Sonata for clarinet and bassoon

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 (1922)
Performed	4 January 1923 (1923-01-04): Paris
Scoring	clarinet bassoon

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. Its total execution time is approximately 7 to 8 minutes.

Composition[]

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).^{[M 1]}

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:

1. Allegro
2. Romance
3. Final

This sonata is close in clarity and precision to that for two clarinets composed four years earlier.^{[M 1]}

Reception and legacy[]

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.^[1] 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 "minions" (?), which he found very well written."^{[M 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".^{[H 1]}

Discography[]

This list is incomplete; you can help by . (June 2020)

• Karl Laystera and Milan Turković (bassoon)
• Paul Meyer (clarinet) and Gilbert Audin (bassoon): Francis Poulenc - Intégrale Musique de chambre - RCA Red Seal

References[]

Footnotes

Bibliography

• Hell, Henri (1978). Francis Poulenc (in French). Fayard. p. 388. ISBN 2-213-00670-9.

• Machart, Renaud (1995). Poulenc (in French). Éditions du Seuil. p. 252. ISBN 2-02-013695-3.
• Schmidt, Carl B. (1995). The Music of Francis Poulenc (1899–1963): A Catalogue. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-816336-7.

External links[]

• Free scores by Sonata for clarinet and bassoon at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)Sonata for clarinet and bassoon: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Sonata for clarinet and bassoon on YouTube
• Francis Poulenc Sonata for clarinet & bassoon, FP 32 on AllMusic
• Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) Complete Chamber Music, Volume 3 on Naxos
• Sonata for clarinet and bassoon, 1st mvmt on Archive.org