M. Ravel’s vocal cycle “Chansons madécasses” and its role in the development of French chamber-vocal music of the first half of the twentieth century
Authors: Novak Ilona 
Published: August 2024

Statement of the problem. Chamber vocal genres attracted Ravel throughout his career, from his first opuses (his first song belongs to Op.4) to his last, which was the vocal cycle “Three Songs of Don Quixote to Dulcinea”. The vocal works fully embody the main features of the composer’s style and creative interests. This sphere of Ravel’s work corresponds to the leading trends in the development of chamber vocal genres in the French culture of the twentieth century. At that time, composers had gravitated toward symbolism, elegance and refinement of music expression, the impressionistic reflection of fleeting moments, elusive images of nature or shades of human feelings. The cycle “Chansons mad&#233;casses” (“Madagascar Songs”) attracts primarily by a mixture of colonial themes and exoticism, which is realized in a combination of speech expressiveness and musicality, recitative melody and plastic rhythm. The cycle poses a number of difficult tasks for performers, the solution of which lies in the plane of historical accuracy and technical precision. These aspects are examined in the article. Discussion of the historical, social and textual specifics of music and poetry will help to renew the traditions of the cycle’s performance that were formed in the last century. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the article is to examine Ravel’s vocal cycle “Chansons mad&#233;casses” in the context of the development of French chamber music of the first half of the twentieth century, with an emphasis on content and stylistics. Theoretical analysis and systematization of scientific sources on the topic helped to outline certain traditions of musicological presenting the cycle “Chansons mad&#233;casses; historical and comparative research methods have made it possible to consider the historical and cultural context of the poetic component of the cycle –“poems in prose” by E. Parny. Holistic and comparative musicological analysis contributed to the coverage of ways of realizing the poetic and musical spaces of the cycle. M. Ravel’s vocal cycle “Chansons mad&#233;casses” remains poorly researched in domestic musicology, which determines the scientific novelty of this study. Research results and conclusion. Based on the analysis of M. Ravel’s chamber-vocal cycle, it can be concluded that the composer continues the best traditions of French art with its refined and impressionistic features, while demonstrating an innovative approach to vocal genres. Particularly interesting are his creative searches in recent years, when Ravel reached a new understanding of musical and poetic synthesis. The main features of his chamber music, including vocal cycles, were the daintiness and elegance of the figurative sphere, the refinement of the musical style, the inclination to the recitative manner of vocalization, and elements of sound painting In the cycle “Chansons mad&#233;casses” M. Ravel not just embodies the text in music; he tries to make the music itself convey the text. Emotions and conflicts present in the words receive an active dramatic musical embodiment; the erotic play of dynamics and tempos in “Nahandove”, the clash of tonalities in “Aoua!” and the quiet mysterious sounds in “Il est doux” serve as an example of an attempt to achieve a “direct” reproduction of the text in music. Thus, the songs of the cycle “Chansons mad&#233;casses” represent the composer’s complex relationship with the very idea of a “voice”. M. Ravel “appropriates” the voice of an exotic “other” in order to address provocative themes that he avoided in the rest of his vocal works; but instead of remaining in this “safe space”, he constantly undermines its stability: avoiding the conventionality of musical exoticism, looking for a strong dramatic support of the text capable of making an impression on the listeners, M. Ravel puts us into a confrontation with the various emotions presented in these songs.