Histoires Naturelles - A Score for Solo Piano

by Maurice Ravel

This volume contains Maurice Ravel's 1906 song cycle, "Histoires naturelles". The cycle is constituted of five poems by Jules Renard set to piano and voice. Joseph Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937) was a French pianist, composer, and conductor. He is considered to have been a significant figure within impressionism along with Claude Debussy, and he was hailed as France's greatest living composer during the early twentieth century. Classic Music Collection constitutes an extensive library of the most well-known and universally-enjoyed works of classical music ever composed, reproduced from authoritative editions for the enjoyment of musicians and music students the world over.

26 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2013

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".