1. C major 
2. B flat minor 
3. E minor 
 
Francis Poulenc achieved early success as one of the group of young French anti-establishment composers known as Les Six. But it was some time before he was recognised as a serious composer for during the early part of his career his music was characterised by its humour, and often its irreverent levity. It cannot be said that the piano was usually the vehicle of his deepest thoughts. Later in life he adopted a more individual path, which, although it retained some of those earlier characteristics, took on a more serious, deeply religious vein. 
 
It was Schumann who first gave the name Noveletten to his eight pieces of Op.21 and he said that each was the equivalent of a romantic story. Poulenc followed this pattern, writing the first two Novelettes in 1927 and 1928. No. 1 is marked Modéré sans lenteur and has an air of gentle simplicity which adds to its particular charm. The second piece is impish and full of childish playfulness, bearing out the instruction Très rapide et rythmé. A later work, dating from 1960, the third Novelette is a free and luxurious improvisation on a theme from Manuel de Falla’s ballet El amor brujo.