Pastourelle

Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) was an energetic French composer who is known for both his light-hearted instrumental works, and his more serious sacred and choral music.

Pastourelle was a dance, written as one of ten movements for the children’s ballet L'Eventail De Jeanne (Jean’s Fan) in 1927. Each dance was composed by a different French composer. Only the first movement by Ravel, who also gave the first performance of the Ballet on the Piano, and Poulenc’s eighth movement have endured. An orchestral version was composed at the same time, but the original version for Piano is published here.