I know Ravel's Bolero. I can hear it in my head right now. Da da da da da da da DA da da DAAA. It's pure pleasure reading your blog. Beautiful Language Of Gentleladies. (That's what b.l.o.g. stands for.) Patty is a magician!
Le Tombeau de Couperin is a suite for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, composed between 1914 and 1917. It is in six movements. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of friends of the composer who had died fighting in World War I. Ravel himself served in the war as an ambulance driver and was wounded in the process. The movements are: • I. Prélude "To the memory of Lieutenant Jacques Charlot" (who transcribed Ravel's four-hand piece Ma Mère l'Oye for solo piano) • II. Fugue "To the memory of Jean Cruppi" (to whose mother Ravel dedicated his opera L'heure espagnole) • III. Forlane "To the memory of Lieutenant Gabriel Deluc" (a Basque painter from Saint-Jean-de-Luz) • IV. Rigaudon "To the memory of Pierre and Pascal Gaudin" (brothers killed by the same shell) • V. Menuet "To the memory of Jean Dreyfus" (at whose home Ravel recuperated after he was demobilized) • VI. Toccata "To the memory of Captain Joseph de Marliave" From Wikipedia
2 Comments:
I know Ravel's Bolero. I can hear it in my head right now. Da da da da da da da DA da da DAAA. It's pure pleasure reading your blog. Beautiful Language Of Gentleladies. (That's what b.l.o.g. stands for.) Patty is a magician!
Love,
Mom
Le Tombeau de Couperin is a suite for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, composed between 1914 and 1917.
It is in six movements. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of friends of the composer who had died fighting in World War I. Ravel himself served in the war as an ambulance driver and was wounded in the process. The movements are:
• I. Prélude "To the memory of Lieutenant Jacques Charlot" (who transcribed Ravel's four-hand piece Ma Mère l'Oye for solo piano)
• II. Fugue "To the memory of Jean Cruppi" (to whose mother Ravel dedicated his opera L'heure espagnole)
• III. Forlane "To the memory of Lieutenant Gabriel Deluc" (a Basque painter from Saint-Jean-de-Luz)
• IV. Rigaudon "To the memory of Pierre and Pascal Gaudin" (brothers killed by the same shell)
• V. Menuet "To the memory of Jean Dreyfus" (at whose home Ravel recuperated after he was demobilized)
• VI. Toccata "To the memory of Captain Joseph de Marliave"
From Wikipedia
Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin
Maurice Ravel, 1875-1937. Le Tombeau de Couperin. Completed 1917 (piano version), 1918 (orchestral version); first performance April, 1919, in Paris. Scored for 2 flutes, oboe, English Horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, harp, and strings.
In August of 1914, when World War I broke out in Europe, Maurice Ravel was bitterly disappointed to learn that he was unfit for military service. He compensated by volunteering to care for the wounded, but did not give up his composing. One of the pieces he worked on during that period was a planned French Suite--written not on patriotic themes, but simply as a collection of French-flavored movements. The Suite eventually fell by the wayside, however, and was forgotten for over two years.
In the summer of 1917, Ravel repaired to Normandy in hopes of restoring his failing health and recovering from the loss of his mother, who had died the previous January. While there, he returned to the French Suite. In honor of the fallen soldiers he had cared for, he retitled it Le Tombeau de Couperin (literally, Couperin's Tomb, after François Couperin, a 17th-century composer whom Ravel chose to represent the French nation.
The work was planned to be premiered immediately in Paris, but a bombardment interfered and caused the performance to be postponed. While he was waiting for it to be rescheduled, Ravel could not resist orchestrating four of the movements (he once said ``For me, orchestration is more play than work'').
When the piano piece was finally presented to the public, it was a great success despite the inevitable naysayer, a clever critic who wrote, `` Couperin's Tomb by Monsieur Ravel, that's nice. But how much nicer would be Ravel's Tomb by Couperin!'' Like M. Ravel, we will leave it to the audience to decide between the critic and his target, with full confidence as to the outcome.
© 1999, Geoff Kuenning
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