Poulenc Revision Sheet

Poulenc: Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and
Trombone, mvt. I.
Poulenc
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

Written in 1922
20th Century composer
French
Unhappy writing for solo strings, but preferred to write for piano
and/or wind instruments. Very famous for clarinet and flute
sonatas.
Influenced by Stravinsky: he reinterprets material of previous
composers to make it syncopated rhythms, pungent wrong notes
and unusual instrumentations.

Success for diverse areas, such as film, church music, songs and
chamber music. Lots of sonatas for wind instruments, including
this piece.
Features of 20th
Century Music
Freedom and experimental styles

Musical technology
Modernism (experimented with form/tonality/orchestration)
Popular Music
What is
Term applied to 20th century music trend which developed in the

1920s. Composers wrote works in the 17th and 18th century forms
Neoclassicism?
How is this piece

neoclassicism?
and styles
A reaction against the excessive orchestration of the late 19 th
century composers.
This movement began with Stravinsky.
Movements were often short unlike the large scale movements
of the late Romantic composers

Structures based on simple traditional forms, such as rondo and
simple binary and ternary structures

Harmonies were similar to 18th century composers but were often
spiced up with added note dischords

Rhythms reflected influence of jazz, especially in syncopated
style
Time signatures tended to change frequently
Pieces used a wide variety of instrumentation and instrumental
techniques more than what would be found in 18th century music.

Melodies were often broadly tonal and diatonic (e.g. opening
trumpet theme)
Syncopations (bars 13-14)
Tonal harmonies (chords I, IV, and V in bars 1-4)
Humour continually changes tempo and metre
Classical-like period phrasing (bars 1-4 with a perfect cadence in
the tonic, answered by bars 5-8 which end with a perfect cadence
in the dominant)
CANNOT be mistaken for classical music:
- wrong note in the first perfect cadence the second ends in
Structure
the wrong place (weak beat of bar 8)

Frequent changes of metre and tempo, and the surprising
changes of key
Instrumentation
The structure is a very loose ternary form containing several
short themes
The first section, for instance has three separate thematic ideas
A (Bars 1-25) G
B (Bars 26-57)
A (58-end) including 4
major
Main theme
(bars 1-8)
Faster
theme in E
main theme in
flat, played by
the tonic key
subsidiary pair
the trumpet,
of themes (9-
then horn then
(G)
The music
17 and 18-21)
Return of
trumpet again
A 4-bar linking
from the end
opening idea
section
section (from
(bar 22) but
includes a
bar 46) is the
slower and
miniature
interpolated
with
trumpet
(added in)
suggestions of
cadenza (bar
before the
tonic minor
39)
A varied
subsidiary
version of the
bar 73
A short
(Gm)
New slower
main theme in
bar coda
Return of the
of the B
ideas return in
B flat is then
chromatic coda
heard (bar 40),
begins in bar
followed by
86
more material,
based partly on
the subsidiary
ideas in the A
section.
Forces
Poulenc was unhappy writing for solo strings and preferred to
write for piano and woodwind.

Despite 18th century style in some aspects of the music, no 18 th
century composer would have written for this instrumental
combination he admitted there was problems with balance
(notice how he addresses this in bar 30 with detailed dynamics
and differentiated dynamics)

Music for brass ensemble would usually have at least a quartet of
instruments to avoid chords being incomplete and to give players a
chance to rest very few solos to allow performers a rest.

The modern trumpet with valves could play chromatic music, see
bar 39, which would have been impossible on the 18th century
instrument
The trumpet part has a wide range and wide leaps 2 8ves and a
tone from its lowest note (G below middle C, bar 36 to its highest
A in bar 37)
Trumpet is the main solo instrument, although the horn takes over
the principal tune occasionally (e.g. bar 30)

The trumpet has a virtuoso flourish in bar 39
Trombone and trumpet have a comic oom-pah accompaniment
from bar 40 to 45
The trombone has many awkward leaps (e.g. bar 30)
The horn has some very low notes in bar 74 (sounding bottom G)
Technical difficulty of the parts suggest that this piece is
concert music for professional performers.
Tonality
The music is fundamentally tonal

There are frequent dischords, which reduce the strength of the
keys
Frequent chromatic notes also lessen the sense of key. The coda
(bar 86) includes a chromatic scalic phrase in the trombone

Poulenc tends to modulate to remote keys instead of closely
related ones.
- The beginning is G major
- The middle section is in the unrelated key of E flat (bar 26)
though there are a number of chromatic notes, including the A
-
and B naturals in the trombone (bars 26-28)

The varied version of the main theme at bar 40 is in B flat
Harmony
As there are only 3 instruments, with no chordal instrument like a

piano, harmonies are often quite bare. The last bar is all in octaves
with no chordal notes

What appear to be simple perfect cadences (e.g. bar 4) are often
transformed by dischord. In bar 4, the trumpet and trombone
suggest a cadence of Ic-V-I. The horn, however introduces a
minor 2nd clash of a C against the trumpets B. The final chord is a
simple root position tonic chord.

