'sang', in every sense". Another critic stated that the sonata was "the best of Poulenc, and even a little better". Music The sonata is in three movements, taking a total of 12 minutes in performance. The score was published in France and Britain shortly after the premiere. In 1994 a new edition by Carl B. Schmidt and Patricia Harper was issued, correcting discrepancies and errors in the earlier published score. The musicologist Malcolm MacDonald writes of the sonata: Allegretto malincolico The movement starts in (♩= 82) with an opening four-bar phrase with a descending theme, beginning with a broken triad of demisemiquavers around high E and declining to the G above middle C. The piano's right-hand part interweaves arpeggiated semiquavers over a pedal in the left hand. This is followed by an upward scale by both flute and piano leading to a contrasting theme, also descending. MacDonald comments that the opening "makes clear the composer’s elegiac intentions", and other analysts write of the "poignancy" of the principal theme, despite the seemingly vivacious tempo. A counter-theme in F major gives the flute upwardly-leaping arpeggios, before the opening theme returns in A minor. Wilfrid Mellers comments that the reappearance of the first theme in an unexpected key makes it clear that Poulenc is not following sonata form but is using "a subtle ternary structure". After a slightly faster middle section there is a recapitulation of a kind with, in Mellers's words, "enharmonic ambiguities that justify the 'malinconico' of the directive", and: The flute part is technically demanding in this movement, with frequent trills and demisemiquaver tonguing. Cantilena: Assez lent This movement (♩= 52) is much slower and quieter. In its song-like tune Poulenc acknowledged there were echoes of Sister Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites but the effect here is purely lyrical – an "infinite melody" (mélodie infinie) – with none of the drama of the opera. The movement begins with two quavers on the piano, which are echoed by the flute during the course of the next two bars. The smooth scalic lines of the opening section are succeeded by contrasting vigorous dotted rhythmic material in the middle section with the flute going up to a top B, before the tranquil opening theme returns to bring the movement to a close. Asked about the term "cantilena", Poulenc replied that it "is not a fixed form like passacaglia for example, it is a