Germaine Tailleferre wrote this brief Forlane in 1972, when she was 80 years old and still working, trying to support herself and her granddaughter. It was one of several pieces written around the same time for soloist and piano, dedicated to other musicians. The Forlane was dedicated to flutist Jean-Pierre Bourillon. Her work, a modern take on an ancient courtly dance, immediately brings to mind Ravel's "Forlane" in Le tombeau de Couperin. It has the same dotted rhythm in a 6/8 meter and the same delicate and precise feel. However, Tailleferre works in a minor mode and with a four-bar phrase that ends suspended above the original key, needing a fifth bar to resolve it. The piano and flute work these phrases together, but in the modulating sections it is only the piano that carries on with the dance while the flute plays a wistful, smooth, and slower melody above it. The entire dance lasts less than three minutes, making it an enjoyable bon-bon in the modern French flute repertoire.

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