According to legend, Francis Poulenc was noodling at his piano one day in 1940, when the young daughter of one of his cousins happened by. She disapproved of his choice of music and impulsively placed the book she was reading on his music stand. "Play this instead," she insisted. The book was Jean de Brunhoff's classic French children's tale, "The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant." Poulenc began to improvise a musical dramatization of the story as he read it aloud to her. So was born this delightful little work, which premiered in 1945 in its original version for narrator and piano. The piano part has since been orchestrated for various ensembles at least twice.

Poulenc was born in Paris on January 7, 1899, which makes this year the one hundredth anniversary of his birth. In "Babar," we can hear echoes of so much of his work, from the serious religious music (which many consider to be on a par with that of Olivier Messiaen) to the rich melodies of the master of song and stage.

--Program notes by Jay Weitz, Consulting Database Specialist for music, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Dublin, Ohio, and a contributing performing arts critic to the InnerArt Web site at