Listen to Mother Goose by Maurice Ravel - Listening Library - The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Play Now Ravel was a regular guest at the Sunday evening salons hosted by Cipa and Ida Godebski, a Polish couple living in Paris, and on several occasions he vacationed with the family at their country house. Over the course of visits between 1908 and 1910, Ravel composed a set of pieces for piano (scored for four hands) dedicated to the young Godebski children, Mimie and Jean. He called the suite Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose), and he fashioned the “five children’s pieces,” as he subtitled them, out of popular fairy tales. The title and two of the tales came from Charles Perrault, a seventeenth-century French writer and the father of the fairy tale as a literary genre. His 1697 opus, Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose, immortalized Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, and many other classic characters. Other tales came from Madame d’Aulnoy, a rival of Perrault.

One more timeless story, Beauty and the Beast, first appeared in an eighteenth-century collection. The orchestral version of Mother Goose owes its existence, indirectly, to Serge Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky. After the sensational appearances in Paris by the Ballets Russes, the French impresario Jacques Rouché countered by renting out the Théâtre des Arts and assembling productions with leading French composers and artists. Rouché asked Ravel for a new ballet, and the composer obliged by orchestrating Mother Goose, adding a prelude and scene and providing connecting interludes. Following the dreamy prelude, the Spinning-wheel Dance and Scene establishes a frame story for the ballet, in which Sleeping Beauty trips over an old woman’s spinning wheel, pricks her finger, and falls into a magical slumber. The Pavane of Sleeping Beauty is a short and mournful dance; like Ravel’s famous Pavane pour une infante défunte, orchestrated a year earlier, this Pavane retains the ceremonial quality of the Italian court dance it is named for. The next scene visits The Conversation of Beauty and the Beast, in which the clarinet leads a beauteous waltz and the contrabassoon makes beastly interjections.

In Tom Thumb, the little protagonist drops breadcrumbs to guide his way home and becomes flummoxed as the chirping birds steal his crumbs. Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas uses pentatonic themes and tam-tam strikes to evoke an Asian setting. The final scene, The Fairy Garden, blooms from delicate solos into a resplendent finale for full orchestral forces, celebrating the rising sun and Sleeping Beauty’s awakening. Aaron Grad ©2012 First performance: January 29, 1912 in Paris. First SPCO performance: January 18-21, 1984. Instrumentation: two flutes second doubling piccolo, two oboes second doubling English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, two horns, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta, and strings. San Francisco Symphony - Ravel: Mother Goose San Francisco Symphony Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose)—Music for the Ballet MAURICE RAVEL BORN: March 7, 1875.

Ciboure, Basses-Pyrenées, France DIED: December 28, 1937. Paris COMPOSITION/PREMIERE: The ballet Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) began its life as a suite of “Five Children’s Pieces for Piano Four Hands,” composed between 1908 and 1910 (they were completed in April of that year), and were premiered by the child pianists Jeanne Leleu and Geneviève Durony, at the first concert of the Société Musicale Indépendante, at the Salle Gaveau in Paris, on April 20, 1910. In 1911, Ravel made an orchestral transcription of that five-movement suite, and the same year he expanded that suite into a ballet, which was premiered at the Théâtre des Arts in Paris, under the direction of Gabriel Grovlez, on January 21 (or perhaps January 28), 1912.

For that incarnation (which is performed in its entirety at these concerts), he changed the order of the movements and added a Prelude, the Spinning-Wheel Dance, and several interludes. SFS PERFORMANCES: FIRST—November 1977 (the complete Ma Mère l’Oye ballet score), Philippe Entremont conducted. MOST RECENT—January 2006. Leonard Slatkin conducted INSTRUMENTATION: 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 2 clarinets, two bassoons (1 doubling contrabassoon), 2 horns, timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, xylophone, glockenspiel, bell tree, celesta, harp, and strings DURATION: About 28 mins “There are few of my childhood memories,” wrote a certain Mimi Godebska Blacque-Belair, in 1938, “in which Ravel does not find a place.

