http://www.utahsymphony.

org/insight/program-notes/703-ravel-pavane-for-a-dead-princess

HE COMPOSER – MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937) – After failing to win the requisite prizes at the Paris
Conservatoire, Ravel was dismissed from his classes in 1895. He returned in 1897 and though he made good
progress and had important guidance from Fauré,

HE MUSIC – Like some other important 19th and 20th century orchestral scores (Pictures at an
Exhibition comes quickly to mind), Pavane for a Dead Princess began life as piano music. Completed in 1899
while he was studying with Fauré, the Pavane was one of the first of Ravel’s compositions to be published.

The pavane was a stately court dance of 16th century Spain and Italy. The Spanish history of the form was of
special importance to Ravel who, born of a Basque mother, always held an affinity for his Iberian heritage

https://cso.org/uploadedFiles/1_Tickets_and_Events/Program_Notes/ProgramNotes_Ravel_Pavane.pdf

Maurice Ravel Born March 7, 1875, Ciboure, France. Died December 28, 1937, Paris, France. Pavane
for a Dead Princess Maurice Ravel was born in the French Pyrenees, only a few miles from the Spanish
border, a geographical boundary he often crossed in his music. Even though his family moved to Paris
while he was still a baby, Ravel came by his fascination with Spain naturally, for his mother was Basque
and grew up in Madrid. (His Swiss father inspired in his son a love for things precise and mechanical that
carried over into his impeccable music

HABANERA

One of Ravel's earliest pieces—written just after he left the Paris Conservatory in 1895—was a habanera
for two pianos, the first indication that he would join that group of French composers, which includes
Bizet, Lalo, and Chabrier, who have written some of our best Spanish music. The habanera was Ravel's
first music to be performed publicly, in March 1898, a

PAVANE

Like the Habanera, the Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a dead princess) was conceived as
piano music and benefited greatly from the translation to a full orchestral score. The piano piece was an
instant success. a. A pavane is a slow processional dance from Padua (Pava is a dialect name for Padua).
According to an old Spanish tradition, however, it was performed in church as a stylish gesture of
farewell to the dead. As to the identity of the dead princess, Ravel finally admitted he picked the title
because he liked the sound of the words.

http://www.thecip.org/ravel-pavane-pour-une-infante-defunte/
Actually, this music was originally penned, not for orchestra, but for solo piano. After its premiere in 1902,
it gained fast fame, helping to launch the composer’s career. By the time he orchestrated it in 1910, Ravel
was known widely across Europe.
By then, the meaning of the work’s title — which translates roughly, “Pavane for a Dead Princess” — was
already widely misunderstood. As the composer would later explain, the piece “is not a funeral lament for
a dead child, but rather an evocation of the pavane that might have been danced by such a little princess
as painted by Velázquez.”

Constructed around a nostalgic theme first played by the horn and imbued with a glistening atmosphere
that seems at once exotic and utterly comforting, the six-minute “Pavane” has become one of the
composer’s most-performed pieces.

http://theelginreview.blogspot.com/2015/04/program-notes-pavane-pour-une-infante.html

Ravel: Pavane pour une Infante Défunte

When a young Joseph-Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) composed Pavane pour une Infante
Défunte (1899) for solo piano, he was a student at the Paris Conservatory, from which he
would eventually be expelled twice for not winning any composition contests.

The pavane is a slow, processional Renaissance dance, consisting of a series of hesitating

steps like those of a modern-day wedding procession. It was just stately enough to have
an occasional link with somber ceremonies (such as royal funerals), but that was not
Ravel’s creative impetus.

He had written the piece for his Patron, the Princesse de Poignac, and described it as “an
evocation of a pavane that a little princess (infanta) might, in former times, have danced
at the Spanish Court.” As for the title, he confessed “I simply liked the sound of those
words.”
Such explanations, and the comparisons of his style to that of Claude Débussy, later
earned Ravel the label of “impressionist,” though he (and Débussy both) rejected that
term.

Born just inside the French border with Spain, Ravel adored his Basque mother, and felt a
nostalgic love for Spanish culture throughout his life. Rapsodie Espagnole (“Spanish
Rhapsody”) (1908) was his first major work composed for orchestra, and L’Heure
Espagnole (“Spanish Time”) (1911) was the more successful of his two comic operas.
Ravel orchestrated many of his own piano works, and the Pavane was scored for
orchestra during this same period.

Its clear melody, surrounded by soft harmonies shifting from archaic modes to modern
jazz-like gestures reveal the influence of Chabrier and Fauré (Ravel’s teacher), and that
of a contemporary, Erik Satie. Though he was routinely criticized for an overly-cerebral
style, Ravel was his own worst critic, and insisted this piece was unoriginal, and “poor in
form.”