Colloque (1940)

Towards the end of his life Paul Valéry dedicated to Poulenc a poem with the intriguingly musical title Dialogue pour deux flûtes in the hope that he would make a song of it. Poulenc duly set it to music, as Colloque, but reluctantly: “I admire Valéry as much as Verlaine, Rimbaud or Mallarmé,” he explained, “but I wouldn’t be able to write a note of music to go with their verse.” After the first performance of Colloque - by Janine Micheau and Pierre Bernac accompanied by the composer in Paris in 1941 - he withdrew it, convinced that it had “foundered on the greatest platitude.” It became clear, however, on the publication of the song 15 years after his death, that he had been far too hard on it. His own description of Valéry’s poem as “ravishing” could equally well apply to the melodiously flexible line and spontaneous harmonies of his sensitive dialogue setting.