C’était magnifique

As with many of the composer’s other works for clarinet, this piece is dedicated to Josep Fuster. Various themes relating to Francis Poulenc are brought together in this composition. At the beginning, we can hear a motif suggestive of the opening of his Clarinet Sonata which is built upon and transformed to form the first part of the piece. Next, there is an expressive, lyrical phrase which ends with a clarinet cadenza.
In the third part, like a scherzo, the ironic undertones are accentuated through the use of two melodies in a kind of collage effect; the first taken from Rossini and the other a well-known Cole Porter melody, C’est magnifique. This melody, taken from the repertoire of the chansonniers, is also representative of a musical repertoire that interested Poulenc, one which he made use of, albeit indirectly, in the third movement of his Clarinet Sonata.