Spectrotone Instrumental Tone Color Chart

Francis Poulenc’s corpus of songs is one of the most generous and accomplished in the French repertoire. Born in 1899 and living until 1963, he inherited the art of the 19th century, which he succeeded in renewing while remaining within the bounds of tonal language, setting mostly contemporary poets (Apollinaire, Éluard, Aragon, Louise de Vilmorin). He drew his inspiration from the atmosphere specific to each text, but also from listening attentively to the timbre and rhythm of the poet reading his or her own works. This was, in the composer’s view, an essential key to penetrating the mystery of their creations. Associating the specific experience of the poet with his own personal memories, Poulenc created an expressive aura unique in the song output of his time.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Booker T. & the MG's originally served as the house band for Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee. They became one of the most important, enduring factors in the label's sound and helped define the sound of Southern soul genre in the 1960s. Their tight, impeccable, funky grooves could be heard on classic hits by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas, Albert King, and Sam & Dave among many others.

Claude Debussy (born Achille-Claude Debussy) was among the most influential composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His mature compositions, distinctive and appealing, combined modernism and sensuality so successfully that their sheer beauty often obscures their technical innovation. Debussy is considered the founder and leading exponent of musical Impressionism (although he resisted the label), and his adoption of non-traditional scales and tonal structures was paradigmatic for many composers who followed. The son of a shopkeeper and a seamstress, Debussy began piano studies ……..
From Allmusic