UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
Date: 1-Sep-2009
I, James Alexander Hurd , hereby submit this original work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice It is entitled: From a Peacock to Apocope: An Examination of Maurice Ravel’s Text Setting
in the Histoires naturelles, L’Heure espagnole and Other Pre-WWI Vocal
Works. Student Signature: James Alexander Hurd
This work and its defense approved by: Committee Chair: Kenneth Griffiths, MM Kenneth Griffiths, MM
David Adams, MM David Adams, MM
Barbara Honn, MM Barbara Honn, MM
10/30/2009 191 From a Peacock to Apocope: An Examination of Maurice Ravel’s Text Setting in the Histoires naturelles, L’Heure espagnole and Other Pre-WWI Vocal Works
A document submitted to the
Graduate School
of the University of Cincinnati
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
in the Performance Studies Division
of the College-Conservatory of Music
2009
by
James Alexander Hurd
B.A., Oberlin College, 1998
B.M., Oberlin College, 1998
M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2001
Committee Chair: Kenneth Griffiths
ABSTRACT
The groundbreaking Histoires naturelles (1906) were one of Maurice Ravel’s most important early works. Employing prose and a conversational vocal style, they redefined the mélodie—a genre that had been characterized by its use of poetry and aristocratic French diction. Performance of these five songs presents singers with formidable challenges. The vocal line, imitating speech, is notable for its rhythmic complexity. In some cases, it eschews a legato line entirely. Often, it favors a dry, even ironic delivery. Successful performance of these songs is greatly aided by a thorough understanding of context, style, and notation.
This guide to Ravel’s Histoires naturelles is separated into two parts. The first provides a context for these groundbreaking and controversial songs by exploring Ravel’s early career; the scandal that erupted following the work's premiere was in fact the second of two majors scandals of Ravel's youth. Both kept the young composer's name in the news. The first part also considers Ravel’s life-long passion for poetry and literature—an aspect so vital that he referred to Edgar Allan Poe as one of his most important teachers. In addition, it parses his musical influences, which run the gamut from his teachers at the Conservatoire to Debussy, Chabrier, Satie, and Mussorgsky.
The most progressive aspect of the score is its approach to mute e syllables. Ravel deals with these syllables in a variety of ways: at times he dispenses with them entirely, while elsewhere he either minimizes them or instructs that they be fully sounded. The second part of the guide is devoted to this rich topic.
It begins with an examination of approaches to the mute e before Ravel, then examines Ravel's own approach. The notation used by Ravel in these songs and in their
ii companion piece, the opera L'Heure espagnole, is not as clear as one might expect. This confusing notation is examined, and the advice of noted performers and authors is discussed.
The composer's original conception of the Histories naturelles was not nearly as provocative; this earlier version of the songs—detailed in a doctoral treatise from The
University of Texas at Austin—is considered. In the final chapter, Ravel's approach to text setting in other songs written before World War I is discussed.
iii
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT...... ii
LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ...... vii
PART 1
1. RAVEL’S EARLY REPUTATION AND SCANDALS Société Nationale de Musique Performances ...... 1 Prix de Rome ...... 2 Histoires naturelles Scandal ...... 5
2. MUSICAL TRAINING AND INFLUENCES Gabriel Fauré and André Gédalge ...... 8 Claude Debussy ...... 9 Pelléas et Mélisande ...... 9 Conflict and Criticism...... 10 Emmanuel Chabrier and Popular Music...... 11 Erik Satie...... 12 Satie's Influence ...... 13 Modest Mussorgsky...... 14 Café-Concert...... 16 Comparing the Café-Concert to the Histoires naturelles ...... 17
3. LITERARY INFLUENCES Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe...... 19 Les Apaches...... 20 Michel Calvocoressi ...... 21 Tristan Klingsor ...... 22
PART 2
4. FRENCH POETRY AND THE MUTE E: APPROACHES BEFORE RAVEL Conversation vs. Recitation ...... 24 Counting Syllables and the Mute e ...... 24 Musical Treatment of the Mute e before Debussy...... 26 Contrary Opinion ...... 26 Late Nineteenth-Century Notational Developments...... 27 Apocopation...... 28 Debussy and Language: Pelléas et Mélisande...... 29 Text Setting in Debussy's Mélodies, 1880-1904...... 30 Debussy's Mélodies: Editions ...... 34 Debussy's Influence on Ravel...... 36 Ravel's Views on Appropriate Texts ...... 36
iv
5. RAVEL'S NOTATION...... 38 Clarity ...... 38 Deciphering Ravel's Mute e Notation...... 39 Portamento Notation...... 41 The Slur and Portamento in L'Heure espagnole...... 42 Grace Notes and Parentheses...... 44 Apocopation ...... 45 Text Underlay ...... 47 Answers ...... 48 Jane Bathori ...... 49 Pierre Bernac...... 51 Robert Gartside...... 51 Pierre de Bréville's Foreword: Note sur l’e muet...... 52 Approaches to Apocopation Notation...... 54 Premiere Recording of L’Heure espagnole ...... 56
6. REVISIONS TO THE HISTOIRES NATURELLES Elden Stuart Little: Consistencies and Discrepancies...... 57 Changes to the Syllabification of the Vocal Line ...... 58 Other Observations from Ravel's Revisions ...... 60 Apocope Prior to the Revisions ...... 61 Ravel's Motivation for the Revisions...... 62 A Flexible Approach to Diction...... 63 From the Histoires naturelles to L’Heure espagnole ...... 64 Comparing the Vocal and Orchestral Scores to L’Heure espagnole .66
7. TIE AND APOCOPE IN OTHER PRE-WWI SONGS Introduction: Use of Ties and Apocope in Early Songs ...... 70 “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” (ca. 1893) ...... 70 “Un grand sommeil noir” (1895) ...... 72 “Sainte” (1896) ...... 73 “Chanson du rouet” (1898) ...... 75 “Si morne!” (1898) ...... 75 Épigrammes de Clément Marot (1895-9): ...... 76 “D’Anne qui me jecta de la neige.” ...... 76 “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.”...... 77 “Manteau des fleurs” (1903)...... 79 Shéhérazade (1903) ...... 80 “Asie”...... 81 “La flûte enchantée” ...... 84 “L’Indifférent” ...... 85 “Les grands vents d’outremer” (1907)...... 86 “Noël des jouets” (1905)...... 87 “Sur l’herbe” (1907) ...... 87 Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913)...... 88
v
APPENDIX A: NOTATION OF MUTE ES IN THE HISTOIRES NATURELLES...... 91
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 108
vi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES
Example Page
1. Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at and Exhibition, “Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells” mm. 1-8 15 2. Maurice Ravel, Histoires naturelles, “La pintade” mm. 7-10 ...... 16 3. Gabriel Fauré, “Chanson du Pêcheur” (Lamento) mm. 2-3 ...... 26 4. Claude Debussy, “Mandoline” mm. 10-14 ...... 27 5. Gabriel Fauré, “Mandoline” mm. 8-10 ...... 28 6. Claude Debussy, Trois chansons de France, “La grotte” mm. 3-4 ...... 28 7. Reynaldo Hahn, Etudes latines, “Lydie" mm. 33-34 ...... 28 8. Claude Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande, Act I, scene I mm. 59-60 ...... 30 9. Claude Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande, Act I, scene I mm. 32-33 ...... 30 10. Claude Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande, Act I, scene I mm. 53-54 ...... 30 11. Claude Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande, Act I, scene I m. 80 ...... 30 12. Claude Debussy, “Clair de lune” m. 19 ...... 31 13. Claude Debussy, “Mandoline” mm. 28-30...... 31 14. Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De rêve …” mm. 19-23 ...... 32 15. Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De rêve …” mm. 10-13 ...... 32 16. Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De grêve …” mm. 8-9 ...... 32 17. Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De fleurs ...” mm. 54-56 ...... 32 18. Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De soir …” mm. 10-11 ...... 32 19. Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De soir …” mm. 75-76 ...... 33 20. Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De soir …” mm. 96-97 ...... 33 21. Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De rêve …” m. 32 ...... 33 22. Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De rêve …” mm. 54-56 ...... 33 23. Claude Debussy, Trois chansons de Bilitis, “La flûte de Pan” mm. 26-27 ...... 34 24. Claude Debussy, Trois chansons de Bilitis, “Le tombeau des Naïades” mm. 7-8 ...... 34 25. Claude Debussy, Trois chansons de Bilitis, “Le tombeau des Naïades” mm. 27-28 ...... 34 26. Claude Debussy, “Les cloches” mm. 3-10 ...... 35 27. Gabriel Fauré, “Dans les ruines d’une abbaye” mm. 5-6 ...... 40 28. Maurice Ravel, Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” mm. 36-37 ...... 40 29. Gabriel Fauré, “Dans les ruines d’une abbaye” mm. 11-12 ...... 40 30. Claude Debussy, “Mandoline” mm. 43-44 ...... 40 31. Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” mm. 23-24 ...... 41 32. Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” m. 37 ...... 41 33. Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” mm. 21-22 ...... 41 34. Histoires naturelles, “Le cygne” m. 11 ...... 42 vii 35. Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” m. 32 ...... 42 36. L’Heure espagnole, Scene XVI mm. 4-5 ...... 42 37. L’Heure espagnole, Scene XVI mm. 11-13 ...... 43 38. L’Heure espagnole, Scene XIX m. 27 ...... 43 39. L’Heure espagnole, Scene XVII mm. 17-18 ...... 43 40. L’Heure espagnole, Scene XVII mm. 34-35 ...... 43 41. L’Heure espagnole, Scene XXI m. 95 ...... 44 42. L’Heure espagnole, Scene XVI mm. 17-18 ...... 45 43. L’Heure espagnole, Scene XIII mm. 4-5 ...... 45 44. L’Heure espagnole, Scene XII mm. 29-30 ...... 45 45. “Le martin-pêcheur” mm. 6-7 ...... 46 46. “Le martin-pecheur” mm. 12-13 ...... 46 47. “Le martin-pecheur” mm. 12-13 ...... 46 48. “Le grillon” m. 36 ...... 47 49. “Le grillon” m. 36 ...... 47 50. “La pintade” m. 14 ...... 48 51. “Le martin-pêcheur” mm. 21-22 ...... 48 52. Histoires naturelles. “Le paon” mm. 8-9 ...... 50 53. Histoires naturelles. “Le paon” mm. 8-9, Jane Bathori’s recording ...... 50 54. Pierre de Bréville, Oeuvres vocales ...... 53 55. Pierre de Bréville, Oeuvres vocales ...... 54 56. Pierre de Bréville, Oeuvres vocales ...... 54 57. Pierre de Bréville, Oeuvres vocales ...... 54 58. Histoires naturelles. “La pintade” mm. 44-45 ...... 54 59. Pierre de Bréville, Oeuvres vocales ...... 55 60. L’Heure espagnole. Scene I mm. 11-13 ...... 56 61. L’Heure espagnole. Scene I mm. 11-13, 1929 Recording ...... 56 62. Histoires naturelles. Autograph Manuscript, “Le paon” m. 19 ...... 59 63. Histoires naturelles. Published Score, “Le paon” m. 19 ...... 59 64. Histoires naturelles. Autograph Manuscript, “Le paon” mm. 45-46 ...... 59 65. Histoires naturelles. Published Score, “Le paon” m. 45-46 ...... 59 66. Histoires naturelles Autograph Manuscript. “Le grillon” mm. 24-25 ...... 61 67. Histoires naturelles Published Version. “Le grillon” mm. 24-25 ...... 61 68. Histoires naturelles. “Le paon” mm. 11-12 ...... 61 69. Histoires naturelles. “Le paon” mm. 23-24 ...... 61 70. Histoires naturelles. “Le paon” m. 33 ...... 62 71. L’Heure espagnole, Scene XX mm. 24-25 ...... 63
viii 72. Histoires naturelles. “Le paon” mm. 21-25 ...... 64 73. Histoires naturelles. “Le paon” mm. 51-52 ...... 64 74. L’Heure espagnole, Scene III m. 17 ...... 65 75. Histoires naturelles, “Le grillon” Jankélévitch's reduction of mm. 45-51 ...... 65 76. L’Heure espagnole, Scene II Jankélévitch's reduction of mm. 17-19 ...... 65 77. Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” mm. 1-2 ...... 65 78. L’Heure espagnole, Scene VII mm. 1-2 ...... 66 79. Histoires naturelles, “Le martin-pêcheur” mm. 12-13 ...... 66 80. L’Heure espagnole, Scene V m. 1 ...... 66 81. L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 8-9, Vocal Score ...... 67 82. L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 8-9, Orchestral Score ...... 67 83. L’Heure espagnole, Scene I m. 16, Vocal Score ...... 67 84. L’Heure espagnole, Scene I m. 16, Orchestral Score ...... 67 85. L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 24-25, Vocal Score ...... 68 86. L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 24-25, Orchestral Score ...... 68 87. L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 32-33, Vocal Score ...... 68 88. L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 32-33, Orchestral Score ...... 68 89. L’Heure espagnole, Scene I m. 11, Vocal Score ...... 68 90. L’Heure espagnole, Scene I m. 11, Orchestral Score ...... 68 91. “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” mm. 4-5 ...... 70 92. “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” mm. 13-14 ...... 71 93. “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” mm. 29—34 ...... 71 94. “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” mm. 17-18 ...... 71 95. “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” mm. 38-39 ...... 71 96. “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” m. 26 ...... 72 97. “Un grand sommeil noir” mm. 4-15 ...... 72 98. “Un grand sommeil noir” m. 20 ...... 73 99. “Un grand sommeil noir” m. 24 ...... 73 100. “Un grand sommeil noir” mm. 1-2 ...... 74 101. “Sainte” mm. 1-2 ...... 74 102. Erik Satie, Sonneries de la rose + croix, “Air du grand prieur” First system ...... 74 103. “Sainte” mm. 2-4 ...... 74 104. “Sainte” mm. 13-14 ...... 74 105. “Chanson du rouet” mm. 14-16 ...... 75 106. “Si morne!” mm. 14-16 ...... 75 107. “Si morne!” m. 23 ...... 76 108. “D’Anne que me jecta de la neige.” mm. 8-9 ...... 76
ix 109. “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” m. 8 ...... 77 110. “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” m. 10 ...... 77 111. “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” m. 9 ...... 78 112. “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” m. 9 ...... 78 113. “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” m. 13 ...... 79 114. “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” mm. 15-16 ...... 79 115. “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” mm. 15-17 ...... 79 116. “Manteau de fleurs” mm. 30-31 ...... 80 117. “Manteau de fleurs” mm. 37-38 ...... 80 118. Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 3-4 ...... 81 119. Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 83-86 ...... 81 120. Shéhérazade, “Asie” m. 79 ...... 82 121. Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 88-89 ...... 82 122. Shéhérazade, “Asie” m. 112 ...... 82 123. Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 20-23 ...... 83 124. Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 138-39 ...... 83 125. Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 97-98 ...... 83 126. Shéhérazade, “La flûte enchantée” mm. 24-25 ...... 84 127. Shéhérazade, “La flûte enchantée” mm. 15-16 ...... 84 128. Shéhérazade, “La flûte enchantée” mm. 20-21 ...... 84 129. Shéhérazade, “La flûte enchantée” mm. 23-24 ...... 85 130. Shéhérazade, “La flûte enchantée” mm. 24-25 ...... 85 131. Shéhérazade, “L’Indifférent” mm. 20-21 ...... 85 132. Shéhérazade, “L’Indifférent” m. 29 ...... 86 133. “Les grands vents d’outremer” mm. 16-17 ...... 86 134. “Les grands vents d’outremer” mm. 14-15 ...... 87 135. “Sur l’herbe” m. 4 ...... 87 136. “Sur l’herbe” m. 5 ...... 88 137. “Sur l’herbe” m. 21 ...... 88 138. Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Soupir” mm. 12-13 ...... 88 139. Foreword to Oeuvres Vocales ...... 89 140. Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Soupir” mm. 1-2 ...... 89 141. Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Soupir” following Bréville’s advice ...... 89 142. Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Placet futile” mm. 7-8 ...... 90 143. Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Placet futile” mm. 7-8 following Bréville’s advice ..... 90 144. Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Surgi de la croupe et du bond” mm. 23-24 ...... 90 145. Histoires naturelles, “Le grillon” mm. 65-68 ...... 90
x
CHAPTER 1
RAVEL’S EARLY REPUTATION AND SCANDALS
Société Nationale de Musique Performances
At the turn of the twentieth century, and while still a composition student of
Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel was establishing a reputation as one of France’s most promising young composers. His compositions received performances on programs presented by the venerable Société Nationale de Musique.
