Songs, 1896-1914

by Maurice Ravel

As a young composer in the years preceding World War I, Maurice Ravel brought to the art of the song that distinctive fusion of classicism and the modern spirt that characterized all his musical works and helped earn him a reputation as one of the most important modern French song composers. This superb collection includes many of his most admired and performed songs and song cycles, edited and introduced by Arbie Orenstein, the world's leading Ravel scholar, and eloquently displays the artistry that has made Ravel a favorite of 20th-century singers and their audiences.
Many of the songs are settings of texts by such major poets as Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé. Reprinted here from authoritative French editions and provided with new English translations of the original French texts, they include: Sainte; Epigrammes de Clément Marot; Manteau de fleurs; Shéhérazade; Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques; Noël des jouets; Histories naturelles; Vocalise-Etude en forme de Hababera; Les Grands Vents venus d'outremer; Sur l'herbe; Chants popularizes; Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé; and Deux Mélodies hébraĭgues.

160 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 1990

About the author

French composer known especially for his melodies, masterful orchestration, richly evocative harmonies and inventive instrumental textures and effects. Along with Claude Debussy, he was one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music. Much of his piano music, chamber music, vocal music and orchestral music is part of the standard concert repertoire.

Ravel's piano compositions, such as Jeux d'eau, Miroirs, Le tombeau de Couperin and Gaspard de la nuit, demand considerable virtuosity from the performer, and his mastery of orchestration is particularly evident in such works as Rapsodie espagnole, Daphnis et Chloé and his arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Ravel is best known for his orchestral work Boléro (1928), which he once described as "a piece for orchestra without music".