Chanson à boire (Poulenc)

The pianist Ricardo Viñes entrusted the young Poulenc to the composer and teacher Charles Koechlin as early as 1921. Chanson à boire is Poulenc's first choral work, commissioned by a student choir, the Glee Club of Harvard University in the United States. Upon completion, Poulenc sent them the score. In an interview with Claude Rostand dated 1954, he said:

When my song was finished, I sent it to Harvard. Kaboom! Meanwhile, the Prohibition Act had just passed, and made this work impossible to sing. Then I forgot all about it, when, twenty-eight years later, in 1950, being in Holland, the president of the admirable male choir of the Hague invited me to listen to a repetition of my prayers Of St. Francis of Assisi and ... of this "Song to drink". I confess I was in my little shoes because I had never heard it.[M 1]

Twenty-eight years separate the composition of the work and its first performance in The Hague. Poulenc states: "I was ready to do a lot of retouching. What was not my amazement (...) of not having one note to change!."[M 1]

The work is written for an unaccompanied four-part men's chorus. The total performance time is approximately four minutes.

• Poulenc - Secular Choral Music, Norddeutscher Figuralchor, Jörg Straube (cond.), label MDG Gold, MDG9471595 ;
• Chansons française, Harry Christophers (cond.), label Technics, 1993

• Chanson à boire, FP 31 (Poulenc, Francis) on IMSLP