In 1898, his work for piano four-hands, Sites auriculaires, was premiered.
Though Marthe Dron and Ricardo Viñes adequately dispatched portions of this work, the execution of “Entre cloches” did not do justice to the score: certain passages meant to be played in alternation between the two pianists were performed simultaneously.1 Though the critic Pierre de Bréville enjoyed one movement, “Habanera,” he was not pleased with the work’s curious title. Arbie Orenstein suggests that it refers to the idea of visiting different places by means of aural cues. It betrays Ravel’s enthusiasm for Satie, who was famous for attaching bizarre titles to his works.2 The orchestral overture Shéhérazade followed in 1899, while the Epigrammes de Clément Marot were heard in 1900.
Viñes premiered Ravel’s important work for solo piano, Jeux d’eau, in 1902.
None other than Camille Saint-Saëns called this piece, which features writing evocative of cascading fountains, “Cacophonous.”3 Ravel’s String Quartet was premiered in 1904.
1 Arbie Orenstein, Ravel: Man and Musician (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975), 20. 2 Ibid., 21. 3 Ibid., 36. This translation, and all others that appear in his books, are Orenstein’s. 1 Prior to the premiere, Ravel submitted its first movement to the annual student competition at the Conservatoire. It did not win a prize; as a consequence, Ravel was forced to leave the school. The premiere of the complete work led to the accusation from
Pierre Lalo that Ravel was nothing more than an imitator of Debussy.4
Ravel’s set of three songs, Shéhérazade, was also unveiled in 1904. Though Ravel himself later said that it betrayed the strong influence of Debussy, a contemporary critic,
Louis Laloy, praised Ravel’s distance from Debussy in a review of the premiere.5
Though these notable works from Ravel’s early career were, as we have seen, often harshly criticized, there is little doubt that Ravel was making a name for himself through performances of his works at the turn of the twentieth century.
Prix de Rome
Ravel competed for the Prix de Rome five times between 1900 and 1905, sitting out the competition only in 1904. The first round of this annual competition was designed to weed out weak applicants by requiring them to compose fugues and choral settings of pre-selected texts.6 In 1900, Ravel failed to advance past the first round, due to a poorly- written fugue, replete with careless notation of accidentals. In 1901 his fugue was much better, and his capable, if conservative choral composition ensured his entry into the second round. His task for the second round, a cantata, Myrrha, was strong enough to garner him 3rd prize behind André Caplet and Gabriel Dupont. In a letter to his friend
Lucien Garban, Ravel revealed a deep dissatisfaction with the results of the 1901
4 Ibid., 39-40. 5 Arbie Orenstein, A Ravel Reader, 30; Orenstein, Ravel: Man and Musician, 40, n. 47. 6 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 34. 2 competition and with himself for being capable of writing music conservative enough to come close to winning 1st prize.7
In 1902 the competition happened to fall shortly after the premiere of his most important work to date, Jeux d’eau. Both his fugue and choral setting represented lesser efforts than the previous year; however, he was still allowed to advance to the second round, where he failed to win a prize. In 1903, he again advanced to the second round but failed to receive a prize for his cantata, Alyssa.8
The Prix de Rome’s rules stipulated that no applicant be older than thirty. Thus, in
1905, Ravel reached his last year of eligibility. There is speculation as to why he bothered to compete, as he was already quite well known as a composer. Roger Nichols believes that it was a combination of pride, financial need, and a desire to help further the reputation of his teacher, Fauré, which led him to enter one last time.9 As in 1900, he failed to advance past the first round. Arbie Orenstein writes:
The fifth and final episode in Ravel’s fruitless attempts to win the Prix de Rome produced one of the most spectacular scandals in the annals of the Conservatoire…the jury solemnly declaring the composer of Jeux d’eau, the String Quartet, and Shéhérazade lacked the technical proficiency to be a finalist in the competition.10 A considerable outcry ensued in the press. The eminent musicologist Romain
Rolland, though himself not a fervent admirer of Ravel’s, felt it necessary to write to Paul
Léon, director of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In his letter he lamented the situation in which a composer who “has established himself at the concerts of the Société Nationale through works far more important than those required for an examination,” was not advanced to the second round of the competition. He went on to compare Ravel to
7 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 36. 8 Roger Nichols, Ravel (London: J. M. Dent, 1977), 28-30. 9 Ibid., 30-32. 10 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 42. 3 another composer who failed to receive the Prix, Berlioz, and wondered whether there might be another way for the government to support Ravel.11 Even the critic who regularly delighted in attacking him, Pierre Lalo, defended him, writing, “Were he to correct nothing at all, he would be a musician, a genuine musician, and one of the leaders of his generation.”12
The scandal was due not only to Ravel’s failure to advance: all of the prizewinners were pupils of Charles Lenepveu. Once this information became known, the director of the Conservatoire, Théodore Dubois, resigned his post. Ravel’s teacher, Fauré, succeeded him. What was not known at the time was that Ravel’s first-round submissions were perfectly obnoxious; his fugue contained a number of mistakes, concluding with a major seventh chord, while his choral setting was amateurish in its voice leading.13
There has been speculation about Ravel’s motives in submitting such patently unacceptable work. Stephen Zank suggests that Ravel was goading the jury into dismissing him from the competition.14 Orenstein is less eager to draw conclusions, noting only that “the long, simmering feud between the headstrong revolutionary and the highly conservative jury members finally came to an unexpected and dramatic denouement.”15
Barbara L. Kelly suggests that the incident was but one example of Ravel’s rejecting authority, of which there are numerous further examples, such as his association
11 Ibid., 42-43. 12 Ibid., 43. 13 Ibid., 44. 14 Stephen Zank, Maurice Ravel: A Guide to Research (New York: Routledge, 2005), 8. 15 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 44-45. 4 with the Apaches, or “Ruffians.”16 The composer’s admitted indebtedness to the renegade
Erik Satie and his eventual rejection of the Legion of Honor in 1920 provide but two more examples of this anti-establishment bent.
Histoires naturelles Scandal
The second celebrated Ravel scandal came in January 1907—less than two years after the first. This time, the premiere of one of the composer’s most famous works, the
Histoires naturelles, was the cause. The stormy reception of this work has attracted attention in the literature about Ravel.
Ravel’s settings of Jules Renard’s dry prose texts about animals were seen as a stunt, offending some in attendance. Among the offended was Debussy, who expressed his distaste for the songs in a letter to Louis Laloy: “I agree with you that Ravel is extraordinarily gifted, but what irritates me is his posture as a ‘trickster,’ or better yet, as a fakir enchanter, who can make flowers spring out of a chair…. Unfortunately, a trick is always prepared, and it can astonish only once.”17
Ravel’s radical, progressive approach to the French language departed sharply from convention. Graham Johnson explains what distinguished the Histoires naturelles from other mélodies:
Today, it seems difficult to understand the scandal that the first performance of this music provoked. Much of this was to do with the composer’s decision to import the mute ‘e’ of spoken Frency [sic] into sung music. All serious French mélodies up to this point had honoured the prosodic tradition that even if certain word-endings were not spoken in everyday speech, they were to be sung, or at least allowed for in the scanning and setting of texts.18
16 Barbara L. Kelly. “Ravel, Maurice.” In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/52145 (accessed April 3, 2009). 17 Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 53. 18 Johnson, Graham and Richard Stokes, A French Song Companion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 404. 5
This new approach, combined with prose texts that were seen by many as unsuitable for musical settings, was considered irreverent at best. Renaud Marchart elaborates:
As can be imagined, quite apart from this “style of speech, reminiscent of Zola” (according to Marcel Marnat), poetry like this, mingling irony with humour, was apt to unsettle the audience: the listener had barely come to terms with the mock impressionism of the “Cygne”, when he was brought down to earth with a bump by the final exclamation: “But what am I saying?” And then, to have a woman – Jane Bathori, accompanied by the composer – sing about a cricket’s peaceful everyday life and a guinea-fowl’s hysterics, sandwiched between a quintet by Fauré and a trio by d’Indy, was bound to cause confusion. As for combining Ravel and d’Indy in a recital at the Société National de Musique, this must have had the same effect as contrasting the impudent guinea-fowl with the self-satisfied peacock.19
The Histoires naturelles offered further grounds for offense; in them, some heard overt references to popular music. Ravel had not hidden his affection for two composers who were outside of the mainstream: Erik Satie and Emmanuel Chabrier. However, the
Société National was at the time the bastion of serious music, and its more conservative members did not take kindly to intimations of popular music infiltrating its hallowed halls.
Roger Nichols explains:
It was not just that he pushed to an extreme his concern with spoken language, even though this was far from incidental to the overall effect, but rather that in this work he, now accepted as a composer of outstanding gifts, openly questioned the barrier which had been set up in France at the that time between ‘popular’ and ‘serious’ music…20 Depending on one’s views of contemporary music at the time, Ravel’s newest work could be characterized as advanced or provocative. In an interview some years later, Jane Bathori noted the hostility of some in attendance: “The audience, quite
19 Catherine Collard, liner notes, trans. Byword, Nathalie Stutzmann: Ravel and Debussy Mélodies, ([New York]: RCA Victor Red Seal, 09026-60899-2, 1992), 4. 20 Nichols, Ravel, 49. 6 reserved at the outset, became exasperated by the last songs, “Le Martin-Pêcheur” and
“La Pintade.” If they didn’t throw their footstools at me it was because they had none!”21
We are left with a picture of Ravel as a composer who, by the beginning of 1906, was famous both for his reputation as France’s leading young composer, and for his ability to keep his name in the news.
21 Linda Cuneo-Laurent, “The Performer As Catalyst: The Role of the Singer Jane Bathori (1877-1970) in the Careers of Debussy, Ravel, Les Six, and Their Contemporaries in Paris, 1904-1926” (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1982), 19. The translation is Cuneo-Laurent’s. 7 CHAPTER 2
MUSICAL TRAINING AND INFLUENCES
As a young man in Paris, Ravel had access to a number of musical stimuli. His closest friend during his teenage years was a young pianist whom he first met at the
Conservatoire in 1888. This young man was the exceptionally talented Ricardo Viñes.
Elaine Brody describes his accomplishments:
[Viñes] Introduced and repeatedly performed almost the entire piano repertory of Debussy and Ravel, innumerable pieces by de Séverac, Fauré, and Satie, many compositions by his countrymen Granados, de Falla, and Albéniz, along with the works of the Russians—Mussorgsky, Borodin, Balakirev, Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Prokofiev….22
The two were fast friends who shared a passion for art of all kinds. Orenstein sums up their activities: “After classes, the boys would take long walks, or play games of all sorts, copy out poetry, make drawings, attend concerts, or visit art galleries.”23 Ravel’s early interests remained with him throughout his life; thus, it is unsurprising to discover that he would later cite the influence of composers—Mozart, Satie, Chabrier, and the Russians— whose scores he and Viñes had explored as children.24
Gabriel Fauré and André Gédalge
Ravel’s two teachers at the Conservatoire were André Gédalge and Gabriel Fauré.
Gédalge taught him counterpoint and Fauré, composition. According to Ravel, it was
Gédalge who provided him with the nuts and bolts of his musical training, while Fauré acted as a kind of guardian angel, offering support and performance opportunities rather
22 Elaine Brody, Paris, The Musical Kaleidoscope: 1870-1925 (New York: Braziller, 1987), 169. The translation is Brody’s. 23 Orenstein, Ravel, 16. 24 Ibid. 8 than meticulously detailed criticism of his scores.25 It was Fauré who in 1898 secured the first important performance of Sites auriculaires at the Société Nationale de Musique.
Ravel remained close to both of his teachers for the rest of their lives. Upon learning of
Gédalge’s passing, Ravel wrote:
You may not understand everything that Gédalge meant to me: he taught me to realize the possibilities and structural attempts which may be seen in my earliest works. His teaching was of unusual clarity: with him, one understood immediately that technique is not simply a scholastic abstraction. Friendship was not the only reason that I dedicated the Trio to him: the homage goes directly to the teacher.26
Claude Debussy
The most important French composer of the early twentieth century was Claude
Debussy. Ravel referred to him as “an artist of genius.”27 He had a particular fondness for
L’après-midi d’un faune, a piece that he held to be “a unique miracle in all of music,” and which he transcribed for piano four hands in 1910.28 In his “Autobiographical Sketch,”
Ravel openly acknowledged Debussy’s influence on Shéhérazade (1903); Roger Nichols finds formal echoes of Debussy’s String Quartet in Ravel’s own String Quartet.29
Pelléas et Mélisande
Ravel offered partisan support for Debussy’s controversial opera by attending nearly all of the performances of Pelléas during its first season. The influence of
Debussy’s opera on Ravel cannot be overstated; we shall see how Debussy’s obsession with creating a conversational treatment of Maeterlink’s prose directly influenced Ravel in his setting of Renard’s Histoires naturelles and Franc-Nohain’s L’Heure espagnole.
25 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 13. 26 Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 35, n14. 27 Ibid., 88. 28 Ibid., 486. 29 Ibid., 30; Roger Nichols, Ravel, 22. 9 Conflict and Criticism
The two composers had a mutually respectful, if ultimately uneasy relationship.
Orenstein attributes their eventual estrangement to the machinations of their supporters.30
The first ostensible signs of unease can be traced to none other than the critic Pierre Lalo.
Lalo delighted in taking Ravel to task for what he perceived as a reliance on the style of
Debussy. One such review compelled Ravel to respond. Reviewing Ravel’s Miroirs
(1906), he faulted Ravel for the score’s “Strange resemblance … to that of M. Claude
Debussy.”31 He went on to write that Ravel’s work relied on a style of writing for the piano that had originated with Debussy, and which other composers had eagerly imitated.
Ravel correctly took issue with this statement, as his own Jeux d’eau (1901) had featured this type of writing long before any work of Debussy’s. In a private letter to
Lalo, he attempted to set the record straight. What had been a polite disagreement between composer and critic became news when Lalo published the letter in Le temps.