Of all my parents’ friends I had a predilection for Ravel because he used to tell me stories that I loved.” Mimi Godebski (as Mme. Blacque-Belair was known as a child) and her brother Jean were the children of Xavier Cyprien (“Cipa”) and Ida Godebski, who from 1904 qualified as Maurice Ravel’s closest friends. The Godebskis were devoted lovers of the avant-garde, and their home served as the meeting place for a Sunday-evening salon of Parisian musicians, dancers, artists, and writers. Among the regulars were Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Paul Valéry, Serge Diaghilev and Vaslav Nijinsky, the painters Pierre Bonnard and Georges d’Espagnat, and a particularly rich sampling of musicians, including Albert Roussel, Florent Schmitt, Déodat de Sévérac, Darius Milhaud, Georges Auric, Maurice Delage, Roland-Manuel, Ricardo Viñes, Alfredo Casella, Manuel de Falla, Igor Stravinsky, and Erik Satie, in addition to Ravel.

There was a fair amount of overlap between the Godebskis’ circle and the concurrent group of friends who fancifully called themselves Les Apaches. Les Apaches, however, met on Saturday nights, and one assumes that visitors often arrived at the Godebskis’ not quite recovered from their Apaches intake. When he fell in with these salon crowds, Ravel was an elegant dandy who was beating his head against the wall at the Paris Conservatory. The social gatherings supplied him not only with abundant friendship, but also with encouragement for his professional accomplishments. It was in these circles of artistic acceptance that he tried out some of his first masterworks. For Ravel, friendship with the Godebskis extended beyond Sunday nights, and he developed a close relationship with the parents and their children. He always related well to children, who seem to have appreciated at first glance that his diminutive stature made him more approachable than most grownups. Indeed, something of the childlike seemed ingrained in his character, and throughout his life he remained obsessed with toys, mechanical gadgets, and miniature objects.

As might be expected, the Godebski children were subjected to music lessons, and though both were far from virtuoso pianists in 1908, Ravel hit on the idea just then of composing a piece that would be within their limited technical grasp. Again, we have Mimi’s account: “Ravel wanted us to give the first public performance but the idea filled me with a cold terror. My brother, being less timid and more gifted on the piano, coped quite well. But despite lessons from Ravel I used to freeze to such an extent that the idea had to be abandoned.” Doubtless she grew up to rue the day she forfeited the opportunity to premiere a composition by Ravel, not to mention one that took place at such a historically notable event as the inaugural concert of the Société Musicale Indépendante, a new concert association formed by disciples of Gabriel Fauré. Ravel ended up having to accept that the dedicatees of his suite for piano four-hands would not be its first performers. Instead, the honors went to two other youngsters, Jeanne Leleu (aged six) and Geneviève Durony (a year older).

In that first incarnation, Mother Goose consisted of five movements: “Pavane of Sleeping Beauty,” “Tom Thumb,” “Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas,” “Conversations of Beauty and the Beast,” and “The Enchanted Garden.” The direct inspirations were children’s stories from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French collections, especially Charles Perrault’s Contes de ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Tales, published in 1697). Though an evocative score, it is curious indeed as piano music, simplified to be within reach of small hands and elementary technique. Ravel’s publisher Jacques Durand and the impresario Jacques Rouché saw bigger possibilities in these little pieces. Durand persuaded the composer to orchestrate the set—yielding the often-heard Suite—and Rouché went a step further and convinced him to turn it into a ballet-divertissement, which Rouché himself would direct. (He would also receive the dedication of the new version.) For this staged production, Ravel penned a scenario, placed his movements in a new order, and composed new sections—the Prelude and Dance of the Spinning Wheel—and several short connective interludes.

Here is Ravel’s scenario, with our commentary in brackets. Prelude—[Flutes and bassoon, then muted strings, play pianissimo, muted horns offer distant fanfares, flutes and oboes suggest bird-calls, clarinets ripple, the harp lets go with a magical glissando, the contrabassoon emits a brief rumble. The opening three minutes of Ravel’s ballet provide a foretaste of the flavors that will be explored at greater length in the ensuing movements.] Scene 1. Dance of the Spinning Wheel—“An enchanted garden. An old woman is seated at her spinning wheel. Princess Florine enters, jumping rope. She stumbles, falling against the spinning wheel, and is pricked by its spindle. The old woman calls for help. The young ladies- and gentlemen-in-waiting rush in. They try in vain to revive the Princess. Then they recall the curse of the fairies. Two ladies-in-waiting prepare the Princess for her long sleep.” Scene 2. Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty—“Florine falls asleep.

