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Ravel ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ravel: the geometer of the mystery!
This biography is a well detailed and zealously analysis of the entire work of this gentleman of the sonorous expression, the incorporeal romanticism and its aristocratic refinement.

The true spirit of this sublime composer is marvellously depicted along the history of his life, where nothing is more than enough. The historical references and the erudite but easy to understand comments about every one of his compositions offers the reader a complete canvas and absolute knowledge about one of the most relevant musical personalities of the last century.

I may say proudly, that I acquired the first edition for Spanish (an Argentine edition that dates from 1952) on which I made a rereading this last weekend, listening Ravel' s piano works performed by Samson Francois.

A true treasure in your personal library, whose acquisition is absolutely indispensable for all of those who are really interested to learn and notice about the life and circumstances of Maurice Ravel.
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An evaluative biography by an authority on French music. ... Read more

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Maurice Ravel’s Miroirs is perfect for the aspiring piano player who desires more challenging material. Written in 1905, this collection of five piano solos clearly represents Ravel’s compositional style during the Impressionistic period. Each work contained sharply defined ideas and modal/tonal concepts unrivaled by any of his contemporaries. This cycle is presented in its entirety with French editorial markings throughout. Just in time for the advanced piano student!! Titles are: Noctuelles * Oiseau Tristes * Une Barque Sur L’ocèan * Alborada del Gracioso * La Vallée des Cloches. ... Read more

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This sheet music was newly engraved from early and authoritative editions. ... Read more

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Full, authoritative scores of 3 enormously popular works by the great French composer: Rapsodie Espagnole (1908), Ravel's first entirely orchestral composition; The Mother Goose Suite, a collection of children's pieces based on 5 fairy tales; and Pavane for a Dead Princess, rearranged in 1910 from an 1899 piano work.
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Customer Reviews (1)

This score is a must
These works show why Ravel is the Master of orchestration. This is a must for every conductor or composer. ... Read more

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Pavane pour une infante dfunte ... Read more

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Superb one-volume edition of two influential compositions noted for individuality, unique interpretations of the medium, delicate and subtle beauties. Based on authoritative French editions, this clearly printed volume is sturdily bound for long life on the music stand.
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Customer Reviews (3)

The only one to buy...
If you are considering playing either of these difficult quartets, you need this score.The spacing of notes is excellent and helpful as the rhythms are often complex.The score is large enough to play from at the piano. A Glossary of French Terms is included which is helpful as not all the musical instructions are found in standard music dictionaries.

Excellent reference
This is the definitely the edition to buy if you're studying/playing either of these two quartets.It's a reprint of the Durand edition, so it's about as official as you can get.and CHEAP, too!It's a nice small size- sort of halfway between a normal paperback book and a standard big Dover score.

Good Source!
Good to get the Debussy/Ravel String Quartet Cd, Emerson of course, and this handy book.
Good for composition to study and easy to open.
Go for it~! ... Read more

Product Description
The last years of the great French composer's life as envisioned by "the master magician of the contemporary French novel" (The Washington Post)

A bestseller in France, Ravel is a beguiling and original evocation of the last ten years in the life of a musical genius, written by the acclaimed novelist Jean Echenoz, winner of the Prix Goncourt. The book opens in 1927 as Maurice Ravel—dandy, eccentric, and curmudgeon—voyages across the Atlantic aboard the luxurious ocean liner the France to begin his triumphant grand tour across the United States, where he will travel aboard such fabled trains as the Zephyr, the Hiawatha, and the Sunset Limited, smoking his precious stash of Gauloises along the way.
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Customer Reviews (3)

A small gem
This novel by the award winning French author was shortlisted for this year's IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It consists of nine snapshots of the composer Maurice Ravel during the last 10 years of his life. In the first chapter we find Ravel reclining in his bathtub on the day he is set to embark on a four month tour of the United States, in 1927. He is contemplative and quite reluctant to leave his aqueous cocoon:

'Leaving the bathtub is sometimes quite annoying. First of all, it's a shame to abandon the soapy lukewarm water, where stray hairs wind around bubbles among the scrubbed-off skin cells, for the chill atmosphere of a poorly heated house. Then, if one is the least bit short, and the side of that claw-footed tub the least bit high, it's always a challenge to swing a leg over the edge to feel around, with a hesitant toe, for the slippery tile floor. Caution is advised, to avoid bumping one's crotch or risking a nasty fall. The solution to this predicament would be of course to order a custom-made bathtub, but that entails expenses, perhaps even exceeding the cost of the recently installed but still inadequate cnetral heating. Better to remain submerged up to the neck for hours, if not forever, using one's right foot to periodically manipulate the hot-water faucet, thus adjusting the thermostat to maintain a comfortable amniotic ambience.'

