''Suite française'' (French Suite), FP 80, is an

orchestral suite A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/ concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

for

wind instruments A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

and

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

(or harp ''ad libitum'') 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 ...

. It was composed in a neoclassical style in 1935 for

Édouard Bourdet Édouard Bourdet ( Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 26 October 1887 – Paris, 17 January 1945) was a 20th-century French playwright. He was married to the poet, Catherine Pozzi; their son was Claude Bourdet. Plays *1910: ''Le Rubicon'' *1912: ''La Cage o ...

's ''la Reine Margot'', and it was inspired by

Claude Gervaise Claude Gervaise (1525–1583) ; these dates are contradicted by other sources was a French composer, editor and arranger of the Renaissance, who is remembered mainly for his association with renowned printer Pierre Attaingnant, and for his instru ...

's dance collection ''Le livre de danceries''.

Structure

# Bransle de Bourgogne #

Pavane The ''pavane'' ( ; it, pavana, ''padovana''; german: Paduana) is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century (Renaissance). The pavane, the earliest-known music for which was published in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci, ...

# Petite marche militaire # Complainte # Bransle de Champagne # Sicilienne # Carillon * A typical performance lasts 14 minutes.

References

Sources

* * * {{italic title Compositions by Francis Poulenc 1935 compositions Orchestral suites