OF ORCHESTRATION THESI Presented to the Graduate Council
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-7 AN ANALYSIS OF MAURICE RAVEL' STECHNIQUE OF ORCHESTRATION THESI Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC By Murray Augustus Allman, B. M. E. Denton, Texas August, 195$ 4"Mm-mill pgpqmpm TABLE 0F CyONTNT Page LIST OF B ES . - - - - - - - - - . .IV I)A S ' 1-7LS1 2v P~ LIST oF ILLUST rTOQ * . * . * . * . , * . 4 . * V t BIOGRP t ICAL KE C F UrICE E .. II. OTO F PIANOcoMPOSTIO - , - , * * I fnaL sis of chestration 4 t enuet Antimaue , jalysis of Orchestrati- of Pavane our une Infante DbffuLte rAnlyis of Orchtttion M, it nere tL ye Analysis of Orchestration of pictures aan ELo iiLtionT -i II.LARGE ORCHTESTRA-,1LWRK.... *. Anlysi W 0rchkiestration of )pOdi OrchQtrti o Bolero A s of Orchestration of is at Chlo' ti I is - Ara-ysis of Orchestration of La se Anays0i1s of station of ILtroduction Analysis 'ouo of Orchestration ofL Slihehra'ncro .. zaid-r e Ana]lyvsis of Or chetain fOcerdD psano et Orchestre or AnaLysis of~Orchestr-tion of concertoo for the Left and for Piano ar:d Orci'estra Conclusion ~~ BIBLIOAPTYV . - - - - - - - - - - - - 132 iii LIST OF TABLES T oble Page I. Comparison of Rt vel0s Orchestra to that of Orchard Wagner . - . - . 13 II *Ratios of Real Parts to Doubled Parts in Ma a ue a . - - - - - I. >atios of Real Parts to Doubled Parts- . i. Or IV. 01rt s 1F RearilParts tCo Doubled .Pnarts . i.n " r.,".- - - - - - - . 65 V. Avcrage Rtioi of Real Parts to Doubled Pars of Each Sectio0 >?on of R ns-*dieE . 66 VI. ,The 12inctions of the Indivilual hoirs and the InstrucentaJ Color in DQJ.se hlo4, Suite No.I Sut-.. 1 .* . .* . Si II 1The1I nations of the Individual Choirs and the J.nst mental Color in Dai.s et Chloe Suite 2o oult It .2.. 86 VIII, The Devices of' Instrumental Techric Found in Dajhnir et Chlo, Suite No. 9 - - . .104 IX. Antipho &caLEnsemble i nSection 98 in L .i-Ise . .110 X. The In strumreta Color in 1S1 ra-de . .117 L. 0F ILLUSTRATIONS . Page 1. Measures 1 and 2 of Pavwne . * . 9 9 . 9 . 19 2z. Measures 8 and 9 of Pavane, S - 9 - 9 9 9 . 20 13 Measure 10 of. Pavan -. - - 9 9 9 9 - 9 9 - . 21 1. Measures 17 rnd 18 of Pavane 9 . 9 9 9 9 9 . 2 2 5. easures 28 and 29 of Pavane 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 . 25 0. mef sure 28 and 29 of Pavane 9 9 - 9 9 9 9 . 25 (7. Me asire 37 of Pavane - . .0 * . - 9 9 9 9 .~ . 27 8. evure 37 of Pavane . 9 - - 9 - 9 . 27 9., ias-Vures 41 ad 42 of Pavone * 9 9 9 9 9 9 . 28 1k. Measure 43 of Pavane . - - 9 - - 9 9 9 . 29 11. Measure 7-o Pvae . - -- 9 17 9 9 9 9 4 9 - - * . 32 12. Measure 6) of Pavane . 9 9 9 9 9 * 9 9 - 9 9 33 13. measures 104 mid 105 of M Me.- re iLOie...99 2 1'. Mea sure 495 of MAL ere 1'Oye Measure 15. 67 of Pictures atn EU'hibitiLon- - - - . 5,2 16. Measure 5 of Introduction and A2l2e ro. .1911. 17. measure 63 of Introduction an- .9 9 9.9113~ 18. Mea.. sures 174-177 of Introductior ad All ero . .114 V CHAPTER I A BIGRAP:Ilt SKETCHi OF MAU1ICEQ% A!VEL aur3-e ave4~as born thne seventh.-K of M h, 1875, t 12 Quai de la Nivelle(renamed Qui Maurice Ravel) in Ciboure Frac e, a Basiue seaport near the border between France and Spain.l Joseph Ravel, his father, was a French-Swiss engineer. It appears that Maurice also had a mechanical mind as shown by the vy he learned and interpreted the rules of harmony and composition at the Conservatoire National de Musique. Ravel often saidI,"I I had not been a musician , I should have turned to mechanicts.2 Marie Eluarte S-avel, his mother, Iose father was. a fisherman as his Fathers had been gen- era ions before, was o-f -asqu orig0. Since RAvel ws born close to Spain, he had a great fascination for Spanish usic and his c positions We remendously influenced by Spanish e It:. .hen vRavel was only a few months old, the family moved to Paris, where he spent most of his life. At the age of seven he began his first piano training under lenri Ghys, composer of Amaryllis(Air Louis XIIl), lVictor Seroff, taurice Rvel (New York, 1953), p. 11- 13. 2Madeleine Goss, Bolero (New York, 1940), p. 22. I 0W+'= 2 who entered on that day in his diary, "31 ray, 1882. 