Subsequent chapters describe the creation of Boléro and Piano Concerto for the Left Hand for Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during World War I and earned the wrath of Ravel by embellishing the concerto, and Ravel's rapid decline before his premature death.

Despite the book's small size, Echenoz provides fascinating and exquisite detail into the life and mind of Ravel, with rich descriptions of the luxury liner that carries him to America and the cross-country trains that take him from one city to the next on his tour, and the despair he experiences toward the end of his life.

This is a book that begs to be reread, and I would imagine that the reader would glean greater insight and enjoyment on repeated readings, similar to repeated listening to a fine piece of music.

Exact, elegant and descriptive writing
Jean Echenoz exhibits a great mastery of descriptive detail in this intelligent and entertaining novella.However, a great deal of credit belongs to Linda Coverdale for her excellent work in translating this work from the French language.The descriptive talents of the author allow the reader to feel as though he has an actual glimpse of the world through Ravel's own exacting perception.Whereas some authors might use detailed description in this way as a gimmick, M. Echenoz is indeed a master that never seems to go too far in his use of the technique.There is always a bit of analytical distance that comes about the detailed focus of the person of Ravel, but the author also presents the musical man as a unique and fastidious individual who requires order, convention, and respect of the world around him.Ultimately, while the tale ends somewhat somberly with the intellectual and mental struggles of the composer, the brief and intimate walk with Maurice Ravel as a visionary man of his times makes this novella a small masterpiece.

Minimalist fiction?
Jean Echenoz's Ravel is simple, precisely pruned for minimum gestures that achieve maximum effects, and unfailingly elegant.The narrative traverses Maurice Ravel's tour of the United States in 1927 and his continuing decline (signs of which appear before he embarks and occur now and then during the trip)toward his untimely death.The author makes no attempt to explore or explain the "mysteries" of musical creation or the nature of "genius."This is not a large novel about the psychology of the artist, nor is it really a small novel about the same.It delicately constructs a portrait of a man who has lived very nearly with no human relationships of any depth, who has depended upon the generosity and patience of friends and admirers, almost parasitically, and yet who somehow manages to remain sympathetic or at least interesting enough to be worth reading about.

What is most impressive about this novella (it is called a "novel" on the cover, but the text of the narrative fills fewer than 100 pages of generously spaced large type, so I think of it as a novella) is the control exercised by the author--every detail feels properly placed after careful weighing to assure its appropriateness; nothing is excessive, nothing is out of place.The literary mastery is undeniable. Even more--the success is that though the work is so carefully and artfully composed, it never feels precious or excessively studied.And finally, it has sent me back to Ravel's music, especially the lovely chamber works.And I know that I will read the novella again (one of the virtues of a short narrative--it is easier to contemplate re-reading it than is possible with some of the great loose and baggy monsters one also loves.
So why 4 stars?It is lovely--an elegantly carved cameo--but minor. ... Read more

Product Description
Ma mère l'oye (Mother Goose Suite) is typical of Ravel's style with its modal melodies, use of dance forms and rhythmic precision. For this suite, Ravel selected favorite French fairy tales with references to fantasy, dreams and legends of childhood, and provided simple and delicate settings for piano duet (one piano, four hands). Although featuring childhood themes, Ma mère l'oye is at the late intermediate to early advanced level. This teaching/performance edition contains the suite in its entirety and is based on the first edition published by Durand in 1910. Editors Gayle Kowalchyk and E. L. Lancaster have included expert fingering suggestions and hand redistributions for technical ease, and have suggested ways to perform grace notes and glissandi in footnotes. The primo and secondo parts are on separate pages with measure numbers in both parts for easy reference. Late intermediate to early advanced. ... Read more

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Miroirs, composed in 1904 and 1905, is one of Ravel's most beautiful sets of piano pieces. It reveals some of his rich, exotic and distinctive musical styles that came to influence composers of the later 20th century.Individual pieces in this set include: Noctuelles (Night Moths) Oiseaux tristes (Sad Birds) Une barque sur l'ocean (A Boat on the Ocean) Alborada del gracioso (Aubade of the Jester) La vallee des cloches (The Valley of the Bells) ... Read more

