| French: Chanson à boire | |
| Type: | Choral composition |
| Image Upright: | 1.2 |
| Translation: | Drinking song |
| Catalogue: | FP 31 |
| Text: | Anonymous text of the 17th century |
| Language: | French |
| Dedication: | Harvard Glee Club |
| Scoring: | Four-part men's chorus |
Chanson à boire,[1] (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,[2] but today by Salabert.
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!."
The work is written for an unaccompanied four-part men's chorus. The total performance time is approximately four minutes.