| Sonate pour clarinette et basson Sonata for clarinet and bassoon | |
|---|---|
| Chamber music by Francis Poulenc | |
 Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, where the piece was premiered in 1923 | |
| Catalogue | FP 32a |
| Composed | 1922 |
| Performed | 4 January 1923: Paris |
| Scoring |
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The Sonate pour clarinette et basson (Sonata for clarinet and bassoon), FP 32a, is a piece of chamber music composed by Francis Poulenc in 1922.
This sonata is the third work of chamber music of the composer after the sonata for two clarinets and the sonata for piano, 4 hands (FP 8). It was written between August and October 1922 at the same time as the Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone (FP 33). [1]
The work was dedicated "to Madame Audrey Parr". [2] The composer revised the work in 1945. [2] [3]
Its total execution time is approximately 7 to 8 minutes. [3] Like most of the composer's chamber music pieces, with the exception of the Cello Sonata, the sonata for clarinet and bassoon has three short movements:
This sonata is close in clarity and precision to that for two clarinets composed four years earlier. [1]
The sonata was premiered by the clarinettist Louis Cahuzac at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris on 4 January 1923 at a Satie-Poulenc concert organized by Jean Wiener. [4] From its creation, critiques were positive, especially those of Charles Koechlin, which Poulenc reports in one of his letters. He specifies that his master very much liked his "stuffs, which he found very well written. That is essential." [1] Biographer Henri Hell found that the two pieces written the same year were "acid and tender, well written for wind instruments, they had all the quality of the sonata for two clarinets, contemporary of the Trois mouvements perpétuels". [5]
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"Les Six" is a name given to a group of six composers, five of them French and one Swiss, who lived and worked in Montparnasse. The name has its origins in two 1920 articles by critic Henri Collet in Comœdia. Their music is often seen as a neoclassic reaction against both the musical style of Richard Wagner and the Impressionist music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-known are the piano suite Trois mouvements perpétuels (1919), the ballet Les biches (1923), the Concert champêtre (1928) for harpsichord and orchestra, the Organ Concerto (1938), the opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1957), and the Gloria (1959) for soprano, choir, and orchestra.
The Sonate pour clarinette et piano, FP 184, for clarinet in B-flat and piano by Francis Poulenc dates from 1962 and is one of the last pieces he completed. It is dedicated to the memory of Arthur Honegger, who like Poulenc had belonged to the group Les Six. A typical performance takes 12–14 minutes.
The Sonate pour flûte et piano, FP 164, by Francis Poulenc, is a three-movement work for flute and piano, written in 1957.
Stabat Mater, FP 148, is a musical setting of the Stabat Mater sequence composed by Francis Poulenc in 1950.
Francis Poulenc completed his Sonate pour violoncelle et piano, FP 143, in 1948. He first sketched it in 1940. It was dedicated to the French cellist Pierre Fournier, who had helped with the technical aspects of the cello part, as the composer was unfamiliar with the instrument. The work was published by Heugel in Paris.
Francis Poulenc's Concerto pour deux pianos in D minor, FP 61, was composed over the period of three months in the summer of 1932. It is often described as the climax of Poulenc's early period. The composer wrote to the Belgian musicologist Paul Collaer: "You will see for yourself what an enormous step forward it is from my previous work and that I am really entering my great period." The concerto was commissioned by and dedicated to the Princess Edmond de Polignac, an American-born arts patron to whom many early-20th-century masterpieces are dedicated, including Stravinsky's Renard, Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte, Kurt Weill's Second Symphony, and Satie's Socrate. Her Paris salon was a gathering place for the musical avant-garde.
Albert Huybrechts was a Belgian composer.
Mouvements perpétuels, FP 14a, is a short three-movement solo-piano piece by French composer Francis Poulenc.
Francis Poulenc's Sextuor (Sextet), FP 100, is a chamber music piece written for a standard wind quintet and piano. Estimates about the time of its composition range from between 1931 and 1932 and 1932 alone. It received its debut in 1933 but was later revised in 1939. Performed in its entirety, the three-movement piece lasts approximately 18 minutes.
Suite française, FP 80, is an orchestral suite for wind instruments, percussion and harpsichord by Francis Poulenc. It was composed in a neoclassical style in 1935 for Édouard Bourdet's la Reine Margot, and it was inspired by Claude Gervaise's dance collection Le livre de danceries.
The Sonata for two clarinets, FP 7, is a piece of chamber music composed by Francis Poulenc in 1918. Dedicated to Édouard Souberbielle, its total execution time is about six minutes. It is unusual among clarinet duets in that it is written for B♭ clarinet, which generally plays the melodic themes, and A clarinet, which plays a more supporting role through much of the piece. It is also unusual for music of this period that the clarinetists perform different time signatures simultaneously in parts of the opening movement.
The Sonate pour violon et piano, FP 119, by Francis Poulenc was composed in 1942–1943 in memory of the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. The score, dedicated to Poulenc's niece Brigitte Manceaux, was published by Max Eschig. The work was premiered by the violinist Ginette Neveu with the composer at the piano on 21 June 1943 in Paris, Salle Gaveau.
Figure humaine, FP 120, by Francis Poulenc is a cantata for double mixed choir of 12 voices composed in 1943 on texts by Paul Éluard including "'Liberté". Written during the Nazi occupation of France, it was premiered in London in English by the BBC in 1945. It was first performed in French in 1946 in Brussels, then in Paris on 22 May 1947. The work was published by Éditions Salabert. Cherished as the summit of the composer's work and a masterpiece by musical critics, the cantata is a hymn to Liberté, victorious over tyranny.
The Trio pour hautbois, basson et piano, FP 43, by Francis Poulenc is a three-movement chamber work, composed between 1924 and 1926, and premiered in the latter year.
Villanelle, FP 74, by Francis Poulenc is a piece of chamber music composed in 1934. It was written for recorder and piano. The execution time is about 2 minutes.
The Sonate pour cor, trompette et trombone, FP 33a, by Francis Poulenc is a piece of chamber music composed in 1922 and dedicated to Raymonde Linossier (1897–1930). Poulenc revised it in 1945. Its total performance time is about eight minutes.
Chanson à boire,, FP 31, is a choral work by Francis Poulenc, composed in 1922 on an anonymous text of the 17th century for a four-part men's chorus a cappella. It was published first by Rouart-Lerolle, but today by Salabert.
Jean-Marc Fessard is a French classical clarinetist.
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