Rapsodie nègre, FP 3

By 1917 the 18-year-old Poulenc, who was then a pupil of Ricardo Viñes, had composed an unknown number of works. His biographer Carl Schmidt lists two earlier pieces known to have been destroyed by the composer, "Processional pour la crémation d'un mandarin" (1914) and Préludes (1916) both for solo piano. There was a fashion for African arts in Paris at the time, and Poulenc was delighted to run across some published verses, Les Poésies de Makoko Kangourou, supposedly edited by Marcel Prouille and Charles Moulié; the verses were purportedly Liberian, but were a hoax, full of nonsense and Parisian boulevard slang. The extract Poulenc chose to set for the vocal interlude and the finale read: