L'Amour est un chat qui t'attrapera.What is Love? Do you know, Grégoire? What is Love – Tell me: do you know? Tra-la-la-la-la! Love is a cat that is watching you, and will catch you. Love is a cat that will catch you. Tit for tat! I know how/you can drink. Cats and Loves like to sport, and when we pet them they become velvet-pawed. Drinkers, beware of Love's paw. Love is a cat that will catch you.
This movement is the first of the three choral sections in the original version of the ballet; it is for male voices with orchestral accompaniment. It begins quietly, with a theme marked "quieto", which in its five bars switches between and time. This is followed by a strongly rhythmic song for male voices, beginning in time in D major, with a later interlude where the key switches to D. The original theme returns to conclude the movement.Poulenc (1924), pp. 18–28
Adagietto The plaintive melancholy of the Adagietto finds Poulenc at his most affecting, in the view of the analyst Paul Horsley. It is dominated by a gentle oboe theme in its outer sections, and unlike much of the score it does not have frequent changes of key or time signatures.Poulenc (1948), pp. 19–36 Milhaud wrote of this movement, "I know of no other music that touches me so intimately, so completely."Horsley, Paul. "Suite from Les biches", Programme notes, Philadelphia Orchestra, retrieved 21 June 2018 In the 1950s Poulenc commented, "The 'Adagietto' must be played without romantic pathos. In this ballet nobody falls in love for life, they have sex! Let's just leave it there." The initial mood of wistful charm – "doucement mélancolique" according to the score – is briefly interrupted by a louder and more emphatic section for a few bars, before the music becomes calm again, leading to a quiet close.Del Mar, pp. 183–184
Jeu
J'ai quatre filles à marier. J'en ai rempli tout mon grenier. Grands dieux! Je ne sais comment marier tous ces enfants. Ah! J'aimerai qui m'aime, j'aimerai qui m'aimera. Ma fille, je parle à vous, ma fille, m'entendez vous? Mon père, que dites vous? Je dis que si vous êtes sage vous ferez un beau mariage. La belle, m'entendez vous? Oï, Oï, Oï, Oï. Puis parcourant toute la dans Faites trois fois la révérenc Et vous aurez de beaux atours, si du rond vous faites le tour. et vous embrasserez celui que vous voudrez, et vous embrasserez celui que vous aimez. Vive le mois de mai! Vive le joli mai! Vive le mai, le mai joli! Vive le joli mois de mai! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Vive le vin et le tabac! C'est le brun que j'aime et qui m'aura, c'est lui que je choisirai. La belle, est-ce vrai que vous m'aimez, est-ce moi que vous prendrez? Ma fille, il vous faut vous marier: choisissez qui vous aimez. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Vive le joli mois de mai! Vive le mois, le mois d'amour! Mad'moiselle, entrez chez nous Mad'moiselle, entrez un coup afin que l'on vous aime le cœur tout plein d'amour. Un mari choisirez vous; choisissez donc un bon coup. Faites moi les yeux doux; embrassez moi dans le cou Mettez vous à genoux, et puis relevez vous.
Me voici à genoux, tout plein d'amour pour vous. Revenez parmi nous, revenez encore un coup. Mon bien aimé voyez combien mes baisirs sont doux. Ah, que vos yeux sont beaux, et que votre sein est rond! Si c'est le brun que vous avez choisi. Ma chérie, si vous m'aimez il faut encore m'embrasser. Ma fille, il faut l'épouser et cela sans plus tarder. J'ai quatre filles à marier. J'en ai rempli tout mon grenier.I have four daughters to marry. I have filled my whole loft. Great gods! I do not know how