# Help: where does this theme in Poulenc's trio also appear?



## Rania (Jun 23, 2009)

I am playing this piece, and it's driving me crazy trying to remember what this theme in the second movement reminds me of. A piece by Mozart? It seems like a direct quote but I can't identify it


----------



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Driving me crazy too. My guess would be Prokofiev, but I don't know which work — and the theme I am thinking of has the identical rhythm but not the same intervals.


----------



## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

link? 

Oops - found it. With certain lighting in my room the coloring of the link is nearly invisible.


----------



## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Rania said:


> I am playing this piece, and it's driving me crazy trying to remember what this theme in the second movement reminds me of. A piece by Mozart? It seems like a direct quote but I can't identify it


Could you give us a measure number? To me, the most obvious and direct quote in that piece is the rollicking opening oboe theme of the third movement Rondo, which is very much patterned, in Poulenc's distinctive and delightful way, on the opening oboe theme of the third movement Scherzo of Beethoven's Eroica symphony. Of course, the two works quickly move in dramatically different directions, and that's one of the pleasures of these sly references by Poulenc to great works of the past. He takes what at first is a closely similar theme, but then uses it in an entirely different way.


----------



## Rania (Jun 23, 2009)

Sorry- I should have given a measure number. This is the second movement, bars 5 and 6 of rehearsal number 3 (or bars number 27 and 28, oboe and bassoon playing a sixth apart).
I am aware of the Beethoven quote in the Rondo; it is brilliant what Poulenc makes of it!


----------



## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Rania said:


> I am playing this piece, and it's driving me crazy trying to remember what this theme in the second movement reminds me of. A piece by Mozart? It seems like a direct quote but I can't identify it


Sorry, I can't help you. It does remind me of part of the first theme of the first movement of Mozart's E-flat Divertimento, though Poulenc is in B minor at that moment and Mozart in B-flat major. But there must be a lot of phrases like that in Mozart and Haydn.


----------



## Rania (Jun 23, 2009)

After using the Melodic Contour search on musipedia (brilliant tool I just discovered), I am thinking it could actually be this Gluck, although it's different in many ways.


----------



## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Rania said:


> After using the Melodic Contour search on musipedia (brilliant tool I just discovered), I am thinking it could actually be this Gluck, although it's different in many ways.


I read something that said this movement shows the influence of Dance of the Blessed Spirits (something I have played many times since childhood), so you may be on to something. But I don't hear a direct quote to that the way the opening oboe theme of the third movement clearly refers to the Eroica symphony. Edit: Thinking about it, I do know the part of Dance of the Blessed Spirits that is somewhat similar to the Poulenc and probably what that author and you are referring to. As you say, there are differences.


----------



## Rania (Jun 23, 2009)

Really? Do you remember where you read it?
It's far from being a direct quote in any way, that's very true. But the feeling of it is very similar it makes me think it might be what I had in mind. 
Thank you!


----------



## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Rania said:


> Really? Do you remember where you read it?
> It's far from being a direct quote in any way, that's very true. But the feeling of it is very similar it makes me think it might be what I had in mind.
> Thank you!


Sorry, I don't remember where I read that, but I'll post it if it comes to me. Anyway, if you're interested in Poulenc's chamber music in general (as I very much am), Naxos released an excellent and complete recording of it to commemorate Poulenc's centennial in 1999.


----------

