Suite Française
NEW! - POULENC ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Suite Française for Wind Band
In 1935 Poulenc was commissioned to write music for a play about Henry IV of France, and took inspiration from the dance tunes of Claude Gervaise, treating them rather as Stravinsky had approached Pergolesi in his "Pulcinella", leaving the melody and rhythm intact but adding his own quirks of harmonic density and dynamic stress.
The seven movements were published soon afterwards in a piano arrangement, although the original version for a small wind ensemble did not appear until after the war.
This adaptation for full winds is able to sound very Stravinskian in places, and is generally very lightly scored; your audience will be surprised at how unlike a concert band it sounds! Although the score shows contrabassoon, contrabass clarinet parts are also included.
(The audio track is for illustration only and does not pretend to represent a live orchestra.)
This arrangement © Éditions Durand - Paris
Used by permission of MGB Hal Leonard s.r.l.