Ravel occasionally criticized Debussy’s music, with particular attention given to what he perceived to be faults in its form and orchestration: “Debussy has shown a négligence de la forme … Thus, in the larger forms, he showed a lack of architectonic power.”32 “La Mer is poorly orchestrated. If I had the time, I would reorchestrate La
Mer.”33 That having been said, his attitude towards Debussy is best summed up in his own words:
His genius was obviously one of the [sic] great individuality, creating its own laws, constantly in evolution, expressing itself freely, yet always faithful to French tradition. For Debussy, the
30 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 33. 31 Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 79, n1. 32 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 127. 33 Ibid. 10 musician and the man, I have had profound admiration, but by nature I am different from Debussy….34
Emmanuel Chabrier and Popular Music
One of Ravel’s favorite composers was Emmanuel Chabrier. Chabrier—whose music was also cherished by another outstanding composer of the mélodie, Francis
Poulenc—was a continuing source of delight for Ravel. Ravel made a point of acknowledging his influence on some of his first compositions, such as the Sérénade grotesque (ca. 1893).35 He also admitted the influence of the composer on the Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899): “But alas! I perceive its shortcomings very well: the excessive influence of Chabrier, and its rather poor form.”36
Ravel adored Chabrier’s vocal music. Madeleine Grey recounts Ravel’s custom upon arriving at her apartment to rehearse: “… As soon as he arrived he often used to sit down at the piano and start playing Chabrier’s “Chanson pour Jeanne” which he loved; and he would say, ‘Why don’t you sing it, it’s so lovely?’”37
Chabrier’s charming songs about animals—“Villanelle des petits canards,” “Les gros dindons,” “Pastorale des cochons roses,” and “Les cigales”—were first published while Ravel was a teenager. They were well known to him by the time he wrote his own animal songs, the Histoires naturelles. Critics were keen to compare Ravel’s animal songs to Chabrier’s, and they did so unfavorably. Pierre Lalo’s review is particularly memorable: “When our good Chabrier wrote a song about Turkeys and Little Pink Pigs, he did it with gaiety and let himself go; he treated it as a joke. M. Ravel is solemn all the
34 Ibid., 33. 35 Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 30. 36 Ibid., 340. 37 Nichols, Ravel Remembered, 164. The translation is Nichols’s. 11 time with his farmyard animals; he doesn’t smile, but reads us a sermon on the Peacock and the Guinea-fowl.”38
As the author noted in the first chapter, Roger Nichols senses a note of fear in the critical backlash to the Histoires naturelles. Could Ravel, a serious composer all but worthy of the Prix de Rome, truly desire to take up the mantle of Chabrier by finding a place for popular music in the Société Nationale de Musique?
The only nineteenth-century composer who had really attempted a rapprochement [between popular and serious music] was Chabrier, much admired by Ravel…. But Chabrier could easily be dismissed as an amateur who did not know any better. For someone of Ravel’s professional accomplishment to dabble in the unclean water of popular culture was something quite different.39
Erik Satie
In the late 1890s, Fauré noticed Ravel’s unusual interests: “Fauré points out however this pupil who prefers to read Poe, Villiers, and Mallarmé, and serves to his friends, dumbfounded, snatches of Chabrier and Satie.”40 According to Orenstein, it was
Ravel’s father who introduced him to Erik Satie in the early 1890s.41 If Ravel’s enthusiasm for Chabrier’s music caused “serious” musicians to snicker, his interest in
Erik Satie surely caused them to grimace.
In his “Autobiographical Sketch,” Ravel pointed out Satie’s influence on his first song, “Ballade de la Reine morte d’aimer” (ca. 1893).42 As the author noted in the first
38 Orenstein, Ravel, 53. 39 Roger Nichols, Ravel, 50. 40 “Fauré remarque néanmoins cet élève qui préfère lire Poe, Villiers, et Mallarmé, et sert à ses comrades, medusas, des bribes de Chabrier et de Satie.” Jean- Michel Nectoux, “Ravel/Fauré et les débuts de la Société Musicale Indépendante,” Revue de Musicologie 61e/2e (1975), 295. 41 Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 34, n12. 42 Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 30. 12 chapter, another early composition, Sites auriculaires, drew criticism for its title.43 In fairness to Ravel, the title is simply esoteric; it is a far cry from some of the patently absurd titles and directions for performance favored by Satie, such as Embryons desséchés (Desiccated Embryos, 1913), in which one section is marked “Like a nightingale with a toothache.” One example of Satie’s that Ravel did not follow, tempting as it may have been, was his penchant for sending critics threatening notes. Unfortunately for Satie, one such incident led to his being jailed for a few hours.44
Satie’s Influence
Satie’s songs, written in a light, popular style, do not break new ground in their approach to text setting. Ravel’s harmony in the Histoires naturelles often sounds like
Satie, but it is not the harmony of Satie’s songs; rather, it is reminiscent of the approach
Satie took in piano pieces such as the Sarabandes and the Gymnopédies.45
Debussy referred to Satie as “the precursor.”46 It is indicative of the esteem in which Ravel held Satie that he dedicated his most harmonically advanced song, “Surgi de la croupe et du bond,” to him. As with Debussy, Satie and Ravel ultimately became estranged, though according to Barbara Kelly, this is surely due more to Satie’s quirky
43 Chapter 1: Early Career and Scandals, 1. 44 Nicolas Slonimsky, Slonimsky’s Book of Musical Anecdotes, (New York: Routledge, 2002), 174. 45 For an example of Satie’s piano writing and its echo in Ravel’s songs, see Chapter 7, 74-75. 46 Robert Orledge. “Satie, Erik.” In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/4 0105 (accessed June 2, 2009). The translation is Orledge’s. 13 personality and possible jealousy of Ravel’s position as France’s greatest composer than any actual slight from Ravel.47
Modest Mussorgsky
Ravel was introduced to Russian music at the 1889 Paris Exposition. As was the case with his early interest in Chabrier and Satie, this early encounter led to a lifelong passion for Russian music. Ravel and Mussorgsky’s names have been linked by Ravel’s acclaimed orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition, an orchestration commissioned in
1922 by the Russian impresario Diaghilev.
However, Ravel’s interest in Mussorgsky predates Diaghilev’s commission.
Already, in 1913, in an interview published the day before the premiere of L’Heure espagnole, Ravel alluded to Mussorgsky’s opera, The Marriage: “Apart from the student
… the other roles, I imagine, will give the impression of being spoken. This is what
Mussorgsky wished to do in setting Gogol’s Marriage….”48 Arbie Orenstein explains further: “In setting Gogol’s play Mussorgsky observed that he was ‘crossing the Rubicon.
This is living prose in music… this is reverence toward the language of humanity, this is a reproduction of simple human speech.’”49
In a review of the Histoires naturelles, Louis Laloy compared them to another work of Mussorgsky’s, the set of songs called The Nursery: Mussorgsky’s The Nursery is there, but combined with what sureness of taste and what prodigious skill…. It is a story, admirably told, with all the vocal inflections and all the rhythmic nuances of colloquial language. Here again Mussorgsky showed the way, but had neither the courage to follow it to the end, nor the talent to envelop such free narration with music—real, pure music.50
47 Barbara L. Kelly. “Ravel, Maurice.” 48 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 411. 49 Ibid., 163. 50 Louis Laloy, Louis Laloy (1874-1944) on Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky, Translated, with an introduction and notes by Deborah Priest (Brookfield: Ashgate, 1999), 248. 14
The Nursery was given its Parisian premiere in 1901 by a friend of Ravel’s, Marie
Olenine d’Alheim. Cornelia Petersen describes the influence of this work on Ravel:
“…and with its recitative sections [it] possibly had an effect on the linguistic treatment in the Histoires naturelles.”51 It is possible that Ravel heard this first performance. The two sets of songs partially share a subject, as some of the songs from The Nursery deal with animals and insects, but their approaches are completely different; in the Mussorgsky songs, the child is the center of attention, while in Ravel’s songs, it is the animals who are the focal point.
Though it is not known precisely when Ravel first encountered Mussorgsky’s
Pictures at an Exhibition, Roger Nichols hears the “Baba-Yaga” movement echoed in the last song of the Histoires naturelles, “La pintade,” while the author hears “Ballet of the
Chicks in their Shells” in the same movement.
Example 1: Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at and Exhibition, “Ballet of the
Chicks in their Shells” mm. 1-8
51“…und mit seinen teils rezitativisch gesungenen Partien möglicherweise auch auf die Sprachbehandlung in den ‘Histoires naturelles’ einwirkte.” Cornelia Petersen, Die Lieder von Maurice Ravel (New York: Peter Lang, 1995), 56. 15
Example 2: Maurice Ravel, Histoires naturelles, “La pintade” mm. 7-10
Café-concert
Unlike the more upscale “Café artistique” (such as the famed Chat noir), frequented by people of means, the café-concert catered to a working class audience.52 It presented a variety of musical numbers featuring different stock characters. Among these characters were awkward soldiers whose clothing was a few sizes too small, lascivious women called gommeuses who sang enticing songs, and most important for our discussion, a type of performer called a diseur.53
As the name implies, the diseurs spoke more than sang, “Using subtle vocal nuances and bodily gestures to emphasize certain words.”54 Though Ravel himself did not cite the inspiration of the diseurs in his approach to the Histoires naturelles, one cannot but make this connection upon reading Emile Vuillermoz’s description of Ravel’s manner of speaking:
But he had a characteristic way of letting his voice fall at the ends of phrases; it was, if you like, his form of ironical punctuation. When he delivered himself of one of those perfectly fashioned ideas which were his specialty, he would make a very characteristic gesture: slipping the back of his right hand quickly behind him, he would do a sort of ironical pirouette, lower his eyelids to
52 Nancy Lynn Perloff, “Art and the Everyday: The Impact of Parisian Popular Entertainment on Satie, Milhaud, Poulenc, and Auric” (Ph.d. diss, University of Michigan, 1986), 34. 53 Ibid., 36-37. 54 David Conlon McKinney, “The Influence of Parisian Popular Entertainment on the Piano Works of Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc,” (D.M.A. Thesis, The University of North Carolina-Greensboro, 1994), 16. 16 conceal the mischievous twinkle, and end his little speech abruptly with a falling fourth or fifth. You can find these inflections everywhere in the Histoires naturelles and in L’Heure espagnole.55
Comparing the Histoires naturelles to the Café-concert
As Nancy Perloff writes, “The unrefined ambiance of the café-concert and the earthy, often obscene humor which characterized many of the songs caused French critics to write disparagingly about the quality of entertainment.”56
The café-concert was used as an unflattering point of comparison in reviews of the Histoires naturelles. Pierre Lalo took Ravel to task for the transgression of bringing the style of the café-concert into the concert hall: “[The Histoires naturelles are] rather in the style of café concert, café concert with ninths; but I would almost be tempted to prefer café concert by itself.”57
The aspect of the Histoires naturelles that Lalo was referring to was the vocal line’s conversational approach, akin to that of one of the café-concert’s diseurs. As we shall see in later chapters, there were certain key differences between spoken and sung
French, in particular, the approach to the final, or mute e.58 The treatment of the mute e received great attention at the turn of the twentieth century, when poets and composers alike were questioning the validity of continuing to defer to it. The conservative Saint-
Saëns favored a traditional approach to the mute e. His opinion is memorable for its dripping sarcasm:
But … let us come to singing, to lyric diction. Try to abolish this so-called mute e: or rather save yourselves the trouble: go to the café-concert, and there throughout the evening you can enjoy the
55 Nichols, Ravel Remembered, 140. The translation is Nichols’s. 56 Perloff, “Art and the Everyday,” 36. 57 Nichols, Ravel, 50. 58 See Chapter 4, 24-25 for a discussion of this subject. 17 benefits of this system. The result is an ugly vulgarity, researched in these artistic establishments.59
In the Histoires naturelles, Ravel took inspiration from all of the composers cited above, and even from the café-concert. Perhaps Satie had it right when he praised the influence of popular music: “Let us not forget what we owe to the music-hall and circus.
That is where the latest creations, trends and novelties of our trade come from. Music-hall and circus have the spirit of innovation.”60
59 Camille Saint-Saëns: “Mais laissons la diction pure et venons au chant, à la diction lyrique. Essayez d’y supprimer cet e soi-disant muet: ou plutôt épargnez-vous ce soin: allez au café-concert, et là durant toute la soirée, vous pouvez jouir des bienfaits de ce système. Le résultat est d’une affreuse vulgarité, recherché dans ces artistiques établissements.” quoted in Michel Gribenski, “‘Chanter comme des personnes naturelles:’ Apocope de l’e caduc et synérèse chez Debussy et quelques-uns de ses contemporains,” Cahiers Debussy No. 31/2007, 9, n18. 60 Erik Satie, Neuf chansons de cabaret et de caf’conc’, Preface by Steven Moore Whiting (Salabert Editions: Paris, 1998), i. 18 CHAPTER 3
LITERARY INFLUENCES
Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe
Ravel maintained a life-long interest in poetry. As a young man he was strongly influenced by Charles Baudelaire. This influence was reflected in a number of ways, none of which involved the composer setting Baudelaire’s poetry to music. As photos from the early twentieth century attest, the young Ravel was interested in Baudelaire’s concept of the dandy, in which a meticulously groomed appearance was but one aspect of the pursuit of artistic beauty.61 On a more prosaic level, Ravel shared Baudelaire’s opinion that “inspiration is decidedly the sister of daily work.”62
Baudelaire’s most important influence on Ravel, however, was through his translations of Edgar Allan Poe. Ravel often cited the profound impact that Poe had on his work as a composer: “Now, my third teacher was an American, whom we in France were quicker to understand than that of modern French art. Very French is the quality of
‘The Raven’ and much else of his verse, and also his essay on the principles of poetry.”63
In his discussion of the process of creating “The Raven,” Poe wrote:
It will not be regarded as a breach of decorum on my part to show the modus operandi by which some one of my own works was put together. I select The Raven as most generally known. It is my design to render it manifest that no one point in its composition is referable either to accident or intuition–that the work proceeded step by step, to its completion, with the precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem.64
61 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 18. 62 Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 389, n. 3. 63 Olin Downes, “Maurice Ravel, Man and Musician,” The New York Times (August 7, 1927), reproduced in Arbie Orenstein, A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003), 450. 64 Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 455, n. 3. 19 This thoroughly logical process inspired Ravel to move from the “vagueness and formlessness” of the impressionists to a more strictly structured musical style.65 Further similarities between Ravel and Poe’s approach are found in their compositional processes.
In “The Philosophy of Composition,” Poe wrote: “Nothing is more clear than that every plot, worth its name, must be elaborated to its dénouement before anything be attempted with the pen. It is only with the dénouement constantly in view that we can give the plot its indispensable sense of consequence….”66
Ravel described his own process: “In my own work of composition I find a long period of conscious gestation, in general, necessary. During this interval, I come gradually to see, and with growing precision, the form and evolution which the
67 subsequent work should have as a whole.”
Further similarities are found in Poe and Ravel’s quest for balance between the emotional and intellectual in their art. For them both, creating art was ultimately a pursuit of beauty rather than truth.68
Les Apaches
This group of young artists formed around 1900. The curious name is in need of a brief explanation: It seems that following the Paris Exposition of 1889, in which Buffalo
Bill appeared to great acclaim, Parisian street gangs began to call themselves “Apaches”
65 Ibid., 454. 66 Eric W. Carlson, ed., A Companion to Poe Studies (Greenwood Press: Westport, 1996), 286. 67 Arbie Orenstein, “Maurice Ravel’s Creative Process,” The Musical Quarterly LIII/4 (October, 1967), 468. 68 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 118, n. 1. 20 in homage to this popular American.69 Though the diminutive Ravel and his cohorts were unlikely to have engaged in fisticuffs—at least with any hope of success—the group’s forward-looking artistic opinions forcefully opposed those of the establishment. As Jann
Pasler writes, “It was music, especially Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, that first drew the group together. They attended each performance of the opera in spring 1902 as a kind of sacred battalion to assure a positive response.”70
The group contained many prominent artists, including among others, the composers André Caplet, Manuel de Falla, and Igor Stravinsky; the pianist, Ricardo
Viñes, “That unsurpassed champion of new music”71; the critics Michel Calvocoressi and
Emile Vuillermoz; and the poets Tristan Klingsor and Léon-Paul Fargue. Of these,
Calvocoressi and Klingsor in particular helped to shape Ravel’s views on poetry and text setting.
