Poulenc - Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone

Poulenc - Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone

1. Rhythm and Meter

   • Tune often begins on the anacrusis
   • Rhythm sometimes broken by rests
   • Time signatures change frequently
   • Speed changes frequently to differentiate sections

2. Structure

   • Ternary form
   • Section A: G major
   • Section B: Eb
   • Section A: returns to tonic G

3. Tonality

   • Frequent dischords which reduce strength of key
   • Frequent chromatic noted reduce sense of key
   • Modulation to odd keys instead of closely related ones
   • Beginning is G major

4. Harmony

   • Because of no chordal instruments harmony is relatively bare
   • Last bar is all in octaves with no chordal notes at all
   • Most perfect cadences are transformed by dischord

5. Texture

   • Melody dominated homophony at the beginning
   • Some monophony when the tune is shared between instruments
   • In the last bar all instruments move together in octaves, in homorhythm

6. Instrumentation

   • Written for horn, trumpet and trombone
   • Sounds like some 18th century music but composers in those days would not have used this instrument combination
   • Modern trumpet allowed chromatic notes
   • Virtuosic trumpet in bar 39

7. Melody

   • Melodies are simple diatonic tunes
   • Often the tune outlines the chord
   • Leaps of two octaves in the trumpet - bar 36
   • Conjunct - bar 4
   • Bar 39 trumpet chromatic notes
   • Occasional grace notes