Quintet No.1 for flute, harp and strings (1932)

As Françaix said of one example from his extensive catalogue of small-scale chamber works, his aim was ‘to do something that can be called “Français”, with both an S and an X, that is, to be jolly most of the time – even comical … To avoid the premeditated wrong note and boredom like the plague.”    This he succeeded in doing in his early and highly accomplished Quintet No.1 for flute, harp and string trio (a second work for the same ensemble followed 57 years later) in which there is never a dull moment. The opening Andante tranquillo is devoted to a dreamy melody that, except where it passes briefly to the harp, remain the exclusive property of the flute. In the Scherzo the flute draws a variant of that melody across the lively rhythmic rhythmic figuration sustained throughout by the strings. The flute has less to do in the Andante, the main feature of which is a melody introduced by the strings and alternating between 5/4 and 3/4. The last echo of the melody of the Andante tranquillo occurs on the flute in a cheerful Rondo based on the folk song “Savez-vous planter les choux?”