Michel Calvocoressi
The critic and musicologist Michel Calvocoressi met Ravel at the Paris
Conservatoire, where he was studying harmony after briefly pursuing legal training.72 In
69 Michael Murphy, Proust and America, (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2007), 37. 70 Jann Pasler. “Apaches, Les.” In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/5 1370 (accessed July 18, 2008). 71 M.-D. Calvocoressi, “Maurice Ravel,” (The Musical Times, December 1, 1913). 72 Gerald Abraham. “Calvocoressi, Michel-Dimitri.” In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/ music/04622 (accessed April 12, 2009). 21 1904 and 1906 Ravel and Calvocoressi collaborated on the Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, with Ravel providing accompaniments to pre-existing melodies.73
Calvocoressi was interested in trends in modern poetry, particularly in the changing role of the mute e; he shared his opinions in 1904 in Le Guide musicale in an article called Le vers, le prose:
The mute e, which commands attention in the most tyrannical way in verse, on the contrary can be treated in prose with the most salutary liberty. So while a composer who is confronted with a poem must never lose the conventional harmony of the syllabic division, he can, with prose, take into consideration only the single intrinsic harmony, freely realized, of the phrase.74 He went further in describing it in the same article:
In current language as in music, whether it concerns verse or prose, there are mute es which are not pronounced, others which are half-pronounced, and others which are clearly pronounced. According to the general sense of a phrase, a mute e in the same word could be either be completely veiled, half-pronounced, or emphatically accentuated.75 We will see that this advice resonated in Ravel’s Histoires naturelles.
Tristan Klingsor
Ravel was able to stay abreast of the latest developments in poetry through his friendship with the poet Tristan Klingsor. Klingsor experimented with poetic lines of different length in Shéhérazade, which Ravel famously set in 1903. Further, Ravel himself experimented, à la Klingsor, with lines of different length in the poems he wrote for his Trois chansons pour choeur mixte from 1914.76
73 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 41. 74 Catherine Mary Schwab, “The mélodie francaise moderne: An Expression of Music, Poetry and Prosody in fin-de-siècle France, and its Performances in the Recitals of Jane Bathori (1877-1970) and Claire Croiza (1882-1946).” (Ph.d. diss., University of Michigan, 1991), 253. The translation is Schwab’s. 75 Ibid., 258. The translation is Schwab’s. 76 Petersen, Die Lieder von Maurice Ravel, 54. 22 There are other settings of Klingsor’s verse, written by composers such as Jean
Cartan, Georges Huë, Gabriel Grovlez, and Georges Migot.77 Though none have attained recognition approaching that of Shéhérazade, these settings demonstrate Klingsor’s visibility to the musical community during the early twentieth century.
In preparing to write Shéhérazade, Ravel asked Klingsor to declaim his poems. Ravel then composed his settings giving special attention to the spoken cadence of the words.
These songs mark an important development along the way towards the approach found in the Histoires naturelles.78
77 Denis Stevens, A History of Song, 2nd Ed. (New York: Norton and Co., 1970), 216-24. 78 See Chapter 7, 81-86, for further information on Shéhérazade. 23 PART 2
CHAPTER 4
FRENCH POETRY AND THE MUTE E: APPROACHES BEFORE RAVEL
Conversation vs. Recitation
In preparing a French-language version of Salome, Richard Strauss turned to the famed French musicologist and author, Romain Rolland, for advice. Strauss asked, “Why do the French sing differently than they speak?”79
Strauss was referring to an important difference between conversational and poetic French: the treatment of the final, or mute e. In conversation, the suppression of mute es is pervasive. However, it was traditionally preserved in song and opera.
Rolland’s reply elegantly speaks to this:
It is necessary to guard against removing it [the mute e] entirely: it is one of the principal charms of our poetry; but it is very unusual for a foreigner to understand this completely. It is less a sound than a resonance, an echo of the preceding syllable, that vibrates, that balances, and is gently extinguished by the air.80
Counting Syllables and the Mute e
Whereas meter traditionally governs poetry in English (and German), in French it is predicated on a certain number of syllables per line. The most common number of syllables is twelve, for this is the number required in the most popular poetic meter of the nineteenth century, the Alexandrine. However, there exist poetic lines of eight and ten
79 “Pourquoi le Français chante-t-il autrement qu’il ne parle?” Richard Strauss et Romain Rolland, Correspondance. Fragments de journal, Paris, Albin Michel (“Cahiers Romain Rolland”, no. 3), 1951 cited in Michel Gribenski, “‘Chanter comme des personnes naturelles.’ Apocope de l’e caduc et synérèse chez Debussy et quelques-uns de ses contemporains” (Cahiers Debussy, 31, 2007), p. 8. 80 “Il faut bien se garder de le supprimer: c’est un des principaux charmes de notre poésie; mais il est très rare qu’un étranger le sente bien. C’est moins un son, qu’une résonance, un écho de la syllable précédente, qui vibre, se balance, et s’éteint doucement dans l’air.” Ibid. 24 syllables, and even lines composed of an odd number of syllables. Further, it is less common but still possible for poets to vary the numbers from line to line.81 Regardless of the number that the poet decides on, each line of poetry must contain an exact number of syllables.82
The final, or mute e figures into this syllable count. David Hunter explains the standard treatment of the mute e in poetry:
The basic rules for handling the mute e in verse are as follows: An ‘e,’ ‘ent,’ or ‘es’ at the end of a line [of poetry] is not included in the tally of syllables, even though in poetry (as opposed to normal speech) it might attract some pronunciation. On the other hand, a mute e within the line does count and in recitation would almost certainly attract some pronunciation.83
However, the conventions of French poetry did not stipulate that every mute e be intoned. “The main exception to the rule on the mute e within the line arises when a word ending with an ‘e’ is immediately followed by another word that starts with a vowel or unaspirated ‘h’. In these circumstances, the mute e is suppressed or ‘elided.’”84
Paul Verlaine’s poem, C’est l’extase langoureuse, provides an example of elision at the end of the second line: “Fatigue amoureuse.” Following the rules, a reader would move through the end of “fatigue,” avoiding the e, and continue directly to “amoureuse,” where he might pronounce this word’s final e. Here is an I.P.A. transcription:
[fati!amurøz(")]
A line from Théophile Gautier’s poem, Lamento, presents us with two consecutive elisions. Note that the e at the end of “morte” might be pronounced because it is at the end of a line of poetry: “Ma belle amie est morte.” [ma b#lami# m$rt(")].
81 David Hunter, Understanding French Verse: A Guide for Singers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 24. 82 Ibid., 10. 83 Ibid. 84 Ibid., 11. 25 Musical Treatment of the Mute e before Debussy
As Hunter notes in the quotation above, in recitation there is some latitude in pronouncing mute es found at the end of lines of poetry, because these are not included in the syllable count. It was otherwise in musical settings of poetry. Here, it was common practice to give the mute e its own note, regardless of whether it appeared medially or at the end of a line of poetry. Even those who argued for the suppression of the mute e in recitation conceded that when poetry was set to music, the mute es should be heard.85
Gabriel Fauré’s musical setting of Lamento demonstrates both elision and the voicing of the e at the end of “morte.” This was the standard approach of most composers before the end of the nineteenth century.
Example 3: Gabriel Fauré, “Chanson du Pêcheur” (Lamento) mm. 2-3
Contrary Opinion
Though this was the received method of approaching the mute e in vocal music, there were some who strongly opposed the practice. No less a figure than Voltaire counseled the composer André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry to suppress the mute es in his opera, Isabelle et Gertrude (1776)—a practice that he found, “Embarrassing.”86 Grétry agreed that the mute es were problematic, but he considered his proposal unworkable,
85 Gribenski, “Chanter,” 17. 86 “Voltaire lui aurait conseillé de ne pas réaliser, contrairement à la tradition prosodique, certain «e muet» qui l’avait «embarrassé».” Ibid., 5. 26 writing, “It is necessary to write a note for every un-elided mute e; it is the composer’s job in every case to place it on an unimportant note in the phrase.”87
Most composers followed this advice in their setting of French verse. This was certainly the approach employed in 1882 by the young Claude Debussy and in 1891 by Ravel’s teacher Gabriel Fauré, in their settings of Paul Verlaine’s Mandoline. In the examples below we see that both composers place the mute e of “ramures” on a rhythmically weak beat in the measure; both prolong the penultimate syllable of chanteuses so that this word’s mute e is also minimized.
Example 4: Claude Debussy, “Mandoline” mm. 10-14
Example 5: Gabriel Fauré, “Mandoline” mm. 8-10
Late Nineteenth-Century Notational Developments
It was not until the end of the nineteenth century that composers began to experiment in earnest with different ways of notating the mute e, in an effort to further reduce its articulation. This was achieved in a variety of ways: Gounod, Bizet, Saint-
Saëns, Massenet, and Debussy employed a tie marking. This notation, in which the notes corresponding to the final two syllables of a word ending in a mute e are tied, would also be used extensively in Ravel’s Histoires naturelles and L’Heure espagnole.
87 “Mais il faut une note pour l’e muet das tous les cas; c’est au musicien à le faire tomber dans tous les cas sure une note inutles dans la phrase musicale […] Ibid. 27 The execution of this notation appears to be derived from keyboard music, in which slurred pairs of notes are often articulated in a long-short pattern, such that the first is weighted and long, while the second is unweighted and short. This explanation cannot be stated with certainty; despite using the tie in this manner, few composers took the time to explain it. One composer who did explain his notation was Pierre de Bréville. We will examine this composer’s writings in the next chapter.
Debussy, both in his songs and in Pelléas, along with Charles Koechlin, Vincent d’Indy, Gustave Charpentier, and Reynaldo Hahn, occasionally used a grace note to indicate a slight pronunciation of the mute e.88
Example 6: Claude Debussy, Trois chansons de France, “La grotte” mm. 3-4
Example 7: Reynaldo Hahn, Etudes latines, “Lydie, mm. 33-34
Apocopation
With the development of free verse and the prose poem at the end of the nineteenth century, composers were faced with a new dilemma: How should they approach the mute e if it were not part of any syllable count and unlikely to be pronounced? The most dramatic approach involved avoiding the mute e entirely by purposefully shortening the word. This is apocopation. Gribenski notes the differences
88 Ibid., 19. 28 between Debussy’s approach in Pelléas and Ravel’s in the Histoires naturelles and
L’Heure espagnole.
Now, a detailed examination of the prosody of Debussy in “Pelléas” shows that the composer, precisely, practices—in a completely new manner, though less radical and ostentatious than, some years later, Ravel in the Histoires naturelles and L’Heure espagnole—a certain number of apocopes of final es, right there, systematically accomplished in vocal music.89
Debussy and Language: Pelléas et Mélisande
Debussy was keenly aware of the differences between spoken and sung French. In his vocal music, he attempted to bring the treatment of spoken and sung French closer together. He spoke to this shortly before the premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande:
“The figures of this drama try to sing as natural persons, and not in an arbitrary language dependent on old-fashioned traditions.”90
According to Michel Gribenski, the “old-fashioned traditions” to which Debussy referred were the repetition of text, especially in duets and choruses, and vocal melismas.
In the opera Pelléas et Mélisande, Debussy set Maeterlink’s eponymous play. Taking full advantage of Maeterlinck’s prose, the composer created vocal lines closer to recitative than aria. He avoided text repetition and vocal melismas.
Where the mute e was concerned, Debussy adhered to rules similar to those set out by Grétry much of the time. When voicing the mute e, he carefully placed it on unimportant notes in the musical phrase. When a mute e occurred as the final syllable in a line of text, he almost always accompanied it with a falling interval and a brief rhythmic
89 “Or, un examen minutieux de la prosodie de Debussy dans Pelléas et Mélisande montre que le compositeur, précisément, pratique—d’une façon totalement nouvelle, quoique moins radicale et ostentatoire que, quelques années plus tard, Ravel dans les Histoires naturelles et L’Heure espagnole—un certain nombre d’apocopes d’e caducs jusque-là systématiquement réalisés dans la musique vocale.” Ibid., 10. 90 “[…] les personnages de ce drame tâchent de chanter comme des personnes naturelles et non pas dans une langue arbitraire faite de traditions surannées.” Ibid. 29 value. This characteristic gesture reminds singers that the mute e should remain as unaccented as possible.
Example 8: Claude Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande, Act I, scene I mm. 59-60
When a mute e occurred medially in a line of text, he would permit it to be the same pitch as the syllable directly preceding it.
Example 9: Claude Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande, Act I, scene I mm. 32-33
Occasionally, he used a tie to minimize the articulation of mute e syllables at the ends of lines of text. We will see that this ambiguous notation appears in Ravel’s vocal works as well.
Example 10: Claude Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande, Act I, scene I mm. 53-54
Rarely, Debussy elected to apocopate a word with a mute e. In the next example, two nearly-identical lines of text are set; the first time, Debussy apocopates the word
“dire,” the second time he asks for an intoned e.
Example 11: Claude Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande, Act I, scene I m. 80
Text Setting in Debussy’s Mélodies, 1880-1904
30 According to Gribenski, Debussy’s use of the tie marking and apocope is found throughout his vocal music: “In effect, an examination of all of Debussy’s vocal music, in particular his songs, shows that this practice of apocope … is not exclusive to Pelléas, but shows up in his earliest songs, constituting an original and misunderstood aspect of his prosody.”91
In perusing thirty-six of Debussy’s songs written between 1880 and 1904, the author found that the tie is extensively employed to minimize mute es, such as in the following example:92
Example 12: Claude Debussy, “Clair de lune” m. 19
However, apocopation is extremely rare.93 In fact, of these thirty-six songs, only four (“En Sourdine,” “Fantoches,” “La chevelure,” and “Les ingénues”) avoid the tie entirely. Where apocopation is concerned, Debussy only writes it when a word ending with a vowel followed by a mute e ends a line of poetry. This is presumably because mute es in this case do not count as syllables and because there is no consonant sound.
Example 13: Claude Debussy, “Mandoline” mm. 28-30
91 Gribenski, “Chanter,” 10. 92 Claude Debussy, Songs: 1880-1914, Rita Benton, ed. (New York: Dover Publications, 1981). 93 The songs studied were those found in Claude Debussy, Songs 1880-1904, edited by Rita Benton (New York: Dover, 1981); only those songs written before Ravel composed the Histoires naturelles were studied, because only they could have influenced Ravel’s notation in the Histoires naturelles. 31 Proses lyriques (1895) and Chansons de Bilitis (1897-98)
The two sets of songs closest in approach to Pelléas et Mélisande are the Proses lyriques (1895), and the Chansons de Bilitis (1897-98). The following example is representative of an approach that strives to place the mute e on an unimportant note in the musical phrase. Note that the mute es of “faire” and “signe” are part of a descending vocal line and are placed on the third beat of the measure:
Example 14: Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De rêve …” mm. 19-23
In these songs Debussy seldom uses a tie; in the four songs, there are only six occasions in which it is used.
