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    Poulenc Trio For Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, Movement II (1926)

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    Svetlana Maigiene

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    Poulenc Trio For Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, Movement II (1926)

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    Svetlana Maigiene
    38 views6 pages

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    38 views6 pages

    Poulenc Trio For Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, Movement II (1926)

    Uploaded by

    Svetlana Maigiene

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 6

    W

    Poulenc Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and


    Piano, Movement II (1926)

    These notes supplement the annotated scores on Moodle and are designed to be
    used in conjunction with them.

    What should I revise?


     Spend lots of time making sure you understand the overall structure and the
    details of the analysis, using the scores on Moodle and these notes. Make
    sure you score is heavily annotated - listening to the music with the score will
    help you to remember, especially as in this question you hear the extract that
    you have to discuss.
     Practice comparing different sections of the work with each other
     Practice listing aspects of harmony, orchestration for short sections for the 5-
    mark question

    Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

    Poulenc was a key member of a group of young French composers known as Les
    Six (the others were Durey, Honegger, Milhaud, Auric and Tailleferre), whose music
    was promoted by the older maverick composer Erik Satie and also the novelist,
    playwright and filmmaker Cocteau. Their music was in part a reaction against the
    influence of what they saw as the excesses of German music represented by
    Wagner and the high seriousness of 1920s modernism (like the serial music of
    Schoenberg and his pupils). They aimed to write in a more straightforward and direct
    way than Debussy and other older French composers. The group did not last much
    past the mid-twenties but Poulenc and Auric continued to write at least some of their
    music in the light-hearted style with which Les Six are associated.

    Poulenc himself was born into a well-to-do family in Paris in 1899. His father was a
    director of a chemical company, while his mother, an amateur pianist, gave Poulenc his
    first lessons. She also instilled in him a love for Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Scarlatti and
    Couperin, encouraging him to keep an open mind to every kind of music, particularly that
    of contemporary composers. Intending their son to be a business man, however, his
    parents did not allow Poulenc to attend a music conservatory, meaning that he was
    mostly self-educated musically. He often
    Poulenc’s output is usually divided into four stylistic periods:

     The works of the first period (1917-22) reflect the influence of Satie and Les Six,
    with their bare, linear simplicity, polytonality and “wrong note” dissonances.
    Melodies are often simple and diatonic, accompaniments repetitively chordal. The
    atmosphere often resembles the circus, the café-concert or the music hall.

     Poulenc’s second period (1923-35) is his “Stravinsky or neoclassical period”, with


    its return to earlier composers (including 18th century clavecinistes, Mozart and
    Chopin), generally thin textures, “wrong note” dissonance, ostinato, a use of
    Classical structures and modest instrumental resources.

     The music of the third period (1936-52) is more lyrical and emotional; it also
    became more serious and works tended to last longer. The music of this period
    has been termed “neoromantic”.

     The fourth period (1953-63) was concerned exclusively with serious, sacred
    works, songs and piano pieces, serene chamber works and two operas. Harmony
    became richer – sometimes much more chromatic.

    Poulenc and Debussy

    Despite an attack of anti-Debussyism in 1917, Debussy has always remained my


    favourite composer after Mozart. I could not do without his music. It is my oxygen.

    It was without doubt Debussy who awakened me to music, but it was Stravinsky who
    later served as my guide. On the harmonic plane I owe much to Ravel, enormously to
    Satie, but more aesthetically than musically. And Chabrier is my grandfather!
    The Trio and Poulenc’s Musical Style

     Form. Form in Poulenc’s music is often based on Classical models, but the
    relationship can be very loose, with various twists and modifications along the
    way. The Andante from the Trio is in loose ternary form but, as discussed in
    the Eduqas notes, this rough division of the movement into three parts does
    not really do justice to the way the music works. However, it is still a good way
    of getting to grips with the overall shape.

