Le Jardin Féerique, Maurice Ravel

S. Debic performs Le Jardin Féerique from Ma Mère L`Oye (Duet) by Maurice Ravel, December, 2010.

Ma mère l'oye (Mother Goose) is a musical work by French composer Maurice Ravel.

During 1910, the society presented the premiere of Ravel's Ma mère l'oye (Mother Goose) in its original piano duet version. With this work, Ravel followed in the tradition of Schumann, Mussorgsky, and Debussy, who also created memorable works of childhood themes. During 1912, Ravel's Ma mère l'oye was performed as a ballet (with added music) after being first transcribed from piano to orchestra.

Ravel originally wrote Ma mère l'oye as a piano duet for the Godebski children, Mimi and Jean, ages 6 and 7. Ravel dedicated this work for four hands to the children (just as he had dedicated an earlier work, Sonatine to their parents). Jeanne Leleu and Geneviève Durony premiered the work.
The piece was transcribed for solo piano by Ravel's friend Jacques Charlot the same year as it was published (1910). The first movement of Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin was also dedicated to Charlot's memory after his death in World War I.
Both piano versions bear the subtitle "cinq pièces enfantines" (five children's pieces). The five "pieces" were as follows:
I. Pavane de la belle au bois dormant
Pavane of Sleeping Beauty
Lent
II. Petit Poucet
Little Tom Thumb / Hop o' My Thumb
Très modéré
III. Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes
Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas
Mouvt de marche
IV. Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête
Conversation of Beauty and the Beast
Mouvt de valse très modéré
V. Le jardin féerique
The Fairy Garden
Lent et grave
On several of the scores, Ravel included quotes to indicate clearly what he was trying to invoke. For example, for the second "piece":
"Il croyait trouver aisément son chemin par le moyen de son pain qu'il avait semé partout où il avait passé; mais il fut bien surpris lorsqu'il ne put retrouver une seule miette: les oiseaux étaient venus qui avaient tout mangé. (Ch. Perrault)"
["He believed he'd easily find his way because of the bread that he'd strewn all along his path; but he was very surprised to find not a single crumb: the birds had come and eaten everything." (Charles Perrault)]
Sleeping Beauty and Little Tom Thumb were based on the tales of Charles Perrault, while Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas was inspired by a tale (The Green Serpent) by Perrault's "rival" Madame d'Aulnoy. In this movement, Ravel takes advantage of the pentatonic scale. Beauty and the Beast is based upon the version of Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. The origin of The Fairy Garden is not entirely known. The "Mouvt de marche" of Little Ugly Girl uses quartal harmony:

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Le Jardin Féerique
• Ma Mère L`Oye
• Maurice Ravel Piano S. Debic

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