Example 15: Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De rêve …” mm. 10-13
Example 16: Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De grêve …” mm. 8-9
Example 17: Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De fleurs ...” mm. 54-56
Example 18: Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De soir …” mm. 10-11
32
Example 19: Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De soir …” mm. 75-76
Example 20: Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De soir …” mm. 96-97
One slight difference between the Proses lyriques and Pelléas—likely a consequence of these songs’ more lyrical vocal line—is Debussy’s willingness to allow a voiced mute e to rise in pitch from the note preceding it—something not generally found in Pelléas.
Example 21: Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De rêve …” m. 32
Example 22: Claude Debussy, Proses lyriques, “De rêve …” mm. 54-56
Even in these few cases, Debussy never places the mute e in a strong rhythmic position.
In the Chansons de Bilitis (1897-98), Debussy is careful to deemphasize the mute e. As he would in Pelléas, Debussy assigns the mute e to a weak beat of short duration. In the Bilitis songs, however, Debussy uses the tie marking sparingly. Thus, in these three songs, there are only two occasions in which he uses the tie to minimize the articulation of the mute e. The first example is found in the first song, “La flûte de Pan.”
33
Example 23: Claude Debussy, Trois chansons de Bilitis, “La flûte de Pan”
mm. 26-27
The second occurs in the third song, “Le tombeau des Naïades.”
Example 24: Claude Debussy, Trois chansons de Bilitis, “Le tombeau des
Naïades” mm. 7-8
Only once in these songs does Debussy ask for an apocopation; at the end of the third song, “Le tombeau des Naïades,” Debussy shortens the word “pâle.”
Example 25: Claude Debussy, Trois chansons de Bilitis, “Le tombeau des
Naïades” mm. 27-28
Since, according to Grove Music, there were eighty-one songs written during this time frame, a broader study encompassing all of the remaining songs is needed in order to understand the full scope of Debussy’s approach to text setting.
Debussy’s Mélodies: Editions
It is difficult to determine the full extent of Debussy’s use of the tie as a means to minimize pronunciation of mute es in his song literature. This is the case because many of the songs exist in versions containing English singing translations underneath the
French. This necessitates the inclusion of additional ties and slurs where the
34 syllabification of the English text differs from that of the French. In this context, it is often difficult to ascertain whether a particular tie or slur applies to the French words or the English. The following passage serves as a representative example:
Example 26: Claude Debussy, “Les cloches” mm. 3-10
The English singing translation is printed in an unfortunate manner—why the apostrophe in the middle of “flowers,” and why the hyphen in “peep” as if it were a two-syllable word? While it is tempting to see the ties between the two syllables of “branches” and
“franches” as an indication of Debussy’s sensitivity to the language, the presence of a monosyllabic word in English at the same spots, which requires a tie marking to indicate that the same syllable be carried over two note, casts doubt on this interpretation.
The critical edition of Debussy’s songs prepared by James Briscoe in 1993 does not provide an adequate answer for the question of Debussy’s use of the tie. Briscoe explains his approach to Debussy’s ties in his foreword:
Final, unaccented e’s in French words customarily are not spoken but are sung in music. Often but not consistently in Debussy’s autograph manuscripts and first editions, the final tone setting the e was joined to the penultimate tone by a tie. Current practice discourages such ties into final e’s. In the present edition, they are eliminated except when an actual slur is in question.94
94 James Briscoe, Songs of Claude Debussy: A Critical Edition by James R. Briscoe (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, 1993), 5. 35 This decision treats Debussy’s ties as if they were a mere whim of the composer’s, rather than an important aspect of his detailed approach to text setting. A four-volume, critical edition of Debussy’s songs is planned by Durand-Salabert-Eschig. The author hopes that this issue will be given more thought in these volumes.
Debussy’s Influence on Ravel
In Debussy’s vocal music we find the inspiration for Ravel’s treatment of the mute e in the Histoires naturelles and L’Heure espagnole. In his attempt to create a natural prosody, Debussy de-emphasized the mute e in every case; his occasional use of grace notes to indicate a very lightly articulated mute e presaged Ravel’s own sparing use of this notation in L’Heure espagnole. However, the extent to which Ravel silenced mute es through apocopation was far more ambitious than Debussy. It is therefore unsurprising that Debussy objected so strenuously to Ravel’s Histoires naturelles; it was Debussy’s aim to create a natural declamation in his vocal works. He felt that Ravel’s approach was so pervasive that it could only be taken as a joke:
I agree with you in acknowledging that Ravel is exceptionally gifted, but what irritates me is his pos ture as a ‘trickster,’ or better yet, as an enchanting fakir, who can make flowers spring up around a chair. Unfortunately, a trick is always prepared, and it can astonish only once.95
Ravel’s Views on Appropriate Texts
In choosing texts to set to music, Ravel felt that free verse was preferable to regular verse. He praised Debussy’s use of a prose libretto for Pelléas. Ravel expanded on his reasons for setting free verse by noting verse’s limitations:
Regular verse, however, can lead to very beautiful results, provided the composer is willing to efface himself totally behind the poet and consents to follow the poem’s rhythms step-by-step,
95 Orenstein, A Ravel Reader, 87. 36 cadence-by-cadence, without ever displacing an accent or even an inflection. In short, if a composer wants to work with regular verse, his music must simply underline and sustain the poem, but it cannot interpret anything from it or add anything to it.96
Ravel seconded Debussy’s criticisms of opera for adding interpolated vocal melismas, arguing that such additions distorted lines of poetry, creating lines of greater length than originally intended by the poet. Given the primacy of the syllable count in
French poetry and Ravel’s sensitivity to it, it is understandable that he would be loath to commit such an egregious error.97
96 Peter Low, “French Words and Music a Century Ago: Composers’ Responses to a 1911 Survey,” Fontes Artis Musicae 52/3 (July/September 2005): 165. 97 Ibid. 37 CHAPTER 5 RAVEL’S NOTATION Clarity
Ravel provided insight into his compositional process and priorities in a lecture given at the Rice Institute in 1928:
“I may thus be occupied for years without writing a single note of the work…but there is still much time to be spent in eliminating everything that might be regarded as superfluous, in order to realize as completely as possible the longed-for final clarity.98”
According to Orenstein, Ravel was so meticulous that he continued correcting works long after they had been published.99 In The Gallic Muse, Laurence Davies compares Ravel’s “feeling for technical exactness” with the genius of a scientist in his ability to achieve perfection even down to the smallest detail.”100 In return, he expected performers to carefully follow his scores. He could be brutally frank with those who failed to follow his indications.
Two of the composer’s best-known spats were with noted performers of his era.
The pianist to whom the Concerto for Left Hand was dedicated, Paul Wittgenstein, took liberties with that score that angered Ravel. Consequently, Ravel declined to offer his support when Wittgenstein arrived in Paris to perform the work. In his defense, the
98 Maurice Ravel. “Contemporary Music,” Rice Institute Pamphlet, 15 (April 1928): 141. Reprinted in Arbie Orenstein, A Ravel Reader, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), 46. 99 Orenstein, “Maurice Ravel’s Creative Process,” 468. 100 Laurence Davies, The Gallic Muse (New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1967), 123. 38 pianist wrote to the composer, “Performers are not slaves.” Ravel wrote back to him,
“Performers are slaves.”101
In 1930, Ravel expressed his displeasure with Arturo Toscanini after a performance of Boléro by refusing the conductor’s congratulatory gesture. The conductor’s infraction had been to lead the New York Philharmonic in a performance that
Ravel deemed excessively fast.102
Madeleine Grey, one of Ravel’s favorite singers, said that Ravel “was terribly demanding to work with, because his scores left nothing to chance.”103 In 1937 Ravel was quite ill; nonetheless, having decided to program his Don Quichotte songs for a recital she was to give with Poulenc, Grey went to him for advice:
I…went to sing the three songs to him. When I had finished I asked if he had any observations to make. At first it seemed as though he did not have, but then, as though coming out of a dream he pointed with his index finger to a bar at the end of the ‘Chansons [sic] à boire’ where I had made a slight rallentando that was not in the score. Given his condition, Poulenc and I were both astonished.104
Deciphering Ravel’s Mute e Notation
In his own vocal scores, Ravel relied on the notation that was currently in vogue to indicate how to approach the mute e. Thus, in the Histoires naturelles, one finds ties used to minimize the pronunciation of the mute e as well as rhythms that lack room for the e, which seem to signify apocopation. For a composer as fastidious as Ravel, it is surprising to discover notational ambiguities at the center of his experiments with minimizing the mute e.
101 Roger Nichols, Ravel Remembered, 76-77. The translation is Nichols’s. 102 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 99. 103 Roger Nichols, Ravel Remembered, 84. 104 Ibid., 84-85. 39 Using a tie to minimize the pronunciation of a mute e is problematic, for the tie is already heavily burdened in vocal music. At the most basic level, it is used to seamlessly link two notes of the same pitch, whether in the same bar, or across bars. In the following example, the dotted quarter G-natural at the end of bar five is linked to that of bar six:
Example 27: Gabriel Fauré, “Dans les ruines d’une abbaye” mm. 5-6
In the next example, the tie is used to indicate a slightly pronounced mute e, at “lev-ent,” and “mê-me.”
Example 28: Maurice Ravel, Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” mm. 36-37
A slur—identical in appearance to the tie—is employed in vocal music when a single syllable is sustained between two different pitches. In Example x, the voice carries the [i] of “rires” from the E-flat to the A-flat:
Example 29: Gabriel Fauré, “Dans les ruines d’une abbaye” mm. 11-12
A slur connecting two distinct syllables, each assigned a different pitch, indicates a portamento.
Example 30: Claude Debussy, “Mandoline” mm. 43-44
40 There are a few instances in which the final two syllables of a word ending with a mute e are connected with a slur. What exactly does this mean? Take, for example, the following excerpts from the first song of the Histoires naturelles, “Le paon”:
Example 31: Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” mm. 23-24
Example 32: Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” m. 37
Are the slurs at “tremble” and “tête” meant to act like ties and indicate a slightly articulated e? Do they indicate portamentos? Since either seems possible, what is to prevent a performer from concluding that it is correct to attempt both concurrently? In order to find an answer to this question, we must first discuss portamento.
Portamento Notation
At the beginning of the twentieth century, portamento notation was not standardized. Thus, Ravel asked for portamento in a variety of ways. As discussed above, at times he used a slur to indicate portamento.
Example 33: Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” mm. 21-22
Sometimes these slurs were accompanied with text such as “portez le voix,” “trainez,” and “portando.”
41
Example 34: Histoires naturelles, “Le cygne” m. 11
At one point, he used a straight line to connect two pitches, indicating portamento. In the
Histoires naturelles, this line is accompanied with the indication “trainez.”
Example 35: Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” m. 32
Given his occasional use of a line to indicate portamento, one wonders why he did not always use it. Had he done so, he would have unburdened the slur of one of its functions and in doing so, would have removed some of the ambiguity concerning mute es.
The Slur and Portamento in L’Heure Espagnole
Intriguingly, Ravel toyed with combining the slur and a line indicating portamento in L’Heure espagnole. In measures 4 and 11 of scene XVI, Ravel uses a slur and a line on the word “femme.” The line clearly indicates a portamento. Thus the slur can only mean that he wants a lightly articulated mute e.
Example 36: L’Heure espagnole, Scene XVI mm. 4-5
42
Example 37: L’Heure espagnole, Scene XVI mm. 11-13
The same combination of notations is found in measure 27 of scene XIX at the word
“porte.”
Example 38: L’Heure espagnole, Scene XIX m. 27
In measure 17 of scene XVII, the slur and portamento again appear together.
Interestingly, Ravel asks for a portamento only on the first “dure.” The slur between the second two designates only a slight mute e.
Example 39: L’Heure espagnole, Scene XVII mm. 17-18
We find this same approach to the word “dure” in measures 34 and 35 of same scene.
Example 40: L’Heure espagnole, Scene XVII mm. 34-35
Fascinatingly, in the final Habañera, Gonzalve is clearly meant to perform a portamento in measure 59 at “casse.” Here, Ravel uses a line to connect the two syllables, which are placed on different pitches. He does not include a slur.
43
Example 41: L’Heure espagnole, Scene XXI m. 95
Of the five characters in L’Heure espagnole, only Gonzalve is instructed to sing
“lyrically, with affectation.” The others are advised to “speak more than sing.”105 To the author, the lack of a slur for Gonzalve offers further evidence that when Ravel does use the slur he wants a lightly articulated mute e. When he does not use one, he desires an intoned mute e.
Though we can have no absolutely definitive answer to the question of portamento at tremble and “tête,” the above examples offer strong evidence that when
Ravel desires a portamento and short mute e he writes both a line and a slur. Since at tremble and “tête” he only writes a slur, we can make the case that he wants no more than a brief mute e.
Grace Notes and Parentheses
Ravel occasionally resorts to other notations for the mute e. Though he does not do so in the Histoires naturelles, these are on exhibit at a few points in L’Heure espagnole. Measure 18 of scene XVI shows Ravel’s use of a grace note to lightly articulate a mute e.
105 “A part le Quintette final, et, en majeure partie, le role de Gonzalve, celle-ci lyrique avec affectation, dire plutôt que chanter (fins de phrases brèves, ports de voix, etc.).” Maurice Ravel, Preface to L’Heure espagnole (Durand, Paris: 1908). 44 Example 42: L’Heure espagnole, Scene XVI mm. 17-18
M. 4, scene XVIII provides another of the grace note; this time, however, the grace note is in parentheses.
Example 43: L’Heure espagnole, Scene XIII mm. 4-5
Measure 30 of scene 12 offers another example of this notation.
Example 44: L’Heure espagnole, Scene XII mm. 29-30
One must deduce that the grace note in parentheses is optional. In any case, it is difficult to explain why Ravel resorted to this notation and how it is different than the tie. Its infrequent presence in the score suggests that Ravel was searching for the right mute e notation far into the compositional process. Ravel seems not to have been taken with this notation; there is only one other instance of parentheses in all of Ravel’s vocal music written before WWI.106
Apocopation
The most striking development in both the Histoires naturelles and L’Heure espagnole is Ravel’s radically expanded use of apocopation. Though this is certainly not
106 Ravel used the grace note in “L’Indifférent” from Shéhérazade and in the Verlaine setting, “Sur l’herbe.” 45 done in every possible case, there is a huge increase in its frequency when compared to
Pelléas, where it was rarely employed.107
It too can be an imprecise notation. When an apocopation is used and the mute e is preceded by a vowel, one sustains this vowel through the length of the note, as one would do at the word “tendue” in this example from “Le martin-pêcheur.”
Example 45: “Le martin-pêcheur” mm. 6-7
If a consonant precedes a mute e, how does one articulate it? In cases like this one (from
“Le martin-pêcheur”), where the apocopation occurs at the end of a line of text, it seems likely that this notation
Example 46: “Le martin-pecheur” mm. 12-13 could be executed like this:
Example 47: “Le martin-pecheur” mm. 12-13
If, however, the apocopated word is in the middle of a line of text, does one articulate the consonant preceding the mute e so that it is connected with the next word? Does this example
107 Gribenski, “Chanter,” 10. 46
Example 48: “Le grillon” m. 36 end up being performed like this?
Example 49: “Le grillon” m. 36
We have no word from Ravel concerning these matters.
