Francis Poulenc

A member of Les Six and one of the most individual voices in 20th-century French music, Poulenc cultivated a style of deliberate simplicity and wit that concealed considerable harmonic sophistication. His piano music — the Mouvements perpétuels, eight Nocturnes, Impromptus, and Trois pièces — is among the most frequently performed French repertoire of the Modern era. He described himself as a composer of two natures: one frivolous, one religious. His religious choral works and his songs with piano are considered equally significant.