Musical works

Movements

1. Les vieux beaux*
2. Pin-up girls 
3. Les petits nerveux*

*free translation
I - The Aging Dandies
III - The Jittery Little Guys
 

A prolific 20th-century French composer, Jean Françaix (1912–1997) devoted a significant portion of his work to wind instruments. In his youth, he crossed paths with several prominent composers of the time, including Nadia Boulanger, Maurice Ravel, Henri Tomasi, Igor Stravinsky, and Francis Poulenc— all of whom left a strong imprint on his compositional style. Françaix wrote over two hundred works, ranging from concert music (chamber works, concertos, oratorios, operas) to film scores.
L’Heure du berger, composed in 1947 first for strings and later adapted for winds and piano, paints whimsical scenes from a Parisian café of the same name — one that evokes the spirit of the Belle Époque. The distinctive personalities of the Pine-up Girls, the Petits nerveux, and the Beaux vieux are cleverly portrayed through Françaix’s writing, which, though at times sensual, remains irresistibly humorous throughout.