Francis Poulenc Sonata For Flute And Piano Sheet Music
Francis Poulenc Clarinet Sonata

Francis poulenc sonata for flute and piano free sheet music

Notes for: July 19, 2016

Francis Poulenc composed his Flute Sonata in 1957 and it is now perhaps the most widely played of all flute sonatas. It encompasses a wide range of moods, from a 'melancholic' first movement to a hauntingly beautiful Cantilena, and a playful and energetic Presto to finish.

This Sonata For Flute and Piano is a virtuosic flute solo by renowned influential French composer Francis Poulenc. Written in 1956-57, this is an elegant, dreamy chamber work and he has demonstrated his obvious compositional skill, also highlighting the French affinity with the sweet sounds of the flute.
(Music Sales America). This Sonata For Flute and Piano is a virtuosic flute solo by renowned influential French composer Francis Poulenc. Written in 1956-57, this is an elegant, dreamy chamber work and he has demonstrated his obvious compositional skill, also highlighting the French affinity with the sweet sounds of the flute.

Francis Poulenc is now considered one of the 20th century’s leading French composers. During the first 50 years of his life, there was a tendency in professional musical circles to downgrade his music. In a period of atonality and other experimentation, he wrote in a simple musical style, which unsophisticated listeners could understand. Since World War II, musicians and critics have had second thoughts about Poulenc’s work. Mainly, this reassessment has occurred due to The Dialogues of the Carmelites, his opera about a group of doomed nuns in the French Revolution, which has become a staple of the opera repertory. But a number of his other works — the Concert Champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra, his piano pieces, his instrumental sonatas and chamber music, and his songs — also assure him a permanent place in 20th century music.

Poulenc first won recognition as a member of Les Sixes, a group of rebellious French composers that also included Darius Milhaud. The group’s primary bond was a common reaction against the emotionality of César Franck and his disciples, and the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel. These French composers, in the group’s judgment, had abandoned the classic French principles of restraint and clarity. To restore these Gallic elements, each member of Les Sixes went his or her own way. Poulenc’s style can perhaps best be defined by his own analysis: “I’m a melancholy person who loves to laugh like all melancholy persons.” As suggested by this paradox, there are two contradictory strains in his music — one of wit, even sardonic humor and irony; the other of melancholy, even tragedy as in The Dialogues of the Carmelites. Beyond these conflicting strains, his music is marked by the use of spare harmony and dissonance, a search for new combinations of instrumental sound, a sense of elegance and a gift for melody.

Francis Poulenc Sonata For Flute And Piano Sheet Music

When it came to chamber music, Poulenc much preferred the sound of wind instruments to the sound of strings. Of his thirteen chamber works, ten involved no string instruments at all other than the piano. Furthermore, he made a study of wind instruments, and his writing for them was skillful and idiomatic, exploring both their tonal resources and expressive possibilities. He also had a sure grasp of how to combine the winds effectively with one another and with a piano. Building on this lifelong interest, in the late 1950s Poulenc conceived the idea of writing four sonatas, one for each of the standard woodwind instruments – the flute, the clarinet, the oboe and the bassoon – with piano accompaniment. He finished the first three, but suffered a sudden fatal heart attack before he could write the fourth.

The flute sonata was written in the winter of 1956-57 on commission from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation at the U.S. Library of Congress. It was first performed at the Scarborough Festival in June 1957, by flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and Poulenc, and they played it frequently until Poulenc’s death six years later. Download software arcgis 10.3 full crack. In 1959, in fact, Poulenc selected the sonata for a 60th birthday concert of his favorite compositions.

The sonata reflects Poulenc’s contrasting moods of melancholy and joy; the first movement is appropriately titled Allegro malinconico and the mood is mournful. But the melancholy is intermittent and offset by a middle section in better humor. Note at the outset the little rhythmic pattern of four 32nd notes followed by a quarter note; this pattern is repeated again and again, giving the music a flowing character.

Francis Poulenc Clarinet Sonata

Apple display for mac mini. The slow movement is an extended song for the flute — slow in tempo but more introspective than depressed. The third movement is completely lively and spirited, with references to the main theme of the first movement and its rhythmic figure.

Francis Poulenc Flute Sonata