Text Underlay
Another puzzling aspect of Ravel’s two scores is the inconsistent approach to the syllabification in the text underlay. When he connects the last two syllables of a word with a mute e with a tie, he often does not connect the syllables with a hyphen. At other times he does.
In the Histoires naturelles there is a strong correlation between the tie and the absence of a hyphen in every song except for “Le grillon.” In “Le paon,” Ravel avoids using a hyphen in 22 out of 23 cases where he asks for a minimized mute e by writing a tie; in “Le grillon,” he avoids the hyphen only 4 out of 17 times; in “Le cygne,” he avoids the it 7 out of 13 times; in “Le martin-pêcheur,” 3 out of 5 times; and in “La pintade,” 17 out of 19 times.
In L’Heure espagnole Ravel writes a tie while avoiding placing a hyphen between the penultimate and ultimate syllables 150 times. For context, consider that there are 234 places where Ravel asks for an elision using a tie in the entire score. This means that there are 84 times when Ravel uses both the tie and a hyphen in the opera. Therefore,
47 Ravel was nearly twice as likely to use the tie without a hyphen in the text underlay as he was to use the tie with the hyphen.
Do these different approaches imply different articulations for the singer? Is there any difference in articulation between the following two examples from “La pintade’ and
“Le martin-pêcheur?”
Example 50: “La pintade” m. 14
Example 51: “Le martin-pêcheur” mm. 21-22
In the first example, the two notes corresponding to the word “tête” are tied, but there is no hyphen between the syllables. In the second, the two notes for “d’une” are tied and separated by a hyphen.
Answers
The answers to these questions of portamento, the articulation of consonants in apocopated words, and differences in tied notations with and without hyphens are elusive.
Though he did comment on the Histoires naturelles and L’Heure espagnole, he did not do so in a manner adequate to put these questions to rest.
48 In describing the correct approach to the Histoires naturelles, Ravel wrote, “The diction must lead the music,” and, “The text itself demanded a particular kind of musical declamation from me, closely related to the inflections of the French language.”108
He referred to L’Heure espagnole as a “conversation in music,” and in his short preface to the score he wrote, “Apart from the final Quintet, and for the most part, the role of
Gonzalve, which is lyric with affectation, speak more often than sing (brief phrase endings, portamento, etc,). It is, nearly the entire time, the quasi-parlando style of Italian buffo recitativo.”109
As helpful as these instructions are in a general sense, they do not answer the questions raised above. Because the supposedly scrupulous Ravel was surprisingly unspecific in detailing the execution of his notation in these two works, we must look to others for clarification. The recommendations of some noted performers are discussed below.
Jane Bathori
Jane Bathori was a vital presence in French vocal music in the early twentieth century. She was the first interpreter of many important works, including those by
Debussy, Milhaud, Hahn, and Ravel. In 1907, she premiered the Histoires naturelles with
Ravel at the piano.
Bathori’s statements about the Histoires naturelles are not uniformly helpful. In a
1938 interview for La revue musicale, she describes Ravel’s approach in general terms,
108 Hélène Jourdan-Morhange, Ravel et nous (Geneva: Éditions du milieu du monde, 1945), 209; Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 31. 109 Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 31; Maurice Ravel, L’Heure espagnole. See also n. 105 for the original French. 49 making no distinction between those es that are notated with a tie, those that are avoided through apocopation, and those that are sounded.
It is correct to say that in the Histoires naturelles, Ravel had completely broken with what is customarily called ‘melody.’ The voice was subservient to the prosody, which embraced the text to such an extent that the mute es were no longer heard. This procedure, which Ravel also used in L’Heure espagnole, disconcerted quite a few singers, but made them acquire a more supple and 110 more animated diction.
However, in another interview in 1947, she expressed a more subtle approach to the mute es:
I would love to tell you how much trouble the prosody of these melodies gave me because Ravel suppressed the pronunciation of the mute es. He didn’t want to remove completely the length of the note, but it was necessary to suspend the articulation and prolong the sound up to the following syllable. For example: “il va sûrement se marier aujourd’hui.” He didn’t want “sûrment” but “sûrement.” In our time this seems natural because we have removed the inappropriate interest from the mute es that was formerly there, but in 1906 it was quite new.111
Example x shows the passage in question.
Example 52: Histoires naturelles: “Le paon” mm. 8-9
Bathori’s own recording of three of the Histoires naturelles—in which she accompanies herself—offers corroboration. At the passage in question, she prolongs the sixteenth note of “sûr” to such an extent that the sixteenth note of “re” becomes a thirty- second note.112
110 Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 549. 111 Catharine Mary Schwab, “The mélodie française moderne,” 252. The translation is Schwab’s. 112 Maurice Ravel, “Le paon.” In Jane Bathori, The Complete Solo Recordings, Marston Records, recorded in 1999. Compact disc. 50 Example 53: Histoires naturelles: “Le paon” mm. 8-9, Jane Bathori’s recording
Pierre Bernac
The esteemed French baritone, Pierre Bernac, was chiefly known as the recital partner of Francis Poulenc. Bernac was also the author of a highly influential book on the mélodie: The Interpretation of French Song. In it, he writes about the Histoires naturelles: “The declamation is quite unique in French vocal literature. It involves daring elisions of the final weak syllables (final [!]) which must be observed.”113
Bernac’s book features the texts of each song that he discusses. These texts are marked to show liaison and elision. In the texts to the Histoires naturelles, Bernac has crossed out all of the final es that correspond to tie markings and apocopations.
Curiously, Bernac makes no distinction between the two notations.
His recording of the Histoires naturelles, with Poulenc at the piano, demonstrates an articulation less severe than his book implies. Though he deemphasizes the mute e in all cases, he is careful not to avoid it entirely. Unlike Bathori, he does not make a practice of elongating the vowel prior to the mute e syllable.114
Robert Gartside
Robert Gartside studied with Bernac. His book, Interpreting the Songs of Maurice
Ravel, is a helpful guide in the style of Bernac's; he offers his descriptions of the songs,
I.P.A. transcriptions, and dramatic advice for singers.115 In an e-mail to the author, he
113 Pierre Bernac, The Interpretation of French Song (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1978), 250. 114 Maurice Ravel, “Histoires naturelles.” In A Recital by Pierre Bernac, baritone, and Francis Poulenc, piano, Columbia Records 4333, 1950. LP. 115 Robert Gartside, Interpreting the Songs of Maurice Ravel (Geneseo, NY: Leyerle Publications, 1992). 51 wrote that in the case of the opening of “Le paon” and others like it, Bernac advised sustaining the syllable of “sûr” as long as possible, then barely articulating the “r.” This approach is different than that of his own recording, but similar to that of Bathori.116
Pierre de Bréville’s Foreword: Note sur l’e muet
The most important information on how to navigate Ravel’s notation comes from a composer who was only tangentially connected to Ravel, and whose songs are almost completely unknown today. Pierre de Bréville was best known for his opera, Eros vainqueur; in a review of a concert given by the Lamoureux Orchestra in 1912, Ravel praised it as “an opera of great musical distinction.”117 Bréville wrote a number of songs, and, like Ravel and Debussy, was quite concerned with prosody. Bréville, however, went further than his contemporaries, writing a foreword—“Note on the mute e”—to his
Oeuvres vocales (1914). In it, he provided instructions on how to articulate the mute e in different situations. Though these songs were published seven years after the premiere of the Histoires naturelles, the information contained in the preface corresponds to advice given by Jane Bathori:
The mute e should never be accentuated, even if it is placed on a strong beat. In the body of a word—or even at the end of a word followed immediately by another that begins with a consonant—it is pronounced with all of its sonority, softly but firmly. At the end of a word followed by a rest, it augments the intensity or the duration of the preceding syllable. If it is placed on a different note than the preceding syllable and is not connected to that note [with a slur], it is given its full rhythmic value, but it is brief and unweighted.118
116 E-mail to the author, December 19, 2008. 117 Orenstein, A Ravel Reader, 340. 118 “L’e muet ne doit jamais être accentué, fût-il place sur le temps dit «temps fort». Dans le corps d’un mot,--o ou bien à la fin d’un mot suivi immédiatement d’un autre commençant par une consoone,--il se prononce avec toute sa sonorité douce mais précise. À la fin d’un mot suivi d’un silence il augmente l’intensité ou la durée de la syllable qui le précède. S’il se trouve sur une note différente de celle affectée à cette syllable et non liée à cette note, il se prononce en valeur, mais bref et sans appui. Si la note qui lui est attribuée est liée à la précédente, il apparaît, presque imperceptible, non 52
Example 54: Pierre de Bréville, Oeuvres vocales
If the note to which it is attached is tied to the preceding note, it should appear, nearly 119 imperceptibly, not with its apparent value, but only as the voice releases.
Bréville includes the following two examples at this point, noting that the notation in the first example is “roughly equivalent” to that of the second. In the first example, a tie connects the two syllables of “douce.”
Example 55: Pierre de Bréville, Oeuvres vocales
This explanation is precisely in accord with Bathori’s approach in her recording of the
Histoires naturelles. In both cases, “as the voice releases” appears to mean a sixteenth note.
The second example, however, uses a slur to connect the two syllables of
“mousse.” Bréville’s clarification of this notation shows that he wants the singer to perform a portamento before slightly articulating the e. This example offers a solution to the puzzling cases of “tête” and “tremble” discussed above. The execution of this slur is similar to the approach taken by Jane Bathori in her recording of three of the Histoires
avec sa valeur apparente mais à l’expiration de la voix.” Bréville, Pierre de, Preface to Oeuvres vocales (Paris: Rouart, 1914). 119 Gribenski, “Chanter,” 41. 53 naturelles.120 It is the same advice that Pierre Bernac and Robert Gartside give in their books.121
Example 56: Pierre de Bréville, Oeuvres vocales
In a footnote to these two examples, Bréville writes, “Where absolute accuracy was necessary, the notation indicates it.”
Example 57: Pierre de Bréville, Oeuvres vocales
This dovetails with Bréville’s instructions and Bathori’s recording. It also clarifies
Bernac’s instructions, demonstrating that what he meant by “daring elisions of mute e syllables” was flexible.
Approaches to Apocopation Notation
As we have seen, the following phrase is representative of Ravel’s notation in the
Histoires naturelles. Note that in this brief example there are four apocopations, in
“frénétique,” “elle,” “vautre,” and “terre.”
120 See n. 112. 121 Pierre Bernac, French Song, 250; Robert Gartside, Maurice Ravel, 63. 54 Example 58: Histoires naturelles: “La pintade” mm. 44-45
Bréville emphatically avoids this ambiguous notation, preferring to place the e in parentheses if it is to be apocopated. In his preface he writes in large type, “L’(e) ne doit pas être prononcé (The e in parentheses should not be pronounced). He then provides examples of what his notation means: “It is carefully indicated after a vowel:
This is roughly the same as
After a consonant, without any value of its own, it prolongs the consonant.
This is roughly the same as
as in sens.”122
Example 59: Pierre de Bréville, Oeuvres vocales
There is no mention of Bréville in Ravel’s instructions for these two vocal works.
The existence of Bréville’s own explanation indicates that there was no standard
122 “Il est à peine indiqué après une voyelle: (see Example 59) equivant à peu près à (see Example 59). Après une consonne, sans valeur personnelle, il prolonge cette consonne (see Example 59): équivaut à peu près à (see Example 59) comme dans sens. Bréville, Preface to Oeuvres vocales. 55 procedure for navigating the varieties of notation dealing with the mute e. Even though
Bréville’s “Note” appeared a few years after the publication of Ravel’s Histoires naturelles, the author believes that because Bathori’s explanation of Ravel’s intentions so closely matches Bréville’s approach, one should consider his advice quite closely when performing Ravel’s works.
Premiere Recording of L’Heure espagnole
In listening to the 1929 recording supervised by Ravel, one is struck by how quickly the phrases pass by.123 L’Heure espagnole is truly a conversation in music. When the singers slow down, however, one can detect a consistent approach to the articulation of the ties. This approach approximates that put forth by Bréville.
Example 60: L’Heure espagnole: Scene I mm. 11-13
Example 61: L’Heure espagnole: Scene I mm. 11-13, 1929 Recording
123 Maurice Ravel, “L’Heure espagnole.” VAI Audio, 1073, 1929. Compact disc. 56 CHAPTER 6
REVISIONS TO THE HISTOIRES NATURELLES
Elden Stuart Little: Consistencies and Discrepancies
As discussed above, the premiere of the Histoires naturelles was a scandalous affair. One of the primary reasons for the uproar was Ravel’s decision to suppress many of the mute es in Renard’s prose texts. In his doctoral treatise, Discrepancies and
Consistencies among Autograph Manuscripts and Durand Editions of Maurice Ravel’s
Songs, Elden Stuart Little documented the significant changes between the autograph manuscript and the published score of the Histoires naturelles.124 The manuscripts of many of Ravel’s works, including these songs, are housed at the Carlton Lake Collection at The University of Texas at Austin.
The autograph manuscripts demonstrate that until late in the process of composing the Histoires naturelles, Ravel had a drastically different conception of just how many of these mute es to silence. In fact, it seems that Ravel’s radical reimagining of his approach to the French language was originally less than radical. This discovery is akin to finding out that Ravel, during the 1905 Prix de Rome, decided only at the last second to change the ending of his choral work to an alarming number of parallel fifths, after having completed a version with perfect voice leading.
A striking aspect of Ravel’s changes was his increased use of apocopation:
In all five songs there are numerous examples where Ravel changed his mind and erased two notes meant for a two-syllable word—words in which the final syllable is mute or unvoiced—in favor of a single note for both syllables.125
124 Elden Stuart Little, “Discrepancies and Consistencies among Autograph Manuscripts and Durand Editions of Maurice Ravel's Songs,” (D.M.A. treatise, The University of Texas at Austin, 1995). 125 Ibid, 36. 57
Though he used the tie frequently in the Histoires naturelles, evidently he did not find it adequate for his revisions. He thus departed from the standard approach of placing mute es on unimportant notes in the musical phrase—the approach recommended by
Grétry—by dealing with mute e syllables in the most radical fashion possible.
Little commented on the likelihood that Ravel revised the songs shortly before the premiere:
If Ravel had reached the decision to notate both syllables, including the mute final syllable, with a single note earlier in their composition, there would not have been a need for so many erasures. Therefore, it seems quite possible that he made these changes after all five songs were written, and perhaps at a late stage in this cycle’s preparation for performance and publication by Durand.126
Others have noted that editing close to a premiere was not unusual for Ravel; in this case, it may well have taken place after he had met with his singer, Jane Bathori.
Orenstein explains: “Nuances of phrasing, tempo, and dynamics were frequently added during rehearsals with his interpreters. Ravel generally had a specific performer in mind when composing his vocal works, and he sought intelligent, artistic singers with superior musicianship.”127 It seems likely that working with a performer of Bathori’s sensitivity and intelligence contributed—at least in part—to Ravel’s decision to make these changes.
