Rapsodie Negre, Op. 1/ FP 3: Medium Voice, Chamber Accompaniment, Vocal Part

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) composed Rapsodie nègre, FP 3 in the spring of 1917, when he was only eighteen, and the work, his earliest surviving composition and first to receive a public performance, already displays the irreverence, melodic directness, clarity of texture, and mixture of seriousness and parody that would characterize much of his later music. Scored for baritone, flute, clarinet, string quartet, and piano and dedicated to Erik Satie, the five movements (1. Prélude; 2. Ronde; 3. Honoloulou; 4. Pastorale; 5. Final) grew out of Poulenc's fascination with the Parisian vogue for African art and imagery. Its vocal text came from Les Poésies de Makoko Kangourou, supposedly the work of a Liberian poet but actually a literary hoax by Marcel Prouille and Charles Moulié consisting largely of invented, pseudo-African nonsense syllables, making the piece an artifact of the period's European primitivist and exoticist fashions rather than an engagement with authentic African music or language. Poulenc initially showed the score to Paris Conservatoire professor Paul Vidal, who reacted with hostility, but the premiere on December 11, 1917, at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in Paris, as part of an avant-garde concert organized by singer Jane Bathori, proved an important breakthrough: when the scheduled baritone withdrew at the last moment, Poulenc, then serving in the French army, sang the part himself, and the work was enthusiastically received. The success brought the young composer to wider attention. Igor Stravinsky was sufficiently impressed to help arrange publication of Poulenc's music, and its early performances helped establish Poulenc among the circle of young French composers who would soon become associated as Les Six. Rapsodie nègre, FP 3 retains an important place in his output as the remarkably assured public debut of an eighteen-year-old composer and is still performed and recorded for its concise invention, distinctive instrumentation, humor, and revealing anticipation of Poulenc's mature musical personality. Reprint edition.