Notes on Ravel (11/5 class)

Reading notes
Orenstein text
⁃ Ravel was interested by technical perfection -> he was a craftsman
⁃ Interested in music of the past (he believed in imitating good models)
⁃ He did not like Beethoven much but admired Mozart a lot
⁃ He thought Wagner had too much of an influence
⁃ Overall, he had quite similar interests to those of Debussy
⁃ Ravel puts more emphasis on melody than Debussy
⁃ The 2 composers had an influence on each other
⁃ Ravel established his style at a very young age
⁃ Like Debussy, he uses non-functional harmony (unresolved 7ths and 9ths,
etc.) and modes
⁃ He was also greatly inspired by dance
OHWM text
⁃ Jeux d’eau: strict sonata form
⁃ Ravel uses many chords in a functional way and invents new chords
⁃ He uses the thumb to play seconds, treats seconds as a consonant
interval
⁃ He was perhaps influenced by Rimsky-Korsakov in his use of symmetrical
“interval cycle”.
⁃ Rimsky-Korsakov used the octatonic scale
Palmer text
⁃ Ravel was greatly inspired by Debussy, especially by Prélude à l’après-
midi d’un Faune
⁃ Inspired also by Russian composers (Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Balakirev,
Borodin) and Spain
⁃ Ravel’s Impressionism is a compromise between Debussy’s vagueness and
the clean outlines and melodies of classicism
⁃ He preferred stylized representations of nature than nature itself
(contrary to Debussy, who said the opposite)
⁃ Ravel recommended the use of pedal in higher registers to bring out
‘not the clarity of the notes, but the hazy impression of vibrations in the air’
Listening notes
Jeux d’eau
⁃ Sounds very much like Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau” from Images.
⁃ Lots of non functional harmony
⁃ Ravel uses a lot of repeated chunks of music, it’s usually in groups of
2
⁃ Whole-tone scales
⁃ He embraces 2nds without treating them as a dissonace (ex. beginning of
3rd page)
⁃ He creates a “chord atmosphere”, ex. at the return of the 2nd theme,
the left hand plays an up and down arpeggio with pedal, which creates this blurry,
fuzzy atmosphere. After this, an upwards movement emerges from this atmosphere.
⁃ Contrary to Debussy, the structure is very conventional and the “melody
line” is usually followable and obvious.
Gaspard de la Nuit - Ondine
⁃ Same sort of “chord atmosphere” right at the beginning
⁃ But still, there is a melodic line.
⁃ There is usually a tonal point (chord) for a few bars at a time
Miroirs - Une barque sur l’océan
⁃ Seems that very fast, blurred-by-pedal, notes are a recurring theme,
it’s a good characteristic of Impressionism
⁃ Most of the melodic lines are modal
⁃ Last page: uses a minor 7th chord as the tonal point
Les grands vents venus d’outremer
⁃ Lots of chromaticism
⁃ Abundant use of the tritone
 ⁃ The piano writing looks more like traditional Romantic piano writing
than the other works.