“Ballet des poussins dans leurs coques”

This movement truly starts in later half of Promenade IV— with a short outburst of what is about to come.

Piano original marked with vivo, leggiero, and with una corda. Orchestra follows
similar instructions, marked with “pp” in all parts and with mutes on the violins and
violas.
Ravel adds an extra emphasis on the “4” (if we think of the scherzo 2/4 in a fast 4/4),
adding extra instrumentation on that beat to emphasis the five notes falling on one beat:

*adds extra notes

Mussorgsky’s Original Piano Score

4 measures before [49]: bassoon and pizz. viola doubled in unison with divisi
oboes playing the grace figure. Notice two things: a) how the instrumentation
immediately goes down when the violas need to be present in the texture; b) the
passing off the phrase between the various winds as the line climbs higher.
Flute, Oboe, Clarinet

Ravel uses the trading of voices and shortening the phrases to create a
heightening in texture development, adding to the crescendo and dramatic effect of the
suspended note of the “A” section— [48] up until [52]. This section is repeated exactly

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the same directly afterwards and at the very end (like notated in the original piano
score).
TRIO [52]
Where Ravel followed Mussorgsky’s original repeat sign in the “A” section, he
then deviates and expands the Trio section on each of the two repeats found in the
original piano score. For instance, he gives the melodic trilling material to the first
violins (which they’re very good at doing). The flutes take on the melody’s grace notes
(which they’re very good at playing) while simultaneously doubling the attacks of the
violins.
This coupling is also found between the pizz. cellos and violas as they “help” the
bassoon’s “left-hand” countermelody. These additions not only fill out the texture,
giving it continuity to the previous section, but they also imitate the quick decay of the
piano which was a functional and featured element Mussorgsky used in the original
composition.
At [53] (which is a repeat of [52]’s material), a slew of instruments are added:
field drum, celeste, harp, second violins, horns, oboe, and clarinets (who trill into it
from the measure before). These additions are employed similarly to Ravel’s earlier
“texture-dynamic building” technique— adding more voices that double the previous
parts on beats all the while trading roles with another voice:

Additive elements to the Trio section of Ravel’s scoring

In addition to these devices, we also see thick divisi pizz. chords in the second violins,
first horns and cello emphasize the tonic pedal point, and the flutes tremolo longer on
beat “1”.
At [54], we have new material— the fuller orchestration disappears as a solo
oboe hopscotches around its higher register, the bassoons take back their Alberti-Bass-
like gesture coupled again by the violas. Ravel gives the harp the “F” pedal-point
alongside the violas who whisper it out through a low, sustained harmonic.
[55] (which is [54]’s respective recap), Ravel gives the melody to the violins so they can
be present over this busier orchestration. The (poor) oboes bounce at 16ths notes,
creating the faster rhythmic pulse in the piece so far (*not found in the piano original).

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This also is the first place that the percussion section plays with one another in this
movement. Ravel uses textural hocketing here as well between the triangle, cymbal, and
the field drum (the “&”s of which are played on the head, the on-beats are played on
the rim— creating an even more complicated soundscape).

Percussion texture

The constant repetition of the pitch class “F” at various lengths, displacements, and
differing articulations also gives the illusion of a more sustained affect that the original
piano score has due to the syncopated ties in the left hand’s thumb as well as in the
grace notes of the right hand. Ravel transmogrifies this simple syncopation into a
complex set of timbres attacking at different times with different articulations and in
different phrasings, altogether creating a warbling tremolo effect.
Mussorgsky original (left hand only)

All iterations of PC “F” in Ravel’s orchestration at [55]

*flutter-tongued

RECAP
At [55^], it is an exact repetition of the opening material (as mentioned before),
with only a couple slight deviations five measures from the end. The violins continue
their pizzicato run into the downbeat of the suspended chord— the bassoons and horns
also add themselves in on the lower octave displacement of the “Db”.
The last two measures simply flicker out of existence with oboe and flute soloists
doubling a final riff; the final downbeat touched with the piccolo and high pizz. from
the first violins.

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