Frogtoon Music

La Valse by Maurice Ravel

Artist Biography For Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel In Full Joseph-Maurice Ravel 7th March 1875 Ciboure France–28th December 1937 Paris Was A French Composer Of Swiss-Basque Descent Noted For His Musical Craftsmanship And Perfection Of Form And Style In Such Works As Boléro 1928 Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte 1899 Pavane For A Dead Princess Rapsodie Espagnole 1907 The Ballet Daphnis Et Chloé First Performed 1912 And The Opera L’Enfant Et Les Sortilèges 1925 The Child And The Enchantments . Ravel Was Born In A Village Near Saint-Jean-De-Luz France Of A Swiss Father And A Basque Mother. His Family Background Was An Artistic And Cultivated One And The Young Maurice Received Every Encouragement From His Father When His Talent For Music Became Apparent At An Early Age. In 1889 At 14 He Entered The Paris Conservatoire Where He Remained Until 1905. During This Period He Composed Some Of His Best Known Works Including The Pavane For A Dead Princess The Sonatine For Piano And The String Quartet. All These Works Especially The Two Latter Show The Astonishing Early Perfection Of Style And Craftsmanship That Are The Hallmarks Of Ravel’s Entire Oeuvre. He Is One Of The Rare Composers Whose Early Works Seem Scarcely Less Mature Than Those Of His Maturity. Indeed His Failure At The Conservatoire After Three Attempts To Win The Coveted Prix De Rome For Composition The Works He Submitted Were Judged Too “advanced” By Ultra-Conservative Members Of The Jury Caused Something Of A Scandal. Indignant Protests Were Published And Liberal-Minded Musicians And Writers Including The Musicologist And Novelist Romain Rolland Supported Ravel. As A Result The Director Of The Conservatoire Théodore Dubois Was Forced To Resign And His Place Was Taken By The Composer Gabriel Fauré With Whom Ravel Had Studied Composition. Ravel Was In No Sense A Revolutionary Musician. He Was For The Most Part Content To Work Within The Established Formal And Harmonic Conventions Of His Day Still Firmly Rooted In Tonality—i.E. The Organization Of Music Around Focal Tones. Yet So Very Personal And Individual Was His Adaptation And Manipulation Of The Traditional Musical Idiom That It Would Be True To Say He Forged For Himself A Language Of His Own That Bears The Stamp Of His Personality As Unmistakably As Any Work Of Bach Or Chopin. While His Melodies Are Almost Always Modal I.E. Based Not On The Conventional Western Diatonic Scale But On The Old Greek Phrygian And Dorian Modes His Harmonies Derive Their Often Somewhat Acid Flavour From His Fondness For “added” Notes And Unresolved Appoggiaturas Or Notes Extraneous To The Chord That Are Allowed To Remain Harmonically Unresolved. He Enriched The Literature Of The Piano By A Series Of Masterworks Ranging From The Early Jeux D’eau Completed 1901 And The Miroirs Of 1905 To The Formidable Gaspard De La Nuit 1908 Le Tombeau De Couperin 1917 And The Two Piano Concerti 1931 . Of His Purely Orchestral Works The Rapsodie Espagnole And Boléro Are The Best Known And Reveal His Consummate Mastery Of The Art Of Instrumentation. But Perhaps The Highlights Of His Career Were His Collaboration With The Russian Impresario Serge Diaghilev For Whose Ballets Russes He Composed The Masterpiece Daphnis Et Chloé And With The French Writer Colette Who Was The Librettist Of His Best Known Opera L’Enfant Et Les Sortilèges. The Latter Work Gave Ravel An Opportunity Of Doing Ingenious And Amusing Things With The Animals And Inanimate Objects That Come To Life In This Tale Of Bewitchment And Magic In Which A Naughty Child Is Involved. His Only Other Operatic Venture Had Been His Brilliantly Satirical L’Heure Espagnole First Performed 1911 . As A Songwriter Ravel Achieved Great Distinction With His Imaginative Histoires Naturelles Trois Poèmes De Stéphane Mallarmé And Chansons Madécasses. Ravel’s Life Was In The Main Uneventful. He Never Married And Though He Enjoyed The Society Of A Few Chosen Friends He Lived The Life Of A Semi-Recluse At His Country Retreat At Montfort-L’Amaury In The Forest Of Rambouillet Near Paris. He Served In World War I For A Short Time As A Truck Driver At The Front But The Strain Was Too Great For His Fragile Constitution And He Was Discharged From The Army In 1917. In 1928 Ravel Embarked On A Four Months’ Tour Of Canada And The United States And In The Same Year Visited England To Receive An Honorary Degree Of Doctor Of Music From Oxford. That Year Also Saw The Creation Of Boléro In Its Original Form As A Ballet With Ida Rubinstein In The Principal Role. The Last Five Years Of Ravel’s Life Were Clouded By Aphasia Which Not Only Prevented Him From Writing Another Note Of Music But Also Deprived Him Of The Power Of Speech And Made It Impossible For Him Even To Sign His Name. Perhaps The Real Tragedy Of His Condition Was That His Musical Imagination Remained As Active As Ever. An Operation To Relieve The Obstruction Of A Blood Vessel That Supplies The Brain Was Unsuccessful. Ravel Was Buried In The Cemetery Of Levallois A Paris Suburb In Which He Had Lived In The Presence Of Stravinsky And Other Distinguished Musicians And Composers. For Ravel Music Was A Kind Of Ritual Having Its Own Laws To Be Conducted Behind High Walls Sealed Off From The Outside World And Impenetrable To Unauthorized Intruders. When His Russian Contemporary Igor Stravinsky Compared Ravel To “the Most Perfect Of Swiss Watchmakers ” He Was In Fact Extolling Those Qualities Of Intricacy And Precision To Which He Himself Attached So Much Importance.