Changes to the Syllabification of the Vocal Line
Though he made other modifications to the vocal line, a breakdown of Ravel’s changes demonstrates that most involve reducing the number of mute es by means of apocopation. In “Le paon,” Ravel made a total of twelve changes; in eight cases he substituted a single note for two smaller notes, as in the following example. Here we see that the fully sounded mute e present as the second syllable of “riches” in m. 19 of the
126 Ibid., 37-38. 127 Orenstein, “Ravel’s Creative Process,” 473. 58 manuscript of “Le paon” has been eliminated by means of apocopation in the published score:
Example 62: Histoires naturelles: Autograph Manuscript, “Le paon” m. 19
Example 63: Histoires naturelles: Published Score, “Le paon” m. 19
The remaining four changes, in mm. 12, 13, 33, and 45, are similar in effect. Though many of the apocopations simply created a note equal in value to the two that it replaced, in cases where Ravel had originally envisioned compound rhythms, the elimination of a note changed this rhythm. This is seen in m. 45 of “Le paon,” where a quintuplet is modified so that it becomes four sixteenth notes.128 Example x:
Example 64: Histoires naturelles: Autograph Manuscript, “Le paon” mm. 45-
46
Example 65: Histoires naturelles: Published Score, “Le paon” m. 45-46
128 These changes are culled from pp. 39-47 of Little’s treatise. 59 In the second song, “Le grillon,” Ravel made five changes. All five changes removed the pronunciation of a mute e by replacing two notes with one note. With only three changes, “Le cygne”—the most lyrical song—received the least modification. In each case, Ravel substituted a single note for two smaller notes. Ravel made four total revisions in “Le martin-pêcheur.” The first, in m. 4, changed a triplet to two eighths. The remaining three replaced two small notes with a single larger note equal in value to the two smaller notes. In “La pintade,” the final song of the Histoires naturelles, Ravel made nineteen changes; all of these changes silenced final es.
Other Observations from Ravel’s Revisions
In revising the Histoires naturelles, Ravel demonstrated a commitment to reducing mute es. He never worked in the opposite direction; once he had notated an apocopation he did not change it so that the mute e was fully sounded.
One notes that Ravel’s notational preferences changed over the course of composing the Histoires naturelles; while at the outset he may have been satisfied with using the tie to indicate a lightly articulated mute e, he preferred to use apocopation when revising his manuscripts. Though he originally used apocopation at the ends of lines of text, Ravel’s revisions to the Histoires naturelles created many in the middle of lines. He seems not to have preferred this, since in L’Heure espagnole he avoided using apocopation in the middle of lines.
Ravel did not abandon the tie entirely. Though he could have easily removed all vestiges of it in the Histoires naturelles during his revisions, he preferred to leave it in place where he had already written it. In revising the Histoires naturelles, only once did
60 he replace two eighth notes connected with a tie with a single quarter. Measure 25 of “Le grillon” contains the only instance.129
Example 66: Histoires naturelles Autograph Manuscript: “Le grillon” mm.
24-25
Example 67: Histoires naturelles Published Version: “Le grillon” mm. 24-25
Apocope Prior to the Revisions
Ravel employed apocope even before his extensive revisions. In contrast to
Fauré’s and Debussy’s settings of “Mandoline” (see p. 28), and foreshadowing the approach he would use in L'Heure espagnole, Ravel often avoided voicing the final e at the ends of lines of text.
In m. 12 of “Le paon,” “Il n’attendait que sa fiancée,” the ‘cée’ is given a quarter note, thus avoiding the final e.
Example 68: Histoires naturelles: “Le paon” mm. 11-12
In m. 24, “lyre” is given a single quarter note.
129 Little, Discrepancies, 42. 61 Example 69: Histoires naturelles: “Le paon” mm. 23-24
Another occurrence of “fiancée” in m. 33 demonstrates a similar approach to m. 12:
There is no room left for the schwa.
Example 70: Histoires naturelles: “Le paon” m. 33
Ravel’s Motivation for the Revisions
Ravel’s motivation for his revisions remains a mystery. Though one cannot rule out the possibility that Ravel was calculating that his apocopes would get a rise out of his audience, one could argue more persuasively and satisfyingly that it was Ravel’s sensitivity to his texts that led him to revise the Histoires naturelles and to employ the diversity of approaches seen above. He was, after all, a composer keenly interested in poetry. This is confirmed by his close association with poets such as Tristan Klingsor and
Léon-Paul Fargue, and his astute comments (mentioned above) concerning the appropriateness of certain types of text for opera.130
Further, Ravel was insistent that texts be comprehensible in musical settings; in a review entitled “The Witch at the Opéra-Comique” he lamented the influence of
Wagnerian prosody on French opera, writing, “…And the comprehensibility of the text, which is necessary in the theater, can only suffer as a result. Even M. Périer, whose clarity of diction is exceptional, did not always succeed in making every word intelligible.”131 In a letter to Le Figaro shortly before the premiere of L’Heure espagnole,
130 Chapter 4, 38. 131 Orenstein, Ravel Reader, 354. 62 Ravel expanded on this idea: “The French language, like any other, has its own accents and musical inflections, and I do not see why one should not take advantage of these qualities in order to arrive at correct prosody.”132
Ravel’s attention to the smallest detail is seen in his care to preserve an important feature of the prose text at one key point in Franc-Nohain’s L’Heure espagnole. In scene
XX, Ravel highlights an enjambment in Franc-Nohain’s prose. According to David
Hunter, enjambment in French verse is a far more dramatic device than in English, and
Ravel is sure to highlight it.133 In a note to the performer, Ravel writes, “Mark the enjambment by taking a half-breath.”
Example 71: L’Heure espagnole, Scene XX mm. 24-25
Surely, a composer so fastidious in his attention to details such as these could not but be aware of the effects of changing his notation so that es that had been lightly articulated were no longer heard at all.
A Flexible Approach to Diction
Ravel did not systematically remove every mute e. Though his revisions indicate that he found an expanded role for apocopation, he continued to use the tie notation in the
Histoires naturelles and later works such as L’Heure espagnole and “Sur l’herbe.” He even chose to intone a mute e on occasion, demonstrating a flexible approach to diction.
This variety of approaches is found in mm. 21-24 of “Le paon.” Here we see vocal
132 Orenstein, Ravel: Man, 56. 133 Hunter, Understanding French Verse, 14. 63 portamentos at “L’amour” and “tremble,” a mute e minimized by the use of a tie at avive,” and apocopation at “lyre.”
Example 72: Histoires naturelles: “Le paon” mm. 21-25
From the Histoires naturelles to L’Heure espagnole
Ravel himself noted that the Histoires naturelles were studies for L’Heure espagnole. This holds true for the development of musical material as well as his treatment of the mute e. Vladimir Jankélévitch, in Maurice Ravel, and Keith Edward
Clifton, in Maurice Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole: Genesis, Sources, Analysis, detail the transformation of musical material from the songs to the opera.134
Jankélévitch provides examples of music from the Histoires naturelles transformed subtly in L’Heure espagnole.
Example 73: Histoires naturelles: “Le paon” mm. 51-52
134 Vladimir Jankélévitch, Maurice Ravel (Paris: Seuil, 1939), 28-29; Keith Edward Clifton, “Maurice Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole: Genesis, Sources, Analysis” (Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern, 1998), 19-26. 64
Example 74: L’Heure espagnole, Scene III m. 17
Example 75: Histoires naturelles, “Le grillon” Jankélévitch's reduction of mm. 45-51
Example 76: L’Heure espagnole, Scene II Jankélévitch's reduction of mm. 17-19
Keith Edward Clifton notes that “Le paon” contains much of the musical material for the pompous character Don Iñigo, and that the bride that the peacock waits for in vain is analogous to Concepcion, who Don Iñigo pursues to no avail.135 The following example demonstrates how the dotted rhythms characteristic of the peacock are carried over into Don Iñigo’s theme.
Example 77: Histoires naturelles, “Le paon” mm. 1-2
135 Clifton, 21-22. 65
Example 78: L’Heure espagnole, Scene VII mm. 1-2
The author has noticed a strong correlation between music from “Le martin-pêcheur” and
Ramiro’s theme:
Example 79: Histoires naturelles, “Le martin-pêcheur” mm. 12-13
Example 80: L’Heure espagnole, Scene V m. 1
The promotion of apocopation in L’Heure espagnole is yet another demonstration of
Ravel’s obsession with prosody. That he uses it more often than the tie furthers the trend that began with his revisions to the draft manuscripts of the Histoires naturelles. He either felt that the tie lacked specificity, or that even a lightly articulated e was too much before punctuation.
Comparing the Vocal and Orchestral Scores of L’Heure espagnole
66 The vocal score to L’Heure espagnole was completed in 1907. Ravel finished the orchestral score in 1909. A little-known aspect of Ravel’s compositional process in this opera involves changes between the two versions of the score.
The most pervasive changes again pertain to the syllabification of the vocal line.
In the opera’s first scene, there are six such changes. Five of these involve changing two tied notes to a single note. This is a revision that Ravel undertook only once in the
Histoires naturelles. We see that the first two changes of this kind occur in mm. 8 and 9 at the words “office” and “fixe.”
Example 81: L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 8-9, Vocal Score
Example 82: L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 8-9, Orchestral Score
The next is found at in m. 17 at the word “famille.”
Example 83: L’Heure espagnole, Scene I m. 16, Vocal Score
Example 84: L’Heure espagnole, Scene I m. 16, Orchestral Score
The last two occur in mm. 25 at “Barcelone” and 33 at “corne.”
67
Example 85: L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 24-25, Vocal Score
Example 86: L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 24-25, Orchestral Score
Example 87: L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 32-33, Vocal Score
Example 88: L’Heure espagnole, Scene I mm. 32-33, Orchestral Score
Another revision changed two tied eighth notes to a single eighth plus an eighth rest—a type of revision not found in the Histoires naturelles. (Example)
Example 89: L’Heure espagnole, Scene I m. 11, Vocal Score
Example 90: L’Heure espagnole, Scene I m. 11, Orchestral Score
Ravel made changes in other scenes, but nowhere are they more pervasive than in the first scene. It is not clear why this is so; perhaps he had more pressing matters to attend to: Whereas he could affect a great deal of change in a discrete amount of time in
68 the Histoires naturelles, the scope of the opera, with its twenty-one scenes, may have proved too time-consuming a task. Nevertheless, the changes indicate a close attention to prosody akin to the manner in which he revised the Histoires naturelles.
69 CHAPTER 7
TIE AND APOCOPE IN OTHER PRE-WWI SONGS
Introduction: Use of Ties and Apocope in Early Songs
The songs Ravel wrote before the outbreak of WWI reveal different approaches to prosody.136 Some, such as “Chanson du rouet,” “Noël des jouets,” “Si morne!” the
Épigrammes de Clément Marot, “Manteau de fleurs,” and “Surgi de la croupe et du bond,” are straightforward in their approach to prosody. In them, all final, mute es are given short, metrically unimportant notes. There is no instance in any of these songs where Ravel accents or sustains a mute e in a manner consistent with that which the author explored in Fauré and Debussy’s settings of “Mandoline.” Other songs, such as
“Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer,” “Sainte,” Shéhérazade, “Les grands vents d’outremer,” and “Sur l’herbe,” reveal a more nuanced and forward-looking method in text setting. What follows is a brief discussion of Ravel’s notation in these pre-WWI songs.
“Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” (ca. 1893)
Ravel’s earliest song, “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” (ca. 1893), demonstrates a careful approach to prosody. Ravel is so fastidious that he indicates the obligatory elisions in the text underlay, as seen in Example x:
Example 91: “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” mm. 4-5
136 The author has not included the folk song settings, since they do not concern themselves with nuances of prosody. 70
He also takes pains to precisely notate articulation, making frequent use of subtle markings such as tenutos and staccatos, as seen below at “Un soir triste d’automne roux.”
Example 92: “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” mm. 13-14
At times he even employs a tenuto accompanied by a staccato.
Example 93: “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” mm. 29--34
With such demonstrated attention to detail, it is not surprising to find instances of the tie and apocope in “Ballade.” Roland de Marès’s poem features lines eight syllables in length. Since the last syllable is not tallied in the syllable count if it is a mute e, Ravel has occasionally dispensed with it, by means of apocopation. This is seen above at the word “Reine” in example 91. Elsewhere in the same song, Ravel is content to voice a mute e.
Example 94: “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” mm. 17-18
Ravel also uses the tie in this song, presumably in the manner of a long-short articulation, such as the one found at “clochettes” in the next example.
71 Example 95: “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” mm. 38-39
A few bars earlier, we encounter a confusing use of the tie marking quite similar to one that we encountered in the Histoires naturelles. What is the meaning of the slur marks in this context?
Example 96: “Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer” m. 26
Does the slur between the two syllables of “Belle” imply a long-short articulation?
Should this articulation be accompanied, à la Bréville, with a portamento between the A5 and E5? The slur between the two syllables of “toute” is even more confusing. What is gained by adding a staccato to the second syllable? Should it be even shorter than usual?
And does the slur imply that both staccato eighth notes are shorter than the second syllable of “blanche?”
“Un grand sommeil noir” (1895)
This setting of a dark Verlaine poem features a subdued vocal line which, except for a dramatic outburst, is mostly content to repeat a single note: G#2.
Example 97: “Un grand sommeil noir” mm. 4-15
As in “Ballade,” this song features a number of tenuto markings employed to emphasize certain words.
72 In “Un grand sommeil noir,” which is composed of lines of five syllables, Ravel does not deal with mute es in a consistent manner. There are no examples of apocopation in this song, and only two instances where Ravel uses a tie to minimize the articulation of final es. However, these two examples feature the ambiguous use of a slur. The first example, at “mémoire” in m. 20, forces one to ask the same questions as usual when confronting this notation: Is this a portamento? Does Ravel desire a minimized mute e?
Example 98: “Un grand sommeil noir” m. 20
The second example, in m. 24, is different from the first only in its lack of a hyphen between the last two syllables of “histoire.”
Example 99: “Un grand sommeil noir” m. 24
This is an early example of the same ambiguous notation found in a few instances in the
Histoires naturelles.137
“Sainte” (1896)
This song, Ravel’s first setting of Mallarmé, features a piano accompaniment similar in effect to that of “Un grand sommeil noir.” Both share repetitive cells of chords in quarter notes. The non-functional harmony and ninth chords are reminiscent of Satie, who was to dedicate his Sarabande No. 2 to Ravel in 1897.
137 See Chapter 5, 48-49 for a discussion of this notation. 73
Example 100: “Un grand sommeil noir” mm. 1-2
Example 101: “Sainte” mm. 1-2
Example 102: Erik Satie, Sonneries de la rose + croix, “Air du grand prieur”
First system
In this song Ravel is quite concerned with mute es, either entirely avoiding or minimizing them when they appear at the end of each octosyllabic line. In m. 4 Ravel notates “dédore” with tied staccatos (Example x); in mm. 13-14 he leaves no room for the mute e (Example x).
Example 103: “Sainte” mm. 2-4
Example 104: “Sainte” mm. 13-14
74 Another important aspect of Ravel’s setting of “Sainte” is the composer’s care in marking the poem’s frequent enjambments, such as the one found in Example x above. Ravel, as we have seen in L’Heure espagnole, was almost always careful to alert the singer to enjambment.138
“Chanson du rouet” (1898)
In the seldom-heard “Chanson du rouet,” Ravel avoids both the tie and apocope.
This is almost certainly because Leconte de Lisle’s decasyllabic poem does not employ the mute e at the ends of lines. This song features careful attention to the text underlay; in each of the seven elisions, Ravel has carefully placed the elided syllable directly against the syllable that he would like to be pronounced, such below, at “l’aube avec.”
Example 105: “Chanson du rouet” mm. 14-16
He does not, however, link the syllables as he did in the opening measures of “Ballade de la Reine morte d’aimer.”