1 am today starting a little pupil, Maurice Ravel, iho seems to me in'tellig-ent. t3 Joseph Ravel, who had studied at the Conservatory of Geneva to become a concert pianist, did much to encourage Maurice and to keep his interest in music. After Maurice had learned to play well enough to play duets with his fa- ther, seldom did they miss a day without playing together. Joseph Ravel's favorite was the overture to Tannhauser, cd tlheyPlayed it so much that Maurice grew tired of it, a fact hich 'did not help his later feelings toward Wagnerian music. Ravel presently began to study harmony under Charles- Ien', who required extra work from his students such as variations on a certain thete or original corpositions. These eXtra assigrents intrigued Ravel, who astonished his te archers with his cork. When Ravel was fourteen, Ghys and Charles-Ren4 prepared him for the audition to enter the Conservatoire National de Musique in Paris.5 He passed the audition successfully, and for the next fifteen years, Stu- died at the &nsrrtoiro. Iore is no record or report cvaIlable concrnig a ny other education tha thataJn the Coserv toire de usiaue in Paris. 3Goss, cit.,3O. p. 22. '+Ibid., p 23. 5Ibid., pp. 24-25. 3 Soon after he entered the Conservatoire, he met his fast friend and constant companion throughout most of his life, Ricardo Vi~ec, Probably one reason for Thvels at- taclment wcs that Viesvas Spanish.6 Their mothers also became fast friends, chatting in Sparish while their boys explored, played and experimented together. At the Universal Exposition the boys heard a gamelang orchestra from Java, whose influence showed later in Ravel's music. 7 Spring, the tme for the compeitions at the Conserva- toire, was the only time that Ravel did not need extra, encouragement to got him to practice. After he had been at the Conservatoire for two years he won first place, an hon- or which elated his parents. This was a feat he never repeted. His piano teacher was Charles de Beriot, who gave him a stern lecture for being at the bottom of the class when he should have been at the top. 0 His harmony teacher was the liberal Emile Pessard, who always encouraged originality in his students within certain limits. 9 IL 1891, he discovered the music of Alexis Emmanuel Chabrier and become exuberantly enthusiatic; this was the music for rich he had been seeking! Chabrier was influ- enced by the impressionistic painters of his day--Renoir, Monet, Manet, and Verlaine. Ravel and Vines visited Chabrier 6j. B. Trend, "Vines," Grove's Dictionary of music and Musicians, Vol. VIII (London, 719 . 7Goss, p0. Ci ., pp. 541-55. 8Ibid ., P. 34. 9Ibid.,P.- 3+. one day and played his Trois Valses for hir, out were bewil- dered by his contradictory raises and criticisms.10 Once whien Ravel returned home from the Conservatoire, his father introduced iim to Erik Satle as being interested in modern music. Satie laughed and remarked, "They call me modern, but not in a complimentary ;ay."tll Satie composed in free, humorous style, using dissonant harmonies, but he was always a failure as far as being accepted by the major- ity. This he attributed to his indolence in the Conservatoire, wh ere he did not actually learn the rules of good composition, which he needed to give him a good background. Ravel was attracted by such composers, %nd Satie probably exerted the most influence upon the music of Ravel. Although Ravel seemed to be rebellious against the strict rules taught at the Conservatoire, he only wanted to expand the possibilities of corposition further than that of the classical period. Before Ravel studied under Gabriel Faur4, he was in the counterpoint class of Jenri-Gldalge, who rearked that Ravel was the most remarkable couterpoint student he ever had. Although the music of Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, Weber, and the "Russian Five" influenced >avelts music greatly, Gabriel Faure made the most lasting impression upon Ravel. Faure was as superb a teacher as the French felt him to be a composer. 10Seroff, a. it., p. 31. lGoss, 2E. cLit., p. 39. Belng in his class was like being a guest in his home. He never criticized or reprimanded, only suggested. In his later 1ife Faure suffered from loss of hearing, even so, his composing did not diminish.12 The Societe Natioal de Musique was founded to help young French performers and composers to gcain recognition by having them perform and by having their music performed in the concerts that were held every Saturday night. It was for one of these concerts that Ricardo Vies was asked to peorm with Marthe Dron. This poor performance of Ravel's Sites Auriculaires resulted because the pianists were performing on a new type of pianos, facing each other, and they were unable to give each other the proper signals; so the audience did not accept the composition at all.