The old woman now stands erect, throws off her filthy cape and appears in the sumptuous clothing and charming features of the Good Fairy. “Two little Negroes appear. The fairy entrusts them with guarding Florine and granting her pleasant dreams.” [Only twenty measures long and entirely consonant, this movement has an evocative power predicated on the perfection of its simplicity.] Scene 3. Conversations of Beauty and the Beast—“Beauty enters. Taking her mirror, she powders herself. The Beast enters. Beauty notices him and remains petrified. With horror, she rejects the declarations of the Beast, who falls at her feet, sobbing. Reassured, Beauty makes fun of him coquettishly. The Beast falls down faint with despair. Touched by his great love, Beauty raises him up again and accords him her hand.

“But before her is a prince more handsome than Eros, who thanks her for having ended his enchantment.” [As in the Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty, Ravel’s pared-down simplicity here yields an effect similar to that achieved in Erik Satie’s famous Trois Gymnopédies of 1888, so much so that the composer and critic Roland-Manuel quipped that Ravel had written a fourth Gymnopédie. Ravel was happy to acknowledge the influence of the curious master of Arcueil, which he did by presenting Satie with a score in which he inscribed, “for Erik Satie, grandpapa of ‘L’entretiens de la Beauté et de la Bête’ and others. Affectionate homage from a disciple.” For anyone who has ever wanted to get up close and personal with a contrabassoon, this is your chance. Following the slow-waltz of the Beauty’s opening music, the Beast makes its entrance with a basso-profundo announcement from that deepest member of the wind section. A less refined composer might have made the characterization blustery and comical; Ravel renders it poignant by marking the solo piano.] Scene 4.

Tom Thumb—“A forest, at nightfall. The woodcutter’s seven children enter. Tom Thumb crumbles a piece of bread. He looks about but cannot find any houses. The children cry. Tom Thumb reassures them by showing them the bread which he has strewn along their path. “They lie down and fall asleep. Birds pass and eat all of the bread. Upon awakening, the children no longer find any crumbs, and they depart sadly.” [The children wander (très modéré) to a gentle melody as they err off course. The birds appear in the guise of three solo violins, a piccolo, and flute.] Scene 5. Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas—“A tent draped in Chinese style. Male and female pagoda attendants enter. Dance. Laideronnette appears in the Chinese style of Boucher. A green serpent crawls amorously at her side. “Pas de deux, then general dance.” [A passage in the score for the piano version is drawn from the 1697 collection Serpentin Vert: “They undressed and entered the bath.

No sooner had she done that than pagodas both male and female began singing and playing instruments—some had lutes made of nut-shells, others had viols made of almond husks, for they needed to play instruments rightly proportioned for their various sizes.” Ravel was irresistibly drawn to chinoiserie and made telling use of a pentatonic scale, jangling rhythms, and bell-like timbres to capture the exotic Romanticism suggested by this scene.] Scene 6. The Enchanted Garden—“Dawn. Birds are singing. Prince Charming enters, led by a cupid. He notices the sleeping Princess. She awakens at the same time that day is breaking. “All of the performers in the ballet group themselves around the Prince and the Princess, who are united by Cupid. “The Good Fairy appears and blesses the couple. “Apotheosis” [Ravel’s interlude moves from the opening pianissimo of the horn fanfare into a stratospheric solo for the concertmaster, and then into the solemnity of the string choir (Lent et grave) as it enters the Enchanted Garden proper.

At the end, the garden bursts into vivid bloom, and the apotheosis is accomplished in a brilliant blaze of orchestral color, replete with a little fanfare from the winds and vibrant glissandos from the celesta and harp.] Ravel’s music is often described as exquisite, and the orchestral version of Mother Goose is certainly that, which is to say that it is fastidiously attuned to the subtlest delicacies. There is not a page that fails to yield some arcane but effective detail of orchestration, and many fleeting combinations of sounds seem unique to this piece. This work also utters a distinct melodic language among Ravel’s works, not surprisingly so, given the unusual requirements of its genesis. But in solving the challenges he set for himself, Ravel also imparted something completely authentic and characteristic. Roland-Manuel picked up on this: “. . .

the Ravel of Mother Goose reveals to us the secret of his profound nature, and shows us the soul of a child who has never left the kingdom of Fairyland, who makes no distinction between nature and artifice, and who seems to believe that everything can be imagined and carried out on the material plane provided everything is strictly controlled and regulated on the mental or spiritual plane.” —James M. Keller A different version of this note appeared in the programs of the New York Philharmonic and is reprinted with permission.