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These later piano pieces of Ravel's are notable for their abandonment of an impressionistic approach to writing. Many pay homage to composers Ravel admired: Borodin, Chabrier and Couperin.A LA MANIERE DE...BORODINEA LA MANIERE DE...EMMANUEL CHABRIERLA VALSELE TOMBEAU DE COUPERIN: 1. PRELUDELE TOMBEAU DE COUPERIN: 2. FUGUELE TOMBEAU DE COUPERIN: 3. FORLANELE TOMBEAU DE COUPERIN: 4. RIGAUDONLE TOMBEAU DE COUPERIN: 5. MENUETLE TOMBEAU DE COUPERIN: 6. TOCCATAPRELUDEVALSES NOBLES ET SENTIMENTALES ... Read more

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Essential pieces for intermediate and advanced pianists, reproduced from authoritative French scores. This superb compilation contains Ma mère l’oye [Mother Goose], Valse nobles et sentimentales, Le tombeau de Couperin: Suite pour piano, and La Valse as well as three shorter pieces: Prèlude, A la manière de Borodin (Valse) and A la manière de Emmanuel Chabrier.
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Customer Reviews (4)

f u n
f u n.....b e a u t i f u l m u s i c =)

Nearly perfect
This is really an amazing buy if you are a serious pianist.Each piece is given an introduction, and all of the French terms are translated in a glossary near the front.This is especially helpful for those of us who aren't great with French.The music is clean and neatly spaced, and it looks vibrant and new.Like a previous reviewer said, the only minor flaw is that no fingerings are included, and of course using the right fingerings and hand positions is crucial in Ravel.There are also few typographical errors in the music, probably because these are later works by Ravel.

If you want fingerings and performance suggestions for Le Tombeau de Couperin, I would suggest Nancy Bricard's edition from Alfred.In particular, the Toccata and the Prelude are good pieces to have suggested fingerings for.

An Impressive Set of Works and More
This book contains a great selection of pieces at a more than resonable price. I bought it as a set with Piano Masterpieces of Maurice Ravel also by Dover. (I saw another edition of Ma Mere l'Oye *on it's own* was more than what I paid for this whole book!)Dover editions I have found in the past have great quality.The pages are sewn in so the book will last a lifetime without pages falling or ripping out.

If you're not already impressed by the selection of pieces (I love the 1913 Prelude which I already had a copy of and memorized a while ago), Dover goes even further with this set.It opens with the table of contents and after that it has a complete glossyry of french terms and text used in the music!This I found was quite impressive. Even Dover's other Ravel book doesn't do this.Some of the terms sound enough like English words or Italian musical terms for you to figure it out but it's really great that they gave you it there for you to know for certain.Following that are translations of the wonderful quotes of fairy tales from La Mere and other text that appears in the book.

Before each multi-movement piece it receives it's own cover page followed by an introduction to the piece written by Ronald Herder citing Orenstein's book Ravel: Man and Musician as a primary source.It is really nice to learn a little about the piece before playing it and it's a wonderful inclusion.The music appears to be in chronological order with the three 1913 pieces grouped together under a single cover sheet (sans any introduction).The title piece is well deserving of it as it is a large section of the book with it's 7 movements.The book concludes with Ravel's transcription of La Valse.It is annotated with Ravel's own notes on the orchestra version sometimes including a third ossia staff showing parts of the orchestration unincluded in the transcription.Instruments are named in french and can be translated via the glossary at the front of the book.

The only problem anyone might have with this book is that there are no noted fingerings as far as I've seen.I don't rely on them much myself but I know other people prefer them.If that is an issue, consider still getting this book and consulting someone on parts where you are unsure of the best fingering.Otherwise this is the perfect set!

Dover gives us the rest of Ravel
Together with Le tombeau as promised by the title, this volume includes the original piano versions of Ma Mère l'Oye, all eight Valses nobles et sentimentales, the 1913 Prélude, the two pieces À la manière de (Chabrierand Borodin), and the composer's own piano transcription of La Valse. Thisfine, durable Dover edition nicely complements Dover's "PianoMasterpieces of Maurice Ravel" with no overlap to give a nearlycomplete collection of all of Ravel's compositions for the piano. The onlypiano work absent from both volumes is the Habanera, probably because thatwork is almost invariably performed by two pianists, although I own atranscription for a single player. Many of the works in this volume arequite accessible to pianists of intermediate skill, if they aresufficiently motivated by a love of the music of Ravel, and even in Letombeau, a work of legendary difficulty, the exquisite Menuet, should proveplayable by all but beginners.Highly recommended. ... Read more