Francis Poulenc obtained his musical education with Charles Koechlin (1921-1924) and at that time became acquainted with Arnold Schönberg. He was associated with members of the Nouveaux Jeunes group (later Groupe des Six: Jean Cocteau, Honegger, Auric and Milhaud) to whom he was subordinate to the influence of Jean Cocteau. At the beginning, he played easily and playfully in his style, but the death of his best friend brought new depth to his work in 1935. It was during this time that he began intensive collaboration with baritone Pierre Bernac, whom he regularly accompanied from 1935 to 1949. At this time, most of Poulenc's song works, including several cycles, began to emerge, in which he appeared as a valuable heir to Fauré, Duparc and Debussy. Thus, Poulenc significantly and idiosyncratically contributed to the art of French songs. Poulenc most enjoyed citing stylistics, as well as not being ashamed to use popular jazz and entertainment music motifs in his stage works from the 1920s and early 1930s, but these two elements were applied to different degrees of success.
