Editing Francis Poulenc (section)

===Piano===
{{see also|List of solo piano compositions by Francis Poulenc}}
Poulenc, a highly accomplished pianist, usually composed at the piano and wrote many pieces for the instrument throughout his career. In Henri Hell's view, Poulenc's piano writing can be divided into the percussive and the gentler style reminiscent of the harpsichord. Hell considers that the finest of Poulenc's music for piano is in the accompaniments to the songs, a view shared by Poulenc himself.<ref name=grove/><ref>Hell, p. 88</ref> The vast majority of the piano works are, in the view of the writer Keith W Daniel, "what might be called 'miniatures'".<ref>Daniel, p. 165</ref> Looking back at his piano music in the 1950s, the composer viewed it critically: "I tolerate the ''Mouvements perpétuels'', my old ''[[Piano Suite (Poulenc)|Suite en ut]]'' [in C], and the ''Trois pieces''. I like very much my two collections of Improvisations, an [[Intermezzo]] in A flat, and certain [[Nocturne]]s. I condemn ''Napoli'' and the ''[[Soirées de Nazelles]]'' without reprieve."<ref>Schmidt (2001), p. 182</ref>

Of the pieces cited with approval by Poulenc, the fifteen Improvisations were composed at intervals between 1932 and 1959.{{refn|At the time of Poulenc's comments there were only twelve: the first set, numbers 1–10, date from the 1920s and the second set, numbers 11 and 12, from the 1930s; numbers 13–15 were written in 1958–59.<ref name=grove/>|group= n}} All are brief: the longest lasts a little more than three minutes. They vary from swift and balletic to tender lyricism, old-fashioned [[march (music)|march]], ''[[perpetuum mobile]]'', [[waltz (music)|waltz]] and a poignant musical portrait of the singer [[Édith Piaf]].<ref name=ledin3>Ledin, Marina and Victor. [http://marylebone.naxosmusiclibrary.com/blurbs_reviews.asp?catNum=553931&filetype=About+this+Recording&language=English "Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) Piano Music, Volume 3"], Naxos Music Library, retrieved 22 October 2014</ref> Poulenc's favoured Intermezzo was the last of three. Numbers one and two were composed in August 1934; the A flat followed in March 1943. The commentators Marina and Victor Ledin describe the work as "the embodiment of the word 'charming'. The music seems simply to roll off the pages, each sound following another in such an honest and natural way, with eloquence and unmistakable Frenchness."<ref name=ledin>Ledin, Marina and Victor. [http://marylebone.naxosmusiclibrary.com/blurbs_reviews.asp?catNum=553929&filetype=About+this+Recording&language=English "Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) Piano Music, Volume 1"], Naxos Music Library, retrieved 22 October 2014</ref> The eight nocturnes were composed across nearly a decade (1929–38). Whether or not Poulenc originally conceived them as an integral set, he gave the eighth the title "To serve as Coda for the Cycle" (''Pour servir de Coda au Cycle''). Although they share their generic title with the nocturnes of [[John Field (composer)|Field]], Chopin and Fauré, Poulenc's do not resemble those of the earlier composers, being "night-scenes and sound-images of public and private events" rather than romantic [[Symphonic poem|tone poems]].<ref name=ledin/>

The pieces Poulenc found merely tolerable were all early works: ''Trois mouvements perpétuels'' dates from 1919, the Suite in C from 1920 and the Trois pièces from 1928. All consist of short sections, the longest being the "Hymne", the second of the three 1928 pieces, which lasts about four minutes.<ref name=ledin3/> Of the two works their composer singled out for censure, ''Napoli'' (1925) is a three-movement portrait of Italy, and ''Les Soirées de Nazelles'' is described by the composer [[Geoffrey Bush]] as "the French equivalent of [[Elgar]]'s ''[[Enigma Variations]]''"&nbsp;– miniature character sketches of his friends. Despite Poulenc's scorn for the work, Bush judges it ingenious and witty.<ref>Bush, p. 11</ref> Among the piano music not mentioned, favourably or harshly, by Poulenc, the best known pieces include the two [[Trois novelettes (Poulenc)|Novelettes]] (1927–28), the set of six miniatures for children, ''Villageoises'' (1933), a piano version of the seven-movement ''Suite française'' (1935), and ''L'embarquement pour Cythère'' for two pianos (1953).<ref>Hell, pp. 100–102</ref>