Unlike the German composers, whose chamber music writing focused traditionally on strings, many French composers of the 19th and 20th centuries were more open to experimenting with the special sound colours of the wind instruments and using them with the well-known French inventiveness and finesse in their works. The Sextet by Louise Farang (the first female piano teacher at the Paris Conservatoire) was written in 1851-52 and is the very first work in the history of music for a woodwind and piano quintet. Her example was followed many decades later, with even greater success, by Francis Poulenc and Jean Françaix, who wrote light, graceful, humorous and pleasantly eccentric music.