Frogtoon Music - Song Info: La valse

La Valse Un Poème Choréographique A Choreographic Poem Is An Orchestral Work Written By Maurice Ravel From February 1919 Until 1920 And Premiered In Paris On 12 December 1920. While The Work Has Been Described As A Tribute To The Waltz It Is In Fact A Less Sentimental Reflection Of Post-World War I Europe. The Composer George Benjamin In His Analysis Of La Valse Summarized The Ethos Of The Work As Follows "Whether Or Not It Was Intended As A Metaphor For The Predicament Of European Civilization In The Aftermath Of The Great War Its One-Movement Design Plots The Birth Decay And Destruction Of A Musical Genre The Waltz." 1 In His Tribute To Ravel After The Composer's Death In 1937 Paul Landormy Described The Work As Follows "....The Most Unexpected Of The Compositions Of Ravel Revealing To Us Heretofore Unexpected Depths Of Romanticism Power Vigor And Rapture In This Musician Whose Expression Is Usually Limited To The Manifestations Of An Essentially Classical Genius". 2 Contents Hide * 1 Creation And Meaning * 2 Description * 3 See Also * 4 References * 5 Bibliography * 6 External Links Edit Creation And Meaning The Idea Of La Valse Began As Wien German For "Vienna" As Early As 1906 Where Ravel Intended To Orchestrate A Piece In Tribute To The Waltz Form And To Johann Strauss. An Earlier Influence From Another Composer Was The Waltz From Emmanuel Chabrier's Opera Le Roi Malgré Lui. 3 In Ravel's Own Compositional Output A Precursor To La Valse Was His 1911 Valses Nobles Et Sentimentales Which Contains A Motif That Ravel Reused In The Later Work. After His Service In The French Army Ravel Returned To His Original Idea Of The Symphonic Poem Wien. Ravel Described His Own Attraction To Waltz Rhythm As Follows To Jean Marnold Whilst Writing La Valse "You Know My Intense Attraction To These Wonderful Rhythms And That I Value The Joie De Vivre Expressed In The Dance Much More Deeply Than Franckist Puritanism." 3 Ravel Completely Reworked His Idea Of Wien Into What Became La Valse Which Was To Have Been Written Under Commission From Sergei Diaghilev As A Ballet. However Diaghilev Never Produced The Ballet. 4 In Spite Of This Initial Rejection For Choreographic Performance The Work Has Remained Part Of The Orchestral Repertoire Since Its Premiere. Diaghilev's Rejection Of The Piece Created A Break In The Working Relationship With Ravel That Was Never Healed. They Never Spoke To Each Other Again The Music Was Used For A 1951 Ballet Of The Same Title By George Balanchine Who Had Made Dances For Diaghilev. Ravel Described La Valse With The Following Preface To The Score "Through Whirling Clouds Waltzing Couples May Be Faintly Distinguished. The Clouds Gradually Scatter One Sees At Letter A An Immense Hall Peopled With A Whirling Crowd. The Scene Is Gradually Illuminated. The Light Of The Chandeliers Bursts Forth At The Fortissimo Letter B. Set In An Imperial Court About 1855." Edit Description The Beginning Starts Quietly The Mist With The Rumbling Of The Double Basses With The Celli And Harps Subsequently