More About the Music Recordings: Charles Dutoit conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (London/Decca) | André Previn conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Philips) | Ernest Ansermet conducting the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (London/Decca) | Pierre Boulez conducting the Berlin Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon) | Yan Pascal Tortelier conducting the Ulster Orchestra (Chandos) Reading: Ravel: Man and Musician, by Arbie Orenstein (Dover, two volumes) | A Ravel Reader, edited by Orenstein (Columbia University Press) | Ravel Remembered, by Roger Nichols (Norton) | The Cambridge Companion to Ravel, edited by Deborah Mawer (Cambridge) (March 2016) Mother Goose Suite - Kansas City Ballet Mother Goose Suite Music: Maurice Ravel Costume Design: Russ Vogler Todd Bolender’s first ballet, the 1943 Mother Goose Suite was born in circumstances marked by modesty.

Created to fill a program given at the New York’s YMHA by the short-lived American Concert Ballet of which Bolender and William Dollar were artistic directors, the work later enlivened a summer season at a barn-cum-theatre in Southbury, Connecticut. In 1948 at the request of George Balanchine, it was added to the repertoire of the New York City Ballet. After many a season in that company, Mr. Bolender has set it anew for the Kansas City Ballet’s spring season. That the work has endured decades, that it’s appeal transcends changed audiences, changed expectations, seems testimony to the remarkable fusion of movement and music, of shared sensibilities of the composer and the choreographer. Maurice Ravel’s “Ma mere love” was also a work of unpretentious beginnings. Based on the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, Mme.

D’Aulnoy and Leprince de Beaumont, the piano duet was written for Mimi and Jean Godebski, children of Ravel’s friend Cyprien Godebski, and was first performed in concert at the Société Musicale Indépendante in Paris, on April 20, 1910. Though written for children to play and to delight in, it spoke as well to adults, “opening a door for us, too, to glimpse the marvels of an imaginative world most of us have long since forgotten” according to Edward Downes. The tales are five: of “The Pavanne the Sleeping Beauty,” which tells of the princess who slept for a hundred years in an enchanted castle ’til she was awakened a handsome prince. “Hop o’ My Thumb” traces the winding path of the abandoned child whose life-saving trail of crumbs is consumed by a bird. In “The Ugly Little Girl, Empress of the Pagodas” the child is transformed into a beautiful princess. In “The Conversation of the Beauty and the Beast” Beauty confides to the Beast that he seems less ugly when she thinks how kind-hearted he is.

He asks her hand in marriage, and when she accepts, the Beast is transformed into a Prince,” as beautiful as the God of Love.” “The Fairy Garden” is the scene of the awakening of Sleeping Beauty as Prince Charming arrives with the dawn. The ballet departs from Ravel’s orchestral suite only in the order of presentation. “The Fairy Garden,” traditionally the fifth movement, here follows the “Pavanne,” a shift which makes the ending one of floating delicacy. Threaded through the magic of Ravel’s layered fantasy of fairies, beasts, and ogres, is the figure of a Young Girl. She and The Woman are Bolender’s creation, central to the dance drama, as they glide through the opening “Pavanne,” connected only by faintly-felt brush of recognition. They are one, at once young and old, reflection ad reality, past and present. The Woman reaches at touch her past only to bestow the ring, the gift which marks The Girl’s passage beyond self, and which frees to her, in turn, free The Prince from beastly imprisonment.

