Chanson à boire (Poulenc)
Chanson à boire, (Drinking song), FP 31, is a choral work by Francis Poulenc, composed in 1922 on an anonymous text of the 17th century for a four-part men's chorus a cappella. It was published first by Rouart-Lerolle, but today by Salabert. History. "Chanson à boire" is Poulenc's first choral work, commissioned by a student choir, the Glee Club of Harvard University in the United States. Upon completion, Poulenc sent them the score. In an interview with Claude Rostand dated 1954, he said: Twenty-eight years separate the composition of the work  and its first performance in The Hague. Poulenc states: "I was ready to do a lot of retouching. What was not my amazement (...) of not having one note to change!." Structure. The work is written for an unaccompanied four-part men's chorus. The total performance time is approximately four minutes.