It is Saturday morning and I sit here at my computer listening to Bolero by Maurice Ravel and reflecting on the forthcoming events of the day, emotionally encompassing for many reasons, and I place my mind into a loftier world, one without ugliness, despair, fear, or tragedy, into a world of music replete in its grandeur, hope, joy, and energy. Ravel's music is the right sound to create this emotional transformation, this sense that all is indeed "right with the world" (thank you Robert Browning), this need to see things through stained glass windows, and mostly to hold desperately to optimism and promise of better things, beautiful things, and in Ravel's case, beautiful sounds.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was of French descent whose father was a well-known inventor of that time having invented the combustible engine as well as a circus style somersaulting car for entertainment. Trained under Gabriel Faure at the Paris Conservatory of Music, Ravel was committed to and steeped in the classics with emphasis on the precision and craft of Mozart and Couperin. Ravel's extensive study and dedication to musical scholarship was ultimately manifested in great knowledge of each instrument, making him one of the greatest orchestrators in history.
His compositions ranged from chamber works, piano works, to orchestral showpieces, operas, and vocal works. Although considered a leading composer of the "Impressionistic" period--not really a period of music at all, but rather a style of music primarily represented by master composer Claude Debussy--Ravel never felt restricted by one style and considered himself more of a structured, formalized composer with tonal innovations including the use of modes, unresolved suspensions, and layers of harmonies.
Ravel's music was meticulously conceived with strict adherence to his prescribed rules for the chosen language of each particular work. Not unlike Mozart, who rarely changed his mind, or made any errors in his manuscript, or Stravinsky whose fastidious precision comes through in his music in a systematized or ordered manner, Ravel was a very careful and thorough composer who made great intellectual and scholarly demands on his own knowledge, including counterpoint, harmonic depth, other composers' styles, capabilities of each instrument, and potential for colors and sound.
It is difficult to narrow my favorite Ravel pieces to just a few, but for this writing, I want to mention one of Ravel's least favorite pieces which he considered trivial, but one of my personal favorites, Bolero. This marvelous orchestral showpiece was written as a personal challenge to depart from the German tradition of thematic development. To accomplish this goal, Ravel limited his piece to two contrasting but similar themes used alternately and effectively on top of a recurring rhythm pattern drawn from the dance of the same name. The result is an amazingly powerful work that ironically does a form of development in its orchestration and in its dynamic growth. Like all Ravel's music, Bolero is emotionally charged, shimmering in energy, glossy in colorful sounds, intellectual in scope, and gushing in expression. One cannot help but respond to the repetition and continued growth of this work, which some consider the earliest example of minimalism. Yes, trivial in its complexity of thematic usage but powerful in its scope, Bolero remains an audience favorite around the world.
Other great works include the beautiful and touching Pavane, Daphnis and Chloe, Rhapsodie Espagnole, and the two piano concertos one of which is for the left hand only, and the marvelous orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The music of Maurice Ravel is magical, beautiful, scholarly, energetic, poetic, poignant, and memorable.
No comments:
Post a Comment