Other Woodwind Sonatas
The clarinet sonata is one of three that Poulenc wrote for solo woodwind and piano, part of a planned set that he did not live to complete. A sonata for flute was composed in 1956, while one for oboe was completed a few weeks after the one for clarinet. A sonata for bassoon was never begun.
Like the clarinet sonata, the oboe sonata is dedicated to the memory of a lost friend: in this case, Sergei Prokofiev. Poulenc modified his usual fast-slow-fast pattern of movements to slow-fast-slow. The concluding lament is particularly suited to the qualities of the oboe. The flute sonata shares with the clarinet/piano work a structure that features a more restrained attitude in the first two movements, followed by a more playful finale.
As scholar and biographer Keith Daniel observes, certain thematic materials appear in all three works. The thirty-second note figure that opens the flute sonata appears with some alteration in the first movement of the oboe sonata, and in rough inversion during the second movement of the one for clarinet; likewise, a motive consisting of a dotted note filled out by two shorter notes appears in multiple places in all three sonatas. Finally, Daniel notes the overall similarity of mood in the second movements of the flute and clarinet sonatas.
Read more about this topic: Clarinet Sonata (Poulenc)