Kohut T. Spiritual works of Francis Poulenc: peculiar features of sacred texts reading

The thesis is dedicated to the works of the composer Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) – one of the most striking and distinctive members of the French musical culture in the first half of the twentieth century. The choral spiritual heritage of the artist is represented in the paper as an important and integral part of his multifaceted creativity. The thesis considers cultural, artistic, social and historical context having influenced the formation of the creative personality of F. Poulenc, from different perspectives it has been examined the ways of the composer being connected with the art of words which was realized in his literary and musical creative work. On the example of 12 spiritual opuses and choral scenes of the opera «Dialogues des Carmelites» the thesis defines the leading themes of F. Poulenc’s spiritual music, which compose two complementary lines – Good and Mariana. The study touches upon the ancient sacred texts and genres of Catholic spiritual music, which F. Poulenc referred to, reveals specific (for different genres) methods of the composer dealing with sacred texts, as well as defines the most important features of his style of spiritual music.