Set between the opening “Pavanne” and “Beauty and the Beast” are sweeping classicism of the sarabande in “The Fairy Garden,” the wistful supplication of “Hop o’ My Thumb,” and the brilliant and sharply punctuated, “Empress of the Pagodas.” Throughout, the choreographer has designed the dance to illuminate the fairy tale qualities of the music, to visually support Ravel’s vivid coloration with broad horizontals, the sweep of an impressionist’s vision. Responding to the music’s long and lyrical phrases, the ballet shares that yearning length, the generosity of lines. The set, and the costumes designed by Russ Vogler, evoke a work of magic. The Beast’s mask, Mr. Vogler has said, is a frank allusion, and tribute to the extraordinary Beast of Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film “La Bella et la Bete.” As Fairy Tales exist on an imagined and distant plane, are fixed neither in locale or period, so this music, these costumes and the dance are intended to fix our sights on infinity and magic possibilities.

Mother Goose Suite page Back to Explorer 2011-12 Page The composer, Maurice Ravel Maurice Ravel was born in 1875 in Southern France not too far from the border with Spain. His father's family was from Switzerland and his mother's family was from Spain. Maurice began piano lessons at age 7 and by the time he was 12 he was composing music. At 14 he went to study at the Paris Conservatoire, France's most famous music school. By the time Ravel was in his early 20s he had become a well known composer. He continued to compose music into his late 50s when health problems made writing new music very difficult. He died in 1937. Ravel wrote important piano pieces, a string quartet, two short operas, and other works. But he is probably most famous for his music for orchestra, including the ballet Daphnis and Chloé and Bolero. Impressionism - Ravel and another French composer, Claude Debussy are sometimes said to be "impressionist" composers.

Impressionism was a type of painting that tried give the feeling (or impression) of the scene rather than being clear and highly accurate. A famous impressionistic painter was Claude Monet. A painting of a bridge by Monet can be seen to the right. Click on the picture to see a another painting by Monet of the same bridge. Since no music can picture an event or scene in the way a painting can, it is Ravel and Debussy's use of melody, musical chords and instruments that gives their music an impressionistic feel. Mother Goose Suite (Ma mère l'oye - Suite) (The following section uses Adobe® Flash Player to hear the examples. You probably already have it, otherwise download it here Adobe® Flash Player ) - Click on the arrow to play the music. Ravel began composing his Mother Goose Suite in 1908, he finished it in April 1910. It was first written to be played on the piano by two people. Actually, Ravel wrote the music hoping to have the first performance played by the two children of friends of his.

The two children found the music too difficult and so the first performance was given by two other children, young girls, one age 11 and the other 14. Next Mr. Ravel arranged the music to be played by orchestra. This is how it will be performed at the Delaware Symphony Orchestra's Explorer Concert. Ravel was still not done with this music. At the request of a theater director for a ballet, Ravel added more music and the Mother Goose suite became the Mother Goose Ballet. The Mother Goose Suite has five movements (or sections) each dealing with a Mother Goose story. The first section is called "The Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty." This slow and gentle music depicts the sleeping princess: You need to download Flash - Let's learn a few things about the other sections of the Mother Goose Suite and hear a little of the music. The next section is based on part of the story of Little Thumb (or Tom Thumb; Petit Poucet in French). Little Thumb had dropped bread crumbs as he was led through the forest. To find his way back, he planned to follow the bread crumbs. To his surprise, the birds had eaten them so then he was lost.

Ravel's music begins with the violins and is soon joined by the oboe in a way that sounds like somebody who is sadly wandering around, not sure where to go. You need to download Flash Later, the high strings and wind instruments imitate the birds in the forest. You need to download Flash Next we meet Laideronnette (or the Little Ugly One) in a section Ravel calls "Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas." This is based on part of a long story called "The Green Serpent." It involves a pretty young princess who is made ugly by a wicked witch and is then called Laideronnette. There is also a green serpent (snake) who is really a handsome prince but had been changed into a serpent by that same wicked witch. Of course, in the end the wicked witch's curse is broken and both Laideronnette and the serpent are changed back to their original bodies and they marry and live happily together. In the music for this section, Ravel tells of a time when Laideronnette is in the Far East. The music uses the notes of a scale found in the music of countries like China.

