Germaine Tailleferre is best known for being the only female member of the French group of composers known as Les Six, alongside Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc. Although a prolific composer, until recently little of her music was performed regularly, and even now, forgotten works are being rediscovered. 

Tailleferre studied at the Paris Conservatoire despite her father’s opposition to a musical career. In 1913, she met Auric, Honegger and Milhaud in Georges Caussade’s counterpoint class, and from around 1916 these four composers appeared on concert programmes together. Tailleferre’s music was often programmed in Paris in the 1910s and 20s, and her musical style, combining neo-Classicism with a ready wit and energy, can be compared to Poulenc’s and Milhaud’s. 

Tailleferre was friendly with Ravel and visited him at his home in Montfort l’Amaury (his house still has a miniature porcelain sofa on display that was a gift from Tailleferre. Cocteau was condescending to her, describing her as ‘une Marie Laurencin pour l’oreille’ (‘a Marie Laurencin for the ear’), more it seems because both artists are women than because there are real parallels in their work. This marginalisation by resorting to gender-based statements rather than engaging with a creative artist’s work was sadly characteristic of this period. 

It is not easy to say how many pieces Tailleferre composed for the piano. She tended to compose at the instrument, though subsequently she may have orchestrated or arranged the work for another medium. She was herself an excellent pianist who played piano duet and two-piano works with Satie and Stravinsky. Satie played his Trois Morceaux en forme de poire with Tailleferre in the late 1910s, and she and Stravinsky were commissioned to make a piano roll recording of The Rite of Spring, though sadly this project did not come to fruition. 

Tailleferre’s musical language is remarkably consistent throughout her career. Her original works combine an essential Classicism with distinctly 20th century twists. She often creates tonal ambiguity or bitonal harmony by superimposing two or more different ostinati or scalar passages, and she combines straightforward Classical tonal material with complexifying harmony. Her piano works feature many lively, toccata-like movements with an appealing energy. 

Published in 1929–30, Sicilienne exhibits the complex textures present in many of Tailleferre’s piano pieces, often being written on three staves. A lilting sicilienne rhythm is almost omnipresent, but a louder, more agitated central section reaches a climax before seeming to dissolve, leading to a poignant variation of the opening material.