Harmony is often outlined by broken chords. At the beginning of
the middle section (bar 26) there is a first inversion chord of
Eflat, with the horn outlining the root and fifth of the chord.
In bars 86-7 there is a pedal B flat on the trumpet, sounding
underneath the trombones chromatic phrase.
Melody
Frequently the melodies are simple diatonic tunes (e.g. main theme
in G, bars 1-4.
Often the tune outlines broken chords e.g. the first three notes
of the trumpet music

Simple balanced phrase structure can be found (bars 1-8), even if
the cadences sometimes occur on the wrong beat

There are occasional large leaps (8ve at bar 2)
Conjunct music is also found (trumpet bar 4)
This sometimes extends to more scalic music (bar 9)
The trumpet scale bar 39 contains chromatic notes
Tunes often feature repeated notes (trumpet melody at bar 18)
There are occasional ornamental phrases, e.g the grace notes in
bar 12
Rhythm
The principal melody contains mainly quavers and semi-quavers,
with crotchets for the cadence

Tunes often begin on the anacrusis (up-beat), e.g. the first phrase
There is a semiquaver scale in free rhythm, bar 39
Ornaments occasionally break up the rhythm, e.g. bar 86
There is syncopation in the two upper parts (bars 13-14)
Rhythm is sometimes broken up by rests (bar 40)
Time signature changes frequently
The music begins in quadruple time, but bars with 3 and 4 beats
alternate from bars 9-11

The miniature trumpet cadenza is in compound time and contains a
pause
There is a bar in quintuple time (bar 65)
Texture
Speed changes frequently and are used to differentiate sections
There is a simple melody-dominated homophony texture at the

beginning. The trumpet here has the tune, the trombone plays a
simple bass line and the horn has alternating chordal notes.
Trumpet mainly has the tune, but the horn takes the lead in bars
30-33 and 40-47 and becomes the bass instrument in bars 74-81.
Sometimes the top two instruments join forces in two-part
texture, e.g. bar 12, here in 6ths. Note that the horn sounds a
perfect 5th lower than written.

There is a curious section from bar 22-25, where there is a
monophonic effect, with the tune shared between the
instruments, producing a comic tone-colour melody.

There are various 3-part textures, including bar 26 where the
trumpet and trombone move together in two part counterpoint,
while the horn has wide ranging broken chords.

The oom-pah accompaniment from bar 40 to 45 has already been
mentioned.
The last bar, all instruments move together in octaves and is
homorhythmic.

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Poulenc: Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

and unusual instrumentations.

Freedom and experimental styles

Term applied to 20th century music trend which developed in the

How is this piece

Movements were often short unlike the large scale movements

of the late Romantic composers

simple binary and ternary structures

spiced up with added note dischords

techniques more than what would be found in 18th century music.

the wrong place (weak beat of bar 8)

The structure is a very loose ternary form containing several

the tonic key

then horn then

from the end

(bar 22) but

bar 46) is the

heard (bar 40),

Poulenc was unhappy writing for solo strings and preferred to

write for piano and woodwind.

and differentiated dynamics)

chance to rest very few solos to allow performers a rest.

the principal tune occasionally (e.g. bar 30)

The music is fundamentally tonal

(bar 86) includes a chromatic scalic phrase in the trombone

and B naturals in the trombone (bars 26-28)

As there are only 3 instruments, with no chordal instrument like a

with no chordal notes

simple root position tonic chord.

of the trumpet music

the cadences sometimes occur on the wrong beat

The principal melody contains mainly quavers and semi-quavers,

with crotchets for the cadence

alternate from bars 9-11

Speed changes frequently and are used to differentiate sections

There is a simple melody-dominated homophony texture at the

perfect 5th lower than written.

instruments, producing a comic tone-colour melody.

while the horn has wide ranging broken chords.

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