You need to download Flash The next section is "The Conversations of Beauty and the Beast." In this story, Beauty, a very pretty young lady, must live in a castle with Beast a very ugly creature. Beast, as happens in these stories, is really a handsome prince. At first Beauty is very scared of Beast but over time, she sees the good in him and agrees to marry him at which point he is changed back into the handsome prince. Let's hear the music Ravel writes to portray Beauty and then the music for Beast: Beauty's music features clarinet with strings and harp: You need to download Flash Beast is represented by the contrabassoon ( Click here for a picture ): You need to download Flash The final section, "The Fairy Garden" returns to the Sleeping Beauty story. Prince Charming arrives and awakens the Sleeping Beauty and they live happily ever after. You need to download Flash Category: Mother Goose Suite - Wilmington Symphony Orchestra 1875 – 1937 “Ma Mere L’Oye” (Mother Goose Suite) 1910 Youngster Maurice Ravel was musically gifted and destined for a music career from early childhood.

He entered the Paris Conservatory at age 14 where he studied for the next 15 years. From the beginning of his musical career Ravel followed a clear, direct path. He learned through studies of the classics that in order to know one’s own technique, one must learn the technique of others; no one ever finishes the jobs of learning and shaping a technique or a style. The shy composer avoided tragedy in his art; his favorite themes dealt with Spanish rhythm, dance, comedy and enchantment. Ravel’s natural gift for orchestration and musical “coloring” created scores that were unmatched for his brilliant use of instrumental timbres. His music has been compared to French gardens in which trees and shrubs are trimmed to precise shapes and flowers are laid out in well-ordered patterns. He took painstaking time to polish each work to a shimmering crown of jewels; as a result the composer’s life-long output totaled fewer than 70 works. Ravel was a complex, sensitive person with an unusual fascination with the world of children. A life-long collector of toys, he also loved children’s stories and illustrations, and often sneaked away from social get-togethers to play with the toys and games of youngsters in residence.

In 1908 the composer wrote a children’s piano duet for two of his young friends. The work consisted of five tableaus from ancient French fairy tales that dealt with moralistic issues. In translation the suite is “The Mother Goose Suite,” but the composer singled out a single image from each story rather than musically illustrate the whole plot. His representations are the musical equivalent of watercolors and etchings and contain a complete range of dynamics and emotion. I. Pavane of the Sleeping Princess – This presents a graceful, ancient dance by attendants surrounding the Sleeping Princess Florine. Both flute and harp are featured prominently in this baroque dance. II. Little Tom Thumb – Tom’s frustrated wanderings in the woods are depicted by continual meter changes by string passages, while the woodwinds play a quiet “walking” melody. Twittering birds (flute, piccolo) swoop down to steal the crumbs left to mark his return path. III. Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas – Exotic Javanese music paints a picture of the little empress taking her bath while her pagodes (tiny munchkin-like people) sing and play on their miniature percussive instruments.

The musical flavor is turn-of-the-century orientalism styled by pentatonic scales. IV. Beauty and the Beast – The clarinet represents Beauty in the tempo of a waltz, while the role of the Beast is assumed by a contrabassoon. A dialogue between the two alternates between brusque growls and lilting melodies. After a loud climax and a measure of silence, an expressive solo violin announces with a delicate glissando the change of the Beast into a handsome prince. A moment before this, Beauty had decided that she would marry the beast because of his inner beauty and kindness. V. The Enchanted Garden – Everyone lives happily and in peace in this musically delicate watercolor depicting the splendor of an enchanting fairyland. The music builds to a grand fanfare celebrating that all is good and beautiful. Mother Goose (Complete) | LA Phil Mother Goose (Complete) Composed: 1908; 1911 Length: c.

30 minutes Orchestration: 2 flutes (2nd = piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd = English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons (2nd = contrabassoon), 2 horns, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, tam-tam, triangle, xylophone), harp, celesta, and strings First Los Angeles Philharmonic performance: March 3, 1927, with Walter Henry Rothwell conducting The case of Ma mère l’oye is unique in the annals of 20th-century ballet, the music having come into being first as a five-piece suite for four hands at one piano, written by Ravel in 1908 for the young son and daughter of his good friends, the Godebskis. The affectionate musical gift was quite in character for Ravel, who was at once the most sophisticated and child-like of men. Like many another retiring bachelor, he loved children and found social communication with them easy and pleasurable; his musical communication he made in wondrously fresh and artless terms.