    1 15 (20) 23 (33) 35 (37) 45 (51) 52


    Bb Db V of B Bm V of B B(maj) V of C C ii-V in F
    (octatonic) (octatonic) (then F maj/min
    chromatic)
    A (A) B1 (B2 – climax of movement) A’

    As shown in the notes, another way of understanding the form is as a


    transition between the A major of the first movement and the Db major of the
    last. This is not without its problems either, in particular the way it minimizes
    the role of F major at the end of the second movement.

    Mov. I Mov. II Mov. III


    A – [Bb – B – C] – Db

     Melody and motif. Poulenc (in some respects like Stravinsky and Debussy)
    tends not to develop his melodies in the usual Classical way – often repeating
    them before moving on to a new idea without much attempt at transition.
    However, the music is rich with correspondences between motivic ideas,
    rhythmic ideas and melodic shapes. The following example traces some ways
    in which two ideas from the opening re-appear elsewhere in the movement:
     Harmony and tonality. Poulenc uses a harmonic language that incorporates
    some more recent innovations (e.g. plenty of ‘wrong note’ dissonances and
    some use of the octatonic scale) but that is recognisably based on that of the
    Western Classical Tradition. There are plenty of surprising twists in terms of
    modulations and the tonal structure is a long way from what you might expect
    in a ‘real’ Classical piece, particularly in this movement
    o The overall tonal shape of the music (shown on the last page of this
    booklet) is very strange from a Classical point of view, starting in Bb,
    ending in F and focussing on both B and C in between.
    o The middle of the piece in particular avoids strong tonal resolution and
    the only really emphatic tonal arrival in this section is in the rather
    distant B minor in bar 35, which quickly gives way in any case to C.
    o The focus on B and C seems to be echoed in way that the dominant of
    B (F#) is frequently combined with C major to create hints of the
    octatonic scale (there is also an octatonic flavour at the very end of the
    movement)
    o The music has lots of surface quirks. In bars 3-4 notice the use of the
    flattened submediant with quite a lot of irregular dissonances, for
    example in the second half of the first bar where the semiquaver A
    produces and unexpected and unresolved dissonance with the bass
    Bb.

     Instrumentation. Both the choices and uses of instruments in Poulenc are


    usually fairly traditional. In this piece, as in many of his chamber works, he
    includes the piano, on which he was very proficient, frequently performing his
    own music.

     Rhythm. Poulenc’s rhythmic writing is reasonably traditional, but he often


    throws the rhythm off balance with unexpected changes of meter such as the
    change to 3/8 in bar 8 for just one bar.
    Form

    1 A1 Bb major  Bar 3 borrows chord VI (Gb in first inversion) from Bb minor


    F major (b. 5)  End of phrase is cut short by the insertion of a 3/8 at bar 8
    Db (b. 12)  Perfect cadence in F in bars 7-8
     Tonicisation of Eb in 11 then into Db at 12
     Bar 13 borrows VI (Bbb) from Db minor which becomes bII to Ab
    again before returning to Db in bar 14
    15 A2 Db major  As bar 1 but in Db
     This time borrowed VI (Bbb) in bar 17 become bar IV in E minor
     Diminished seventh in bar 19 onto 6/4 in B at 20
     Bar 21 is octatonic C against F# - tinged V of B minor
    23 B1 B minor  Very weak resolution of V onto first inversion
     End of bar 28 there is a secondary dominant tonicisation of
    Neapolitan. C major in 29 then V in B in bar 30 again with octatonic
    twinges
     Bar 31 as bar 23 with some slight changes becomes extended
    dominant (again octatonically tinged) to B minor
    35 B2 B minor  Proper perfect cadence resolution onto B with a TDP and a
    new(ish) thematic idea
     Quickly changes to V of C which resolves via an interrupted
    cadence onto bVI in first inversion, which starts a chain of
    chromatically rising first inversions to arrive properly on C in bar 45
     C in 45, however is a first inversion and quickly morphs into a
    dominant to the final F of the piece
     The chord ii in bar 51 borrowed from the minor again
    52 A’ F major  As the beginning but in F major
     All over an F pedal save bars 59 and 61
     From bar 61 all from the octatonic scale (Poulenc misses out the Cs
    from all but the very last chord – this note not in the octatonic
    scale)

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