The opera bouffe Les mamelles de Tiresias (1944) by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) stands at the crossroad between the composer's formative and mature works. The opera exhibits a number of harmonic features characteristics of Poulenc's eclectic, idiosyncratic style. This thesis attempts to address the lack of attention given this work in particular and Poulenc's output in general. / The thesis consists of two volumes. Volume I contains the introduction, three chapters and the conclusion. Volume 2 contains musical examples, analytical graphs and reproductions of Act 1, Scenes 1 and 2, and Act 2, Scenes 7 and 8 from the piano-vocal score of Les mamelles de Tiresias. / The first chapter of Volume 1 reviews two Ph.D. dissertations that examine Poulenc's harmonic language; and summarizes the more recent analyses by Vivan Wood, Pamela Poulin and Keith Daniels. Figures (the musical examples) for Chapter 1 are given in Volume 2. / Chapter 2 of Volume 1 examines the large-scale harmonic organization in pivotal scenes that are representative of the musical language in the opera. / Chapter 3 of Volume I extends Warren Werner's and Richard Bobbitt's approach to show how local events and large-scale harmonic motions can be viewed as leitmotives that symbolize key events in the drama. Figures (the musical examples) and Graphs (the analytical graphs) for Chapter 3 are given in Volume 2. / The conclusion reviews there observations of the study and makes some general remarks about Poulenc's harmonic language. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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