With the title Mother Goose (only two sections, however, derive from Charles Perrault’s writings), the piece was introduced in 1910. The following year, Ravel was induced to orchestrate the music for ballet purposes, which he did, adding to the original five pieces a Prelude, a Spinning Wheel Dance and Scene, and four Interludes. It is the original five pieces in the form of an orchestral suite which are best known to concert-hall audiences; the composer contrived a free-wheeling version of the Sleeping Beauty story to serve as a libretto for the ballet. The Prelude sets the stage for the action with languid winds and strings and little brass fanfares. Not surprisingly, the brief Interludes with which Ravel stitches together the main sections bear a family resemblance to Daphnis et Chloé since at Ma mère time, Daphnis was a work in progress. Spinning Wheel Dance and Scene. Princess Florine is dancing in her garden as her nurse sits at the spinning wheel. (Strings spin busily as the winds dance.) Falling against the spindle, the princess pricks herself and falls into a deep sleep.

She is surrounded by courtiers and ladies-in-waiting who dance the... Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty. A fairy appears to guard the bewitched princess whose dreams are enacted in the following scenes. This episode, just a little longer than a sigh, starts with a haunting, simple modal melody sung by a flute, and moves on gossamer feet to an intimacy whispered by high violins. Conversations Between Beauty and the Beast. Beauty is a beguiling waltz sung by clarinet, the beast a grunting contrabassoon. The magical transformation of the latter into his original princely state is heralded by a harp glissando and violin harmonics. The prince speaks then in noble cello tones. Tom Thumb. The violins, representing Tom Thumb wandering in the forest, move stealthily (in thirds, and in ever-changing meter), as a plaintive melody, first in oboe then in English horn, weaves its frightened way. Birds chirp happily as they eat the crumbs Tom has strewn to help him find his way out of the forest. The ending is not happy — Tom seems hopelessly lost. Little Ugly One (Laideronette), Empress of the Pagodas.

The beautiful princess, Laideronette, has been made ugly by the curse of a wicked witch. With a green serpent (a handsome fellow similarly bewitched into his present form), Little Ugly One sails to the land of the Pagodas — little figures made of porcelain, crystal, and precious stones. The scene shows Ugly at her bath. Ravel evokes the Chinoiserie with the brightest pentatonic jollity, interrupts it with pseudo-seriousness, and slyly returns to the initial busyness. The Fairy Garden. Finally, Prince Charming awakens the sleeping princess in the prescribed manner, and the Good Fairy blesses the couple in the Fairy Garden. Ravel’s leave-taking of the mystical lands is at first pensive, then glittering in a kind of orchestral effulgence in which the master orchestrator was inimitable. — Orrin Howard, who served the Philharmonic Association for many years as Director of Publications and Archives, continues to contribute to the program book. Mother Goose Suite | LA Phil Mother Goose Suite Composed: 1908-10 Length: c.

20 minutes Orchestration: 2 flutes (2nd = piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd = English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons (2nd = contrabassoon), 2 horns, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, tam-tam, triangle, xylophone), harp, celesta, and strings First Los Angeles Philharmonic performance: March 6, 1927, with Walter Henry Rothwell conducting The phenomenal success of Ravel’s “greatest hits” (especially the almost notorious Bolero) may blind us to the subtleties of his most enchanting works. There are in fact several “versions” of his Mother Goose, and some clarification may be called for. The music began life in 1908 with the creation of a single movement for piano duet, Sleeping Beauty’s Pavane.

(Ravel’s famous Pavane for a Dead Princess had been written nine years earlier, in 1899.) Four more duets were composed in 1910, and the Suite (now named Mother Goose and given a fascinating subtitle which translates literally as “Five Infantile [or Childish] Pieces”) was premiered in Paris almost immediately thereafter. It was only after a request for a ballet score that the composer orchestrated the originals and expanded the work, adding a prelude, several connecting sections, and one entirely new episode, as well as revising the sequence of the five original scenes. These performances present the music in the composer’s original, pre-ballet sequence. As with most of Ravel’s orchestrations of his piano scores, there is no trace of the original sound world. The refinement of the textures Ravel utilizes to recreate this music in orchestral terms is an endless source of wonderment. After the moody opening Pavane, we are transported to the forest where Tom Thumb’s trail of crumbs is the victim of various songbirds.

