The Sonata for two clarinets (''Sonate pour deux clarinettes''), FP 7, is a piece of

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

composed by

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) 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-kno ...

in 1918. Dedicated to

Édouard Souberbielle Jacques Auguste Édouard Souberbielle (17 June 1899 – 29 January 1986) was a 20th-century French organist, Kapellmeister and music educator. Biography Souberbielle first studied with his mother, a former pupil of Émile Delaborde, son of Char ...

, 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 The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

, 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 The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

simultaneously in parts of the opening movement.

Genesis

On 17 January 1918, Poulenc was mobilized despite the imminent end of the first world war. Based in Vincennes, he did not lose contact with the Paris of the arts and serenely led the beginnings of his career as a composer. After he met some success with the '' Rapsodie nègre'' and worldwide fame after the premiere of the ''

Trois mouvements perpétuels ''Trois'' is a 2000 erotic thriller film directed by Rob Hardy and produced by William Packer. It stars Gary Dourdan, Kenya Moore and Gretchen Palmer. The film was given a limited theatrical release and was one of the years highest grossing ...

'' played by pianist

Ricardo Viñes Ricardo Viñes y Roda (, ca, Ricard Viñes i Roda, ; 5 February 1875 – 29 April 1943) was a Spanish pianist. He gave the premieres of works by Ravel, Debussy, Satie, Falla and Albéniz. He was the piano teacher of the composer Francis Pou ...

, Poulenc began writing two pieces in the spring of 1918. Published the same year, the sonata for piano, four hands, and the sonata for two clarinets were created during the same concerts at the

Salle Huyghens From 1916 to 1920, the Salle Huyghens located at 6 in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, was the name given to the studio of painter Émile Lejeune (1885–1964) (former stables), which the latter put at the disposal of musicians, poets and painters ...

in Paris on 5 April 1919.

Reception and legacy

The success of the ''Trois mouvements perpétuels'' was confirmed by the sonata for two clarinets. The biographer

Henri Hell Henri Hell, pseudonym for José Enrique Lasry (1916 – April 1991) was a French art, music and literary critic, as well as a musicologist. Biography As a literary critic, Henri Hell collaborated with ', '' Combat'', ''la Table Ronde'', '' l'Expr ...

recognized "an acid taste that delightfully annoys the ear".

Style

Praised for the solidity of its writing, the sonata already testified to a mastery of the technique of wind instruments dear to the composer. This inclination for the winds coincided with that of

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

who clearly rejected the use of strings for their too strong resemblance to the human voice.

Structure

Like most of the composer's chamber music pieces, with the exception of the ''

Cello Sonata A cello sonata is usually a sonata written for solo cello with piano accompaniment. The most famous Romantic-era cello sonatas are those written by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven. Some of the earliest cello sonatas were written in the 1 ...

'', the sonata for two clarinets has three short movements: # ''Presto'' # ''Andante'' # ''Vif''

Recordings

Michel Portal Michel Portal (born 27 November 1935) is a French composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. He plays both jazz and classical music and is considered to be "one of the architects of modern European jazz". Early life Portal was born in Bayonne on ...

and Paul Meyer: ''Francis Poulenc – Intégrale Musique de chambre'' – RCA Red Seal

Published score

* ''Sonata for two clarinets'',

Chester Music Wise Music Group is a global music publisher, with headquarters in Berners Street, London. In February 2020, Wise Music Group changed its name from The Music Sales Group. In 2014 Wise Music Group (as The Music Sales Group) acquired French cla ...

, London, cat. CH00219Chester Novell
Sonata for two clarinets
Accessed 2 May 2011

References

Sources * *

External links

*
Francis Poulenc – Sonata for 2 Clarinets
on YouTube
Sonate pour deux clarinettes
on

Philharmonie de Paris The Philharmonie de Paris () ( en, Paris Philharmonic) is a complex of concert halls in Paris, France. The buildings also house exhibition spaces and rehearsal rooms. The main buildings are all located in the Parc de la Villette at the northeaste ...

Sonate pour deux clarinettes
on

Hyperion Records Hyperion Records is an independent British classical record label. History Hyperion is an independent British classical label that was established in 1980 with the goal of showcasing recordings of music in all genres and from all time period ...

Clarinettes (2). FP 7
on data.bnf.fr * {{Authority control Compositions by Francis Poulenc Poulenc Francis, Sonata for two clarinets 1918 compositions