Joining. Silently And Gradually Instruments Play Fragmented Melodies Gradually Building Into A Subdued Tune On Bassoons And Violas. Eventually The Harps Signal The Beginning Culmination Of Instruments Into The Graceful Melody. Led By The Violins The Orchestra Erupts Into The Work's Principal Waltz Theme. A Series Of Waltzes Follows Each With Its Own Character Alternating Loud And Soft Sequences. * The Variations By Oboe Violins And Flutes Mild Slightly Timid But Nevertheless Sweet And Elegant. * The Eruption Of The Heavy Brass And Timpani Begins The Next Ebullient And Pompous Melody. The Tune Is Sung By The Violins As Cymbals Crash And The Brass Blare Unashamedly. * Afterwards The Violas Lead A Tender Tune Accompanied By Luxuriant Humming In The Cellos And Clarinets. It Disappears And Once Again Returns To The Sweet Variations And Extravagant Brass. * Enter A Rather Restless Episode With Dramatic Violins Accompanied With Precocious Yet Seemingly Wayward Woodwinds. Castanets And Pizzicato Add To The Character Of A Rather Erratic Piece. It Ends Meekly And Clumsily In The Bassoons. * The Piece Relapses Into Previous Melodies Before A Poignant And Sweet Tune Begins In The Violins. Glissando Is A Characteristic Feature. The Gentle Violins Are Accompanied By Ornate Chromatic Swayings In The Cellos And Glissando In The Harps. The Tune Is Once Again Repeated By The Woodwinds. As It Ends It Begins To Unleash Some Kind Of Climax When It Is Suddenly Cut Off By A Sweet Flute. * The Flute Plays A Rather Playful Repetitious Melody Accompanied By The Glockenspiel And Triangle. In Between The Violins Seem To Yearn Whilst The Harps Play And Bizarrely The Horns Trill. Once More As It Nears Its Conclusion It Tries To Build Up Into A Climax But Descends Once More Into The 'mist' Of The Beginning. So Begins The Piece's Second Half. It Should Be Noted That Every Melody From The First Section Is Re-Introduced Although Differently In The Second Section. Ravel Has Altered Each Waltz Theme Piece With Unexpected Modulations And Instrumentation For Example Where Flutes Would Normally Play They Are Replaced By Trumpets . As The Waltz Begins To Whirl And Whirl Unstoppably Ravel Intends Us To See What Is Truly Happening In This Waltz Rather Symbolically. Once More Ravel Breaks The Momentum. A Macabre Sequence Begins Gradually Building Into A Disconcerting Repetition. The Orchestra Reaches A Danse Macabre Coda And The Work Ends With The Final Measure As The Only One In The Score Not In Waltz-Time. The Orchestration Is For Piccolo 2 Flutes 2 Oboes English Horn 2 Clarinets Bass Clarinet 2 Bassoons Contrabassoon 4 French Horns 3 Trumpets 3 Trombones Tuba Timpani Bass Drum Snare Drum Cymbals Triangle Tambourine Tam-Tam Guiro Glockenspiel Strings And 2 Harps. Ravel Prepared A Separate Piano Transcription Of This Work. The Work Has Been Transcribed For Concert Wind Ensemble By MSgt Donald Patterson And Was Recorded By Col. Michael Colburn In 2007 With "The President's Own" United States Marine Band.

48 Similar Tracks:

HOME MAURICE RAVEL
POPULAR TRACKS MIXES ALBUMS
Video 1 : 50