A colorful and exotic depiction of things Chinese follows, as Laideronnette (“the little ugly one” – fairy tales are not always politically correct) bathes while being entertained with musical walnut-shells and almond-shells. Then comes what British writer Gerald Larner describes as “Ravel’s first-ever love scene.” This is no Disney-ized Beauty and the Beast, though, and the transformation of the Beast leads to a hymn-like but eventually ecstatic celebration of nature in “The Enchanted Garden.” The radiant orchestration is quintessential Ravel. — Dennis Bade is Associate Director of Publications for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association Mother Goose (Complete) | Hollywood Bowl Hollywood Bowl Composed: 1908; 1911 Length: c.

30 minutes Orchestration: 2 flutes (2nd = piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd = English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons (2nd = contrabassoon), 2 horns, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, tam-tam, triangle, xylophone), harp, celesta, and strings First Los Angeles Philharmonic performance: March 3, 1927, with Walter Henry Rothwell conducting The case of Ma mère l’oye is unique in the annals of 20th-century ballet, the music having come into being first as a five-piece suite for four hands at one piano, written by Ravel in 1908 for the young son and daughter of his good friends, the Godebskis. The affectionate musical gift was quite in character for Ravel, who was at once the most sophisticated and child-like of men. Like many another retiring bachelor, he loved children and found social communication with them easy and pleasurable; his musical communication he made in wondrously fresh and artless terms.

With the title Mother Goose (only two sections, however, derive from Charles Perrault’s writings), the piece was introduced in 1910. The following year, Ravel was induced to orchestrate the music for ballet purposes, which he did, adding to the original five pieces a Prelude, a Spinning Wheel Dance and Scene, and four Interludes. It is the original five pieces in the form of an orchestral suite which are best known to concert-hall audiences; the composer contrived a free-wheeling version of the Sleeping Beauty story to serve as a libretto for the ballet. The Prelude sets the stage for the action with languid winds and strings and little brass fanfares. Not surprisingly, the brief Interludes with which Ravel stitches together the main sections bear a family resemblance to Daphnis et Chloé since at Ma mère time, Daphnis was a work in progress. Spinning Wheel Dance and Scene. Princess Florine is dancing in her garden as her nurse sits at the spinning wheel. (Strings spin busily as the winds dance.) Falling against the spindle, the princess pricks herself and falls into a deep sleep.

She is surrounded by courtiers and ladies-in-waiting who dance the... Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty. A fairy appears to guard the bewitched princess whose dreams are enacted in the following scenes. This episode, just a little longer than a sigh, starts with a haunting, simple modal melody sung by a flute, and moves on gossamer feet to an intimacy whispered by high violins. Conversations Between Beauty and the Beast. Beauty is a beguiling waltz sung by clarinet, the beast a grunting contrabassoon. The magical transformation of the latter into his original princely state is heralded by a harp glissando and violin harmonics. The prince speaks then in noble cello tones. Tom Thumb. The violins, representing Tom Thumb wandering in the forest, move stealthily (in thirds, and in ever-changing meter), as a plaintive melody, first in oboe then in English horn, weaves its frightened way. Birds chirp happily as they eat the crumbs Tom has strewn to help him find his way out of the forest. The ending is not happy — Tom seems hopelessly lost. Little Ugly One (Laideronette), Empress of the Pagodas.

The beautiful princess, Laideronette, has been made ugly by the curse of a wicked witch. With a green serpent (a handsome fellow similarly bewitched into his present form), Little Ugly One sails to the land of the Pagodas — little figures made of porcelain, crystal, and precious stones. The scene shows Ugly at her bath. Ravel evokes the Chinoiserie with the brightest pentatonic jollity, interrupts it with pseudo-seriousness, and slyly returns to the initial busyness. The Fairy Garden. Finally, Prince Charming awakens the sleeping princess in the prescribed manner, and the Good Fairy blesses the couple in the Fairy Garden. Ravel’s leave-taking of the mystical lands is at first pensive, then glittering in a kind of orchestral effulgence in which the master orchestrator was inimitable. — Orrin Howard, who served the Philharmonic Association for many years as Director of Publications and Archives, continues to contribute to the program book.

Question: Which composer wrote the music for the ballet ‘Mother Goose’ in 1910?
Answer: Maurice Ravel