“Si morne!” (1898)
In “Si morne!” Ravel provides Emile Verhaeren’s poem with a moody setting, redolent of Debussy’s impressionist style. As in “Chanson de rouet,” the text underlay is designed to easily show the poem’s elisions, such as the elision between “morne!” and
“et!” in m. 15.
138 See Chapter 5, 64 . 75 Example 106: “Si morne!” mm. 14-16
Another similarity to “Chanson de rouet” is Ravel’s avoidance of the use of the tie and apocope. In every case of a mute e, Ravel places it on an unimportant note in the phrase, thus following Grétry’s advice. Note Ravel’s approach in the following example at the “- res” of “moires” and the “-tes” of “fondantes."
Example 107: “Si morne!” m. 23
Épigrammes de Clément Marot (1895-9)
“D’Anne qui me jecta de la neige.”
Ravel’s text setting in this song is, for him, conservative. There are no minimized or apocopated mute es to be found anywhere in the song. This is almost certainly due to
Ravel’s desire that this song, and its companion, “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette” breathe the air of antiquity, given its sixteenth-century origins. The only unusual aspect in
Ravel’s setting is found in m. 9. Here, Ravel chooses to highlight two of the decasyllabic poem’s details. The lines in question are:
“Puisque le feu loge secretement
Dedans la neige, où trouveray-je place”
In example 108 we see that Ravel has highlighted the enjambement by means of a phrase mark.
Example 108: “D’Anne que me jecta de la neige.” mm. 8-9
76 In an unusual detail, Marot has placed a comma after “neige.” Were there no comma, one would elide the final e of “neige’ into “où.” Since there is a comma, however, the reader is left with a choice of whether to observe it or not to observe it. If one observes this comma, as Ravel does, the line is left with an extra syllable. If one glides through it, the proper number of syllables is retained. (See Example above)
“D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.”
In this song, Ravel continues his standard approach to the mute e, with a few important and interesting exceptions. Marot’s poem, like the first of this two-song set, is made up of decasyllabic lines. Ravel approaches situations in which a line ends with a mute e by placing it on a weak beat of short duration as in the “-te” of “brunette” and the
“-te” of “l’espinette” found in the next two examples.
Example 109: “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” m. 8
Example 110: “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” m. 10
At two points in his setting, Ravel deals with situations in which elision is called for; at these two points, his notation is slightly confusing. The second line of the poem reads,
“Jeune, en bon point, de la ligne des Dieux,”
Ravel removes the comma after “Jeune,” necessitating an elision of its final e. Though the text underlay moves the “ne” of this word a little to the right of where it would be written were it to be pronounced, Ravel’s use of a quarter tied to an eighth presents the
77 performer with an unnecessarily complicated notation. Had he simply written a dotted quarter for the word “Jeune,” the performer would know to elide its final e into the following vowel.
Example 111: “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” m. 9
Example 112: “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” m. 9
Interestingly, Ravel’s removal of the comma after “Jeune” seems to stand in contrast with his decision to honor a similarly placed comma in m. 9 of the previous song, discussed above. While it is tempting to read into this lack of a comma, it is certainly possible that
Ravel’s copy of Marot’s poem simply did not include a comma, or that it was a case of oversight on Ravel’s part.
There is one final detail worth noting in this discussion of Ravel’s text setting; in the fifth and seventh lines of the poem, Marot’s final words contain glides:
5 “J’ay du plaisir, et d’oreilles et d’yeulx”
7 “Et autant qu’eulx je devien glorieux”
According to David Hunter, the rules of how to treat contiguous vowels such at the “ye” of “dyeulx” and then “ie” of “glorieux,” “Are highly complex, drawing on the historic roots of specific words and the prevailing poetic practice at various points in the history
78 of French verse….”139 What is clear, however, is that in order to preserve the necessary ten syllables per line, one must treat “d’yeulx” and “glorieux” differently; in the case of
“d’yeulx,” one must consider it a monosyllabic word in order for there to be ten syllables.
In the case of “glorieux,” however, one must give it three syllables in order for there to be ten in the line. In his setting, Ravel gives “d’yeulx” two syllables, resulting in a line of eleven syllables.
Example 113: “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” m. 13
In the case of “glorieux,” he correctly gives it three syllables.
Example 114: “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” mm. 15-16
One last feature of Ravel’s setting is his care in asking for a portamento where he has highlighted Marot’s enjambment between the last two lines of the poem.
Example 115: “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” mm. 15-17
“Manteau des fleurs” (1903)
Though Ravel’s decision to set Paul Gravollet’s poem is considered “a rare lapse in judgment” by Ravel’s most important scholar, Ravel’s notation is unusually and
139 Hunter, 11. 79 wonderfully clear.140 “Manteau de fleurs” is the first poem set by Ravel that does not follow a consistent syllabic pattern. Thus, one finds lines between eight and thirteen syllables in length. At points where elision is called for, Ravel clearly indicates it, in contrast to his approach in the previous song, “D’Anne jouant de l’espinette.” Thus, in example 116, m. 30, the “-se” and “un“ share A5, and in example 117, it is clear that only the “é” of “rosée” is to be pronounced.
Example 116: “Manteau de fleurs” mm. 30-31
Example 117: “Manteau de fleurs” mm. 37-38
In “Manteau de fleurs” Ravel elects to sound every mute e, in strong contrast to the other songs he would compose in 1903, Shéhérazade.
Shéhérazade (1903)
With the composition of Shéhérazade, Ravel completed his first thoroughly speech-driven songs. Though the poem “Manteau de fleurs” featured lines of different lengths, we have seen that Ravel’s approach was to provide every instance of an un- elided mute e with its own note, free of ties. This is not the case in Shéhérazade.
In what cannot be coincidental to Ravel’s new approach, Shéhérazade is the first set of songs for which Ravel had direct access to the poet, Tristan Klingsor. Klingsor
140 Arbie Orenstein, “Maurice Ravel: Songs 1896-1914,” Notes on the Music, (New York: Dover Editions, 1990), xi. 80 described Ravel’s approach to text setting: “For Ravel, setting a poem meant transforming it into expressive recitative, to exalt the inflections of speech to the state of song, to magnify all the possibilities of the word, but not to subjugate it. Ravel made himself the servant of the poet.”141
Cornelia Petersen recognizes the strong influence of Debussy on these songs:
“The strong change of his prosody after the experience of Pelléas underlines the central meaning of Debussy’s prosody for Ravels own speech settings.”142
“Asie”
Ravel’s new approach is found at the very beginning of the first song, “Asie.”
Here, Ravel does not intone the final e.
Example 118: Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 3-4
He would use the same approach for other country names later in the same song.
Example 119: Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 83-86
Far more common in these songs, however, is Ravel’s use of a tie to minimize the articulation of a final e. In “Asie,” Ravel uses the tie nineteen times. Interestingly, in all
141 Tristan Klingsor, preface to Maurice Ravel, Collected Songs for Medium-Low Voice (Paris: Editions Durand, 2004). 142 “Die starke Wandlung seiner Prosodie nach dem Erlebnis des Pelleas unterstreicht die zentrale Bedeutung der Prosodie Debussys für Ravels eigene Sprachvertonungen.” Petersen, Die Lieder von Maurice Ravel, 57. 81 but one case he places a hyphen between the two syllables connected by the tie, much as
Debussy did in Pelléas et Mélisande, and in contrast to his own approach in the Histoires naturelles. The one case—at “penche” in m. 79—where Ravel does not use a hyphen can reasonably be explained by the spacing in the score.
Example 120: Shéhérazade, “Asie” m. 79
Throughout Asie and Shéhérazade, Ravel’s approach is not dogmatic; for every mute e that he minimizes or avoids entirely, he sounds another. The following example provides an instance of this juxtaposition: The mute e of “princesses” is intoned, while that of
“fines” is only slightly articulated.
Example 121: Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 88-89
There is one instance in Asie where it is unclear whether Ravel intends for a slur to do the work of a tie. This same situation arose in a discussion of the Histoires naturelles.143 Here, as in the Histoires naturelles, one is forced to question whether the slur at “roses” in m. 112 indicates portamento, a slightly articulated mute e, or perhaps both.
143 See Chapter 5, 42. 82 Example 122: Shéhérazade, “Asie” m. 112
Another intriguing feature of Ravel’s setting involves his varied approach when dealing with enjambment. As in “Sainte” and the Marot settings, Ravel is thorough in instructing the performer to note the enjambment in m. 22. Here he directs the singer to proceed “Without Breathing” (“Sans respirer”).
Example 123: Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 20-23
In the only other instance where he asks for enjambment (see “De temps en temps” in the
following example) in this song, however, he does not employ any special directions to the singer other than to indicate that it is part of a longer phrase (example, mm. 138-39).
Example 124: Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 138-39
Two last fascinating details are found in Ravel’s use of the tie to indicate a long-short articulation. In m. 98, he employs it in order to delay the pronunciation of the [i] at
“paysage.”
Example 125: Shéhérazade, “Asie” mm. 97-98
83 In m. 83, (example 119) he mysteriously uses a tie between to words, “voir,” and “la.” It is unclear what his intention is; perhaps it is simply that he would like for the singer to stress “voir.” One cannot rule out the possibility that it is simply a mistake in the score.
“La flûte enchantée”
Ravel’s approach in the second song of Shéhérazade is consistent with his approach in the first. We again find ties used to minimize mute es, and completely silenced es in words where these are directly preceded by a vowel. Two examples of the tie are found in mm. 24-25, first at “note,” and then at “vole.”
Example 126: Shéhérazade, “La flûte enchantée” mm. 24-25
Two examples of apocopation at “joie,” and “joue.”
Example 127: Shéhérazade, “La flûte enchantée” mm. 15-16
Example 128: Shéhérazade, “La flûte enchantée” mm. 20-21
An examination of the text underlay reveals a consistent approach to the syllabification.
Given this consistent syllabification, one can make an educated guess that in the following example, Ravel does not intend for there to be any articulation of the mute e at
“croisée”:
84
Example 129: Shéhérazade, “La flûte enchantée” mm. 23-24
A hallmark of Ravel’s conversational style in the Histoires naturelles and
L’Heure espagnole is his frequent use of detailed rhythms to capture the exact flow of the text. We see this similar attention to detail in “La flûte enchantée,” where Ravel uses a quintuplet—a rhythmic division that he has not yet used in his songs. (Example m. 24)
Example 130: Shéhérazade, “La flûte enchantée” mm. 24-25
“L’Indifférent”
In “L’Indifférent,” Ravel approaches Klingsor’s text in the same manner as the first two songs of Shéhérazade, though there is no use of apocopation in this song. There are two interesting notational details worth mentioning: Here, as in “Asie,” Ravel uses a slur in a confusing manner.
Example 131: Shéhérazade, “L’Indifférent” mm. 20-21
As is always the case when a slur is used in conjunction with a mute e, one must ask whether Ravel desires a minimized e, a portamento, or perhaps both. In m. 29, we encounter a small, barred grace note tied to the previous note, which signifies a slightly articulated e.
85
Example 132: Shéhérazade, “L’Indifférent” m. 29
One must ultimately ask what the difference is between the tie and the grace note, as in the Histoires naturelles or L’Heure espagnole.
“Les grands vents d’outremer” (1907)
This setting of Henri de Régnier brings us back to a poem with a traditional approach to line length; “Les grands vents d’outremer” features octosyllabic lines. As in
Ravel’s earlier songs, the tie and apocope are present. Here, his occasional, complete silencing of final es is extended to include words where the mute e is directly preceded by a consonant, such as in the following example.
Example 133: “Les grands vents d’outremer” mm. 16-17
As in the Histoires naturelles and L’Heure espagnole, Ravel makes no attempt to rid the poem of all mute es. Interestingly, he chooses to minimize—not silence—mute es in the seventh line of the poem. This line is of particular interest because Régnier seems to have added an extra syllable:
“Comme de crosses à leurs main fortes”
Not counting the mute e syllable at the end of “fortes,” this line has nine syllables. Again,
Ravel’s setting of this line does not rid it of an extra mute e, but it does attempt to lessen the articulation of not one, but two mute es at “crosses” and “fortes.”
86
Example 134: “Les grands vents d’outremer” mm. 14-15
“Noël des jouets” (1905)
Ravel takes a traditional approach in this Christmas song for which he provided his own poem. In “Noël des jouets,” Ravel avoids all hints of speech-influenced text setting, preferring a cantabile vocal line. His octosyllabic poem is uncomplicated, as is his lovely setting.
“Sur l’herbe” (1907)
Ravel’s last setting of a poem by Paul Verlaine features a quasi-conversational poem. Though “Sur l’herbe” is comprised of octosyllabic lines, its two characters trade snippets of dialogue that run the gamut from banal to racy. In “Sur l’herbe,” Ravel admitted his intention that this poem to be more spoken than sung, “In this piece, as in the Histoires naturelles, the impression must be given that one is almost not singing.”144
The one intriguing aspect of Ravel’s notation in this whimsical song is his promotion of the tie over apocopation. After having taken such an interest in apocope when revising the Histoires naturelles, Ravel seems to have lost interest here. In all, he uses ties to minimize mute es seven times, while using apocope only once.
Example 135: “Sur l’herbe” m. 4
144 Arbie Orenstein, “Maurice Ravel: Songs 1896-1914,” xiii. 87
Example 136: “Sur l’herbe” m. 5
Example 137: “Sur l’herbe” m. 21
Also unlike the Histoires naturelles, in “Sur l’herbe,” Ravel is careful to separate syllables by means of a hyphen in the text underlay.
Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913)
In the first two Mallarmé songs Ravel continues, to a lesser extent, his speech- based approach. The last song, however, features not a single instance of a tie or apocope, as if to indicate the path that Ravel’s songs were to take after WWI, at which point Ravel became less concerned with memorializing speech rhythms in his mélodies.
Ravel’s notation reveals some touches from earlier songs. For example, he designates a key elision by placing the text in such a way as to make it impossible not to notice that he is asking for an elision.
Example 138: Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Soupir” mm. 12-13
Intriguingly, Ravel allows Mallarmé’s Alexandrine to retain its proper number of syllables (twelve) by doing so. This serves as contrast to “Les grands vents d’outremer” from 1907, when Ravel did not take steps to prevent Régnier’s line of nine syllables from being preserved in his musical setting.
88 Another aspect of the notation discussed above can now be explored anew. One must now ask whether by 1913 Ravel’s use of the tie was analogous to Pierre de
Bréville’s.145 Let us briefly review Bréville’s foreword, in which the notation of the first example below was revealed to be analogous to the second:
Example 139: Foreword to Oeuvres Vocales
Does this mean that in a similar situation in the Trois poèmes, this holds true? The author believes that while it may be valid for a speech-based approach like that found in the
Histoires naturelles and L’Heure espagnole, it is harder to say with confidence that in a song like “Soupir” or at a similar spot in “Placet futile,” where the main affect is much different, it holds true.
Could these two places, notated like this, truly mean this?
Example 140: Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Soupir” mm. 1-2
Example 141: Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Soupir” following
Bréville’s advice
145 Chapter 5, 54. 89
Example 142: Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Placet futile” mm. 7-8
Example 143: Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Placet futile” mm. 7-8
following Bréville’s advice
The very last word of the third song, “Surgi de la croupe et du bond,” is notable for its use of a tie linking the last syllable to a rest, much as this same perplexing notation was used at the end of “Le grillon.”
Example 144: Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, “Surgi de la croupe et du
bond” mm. 23-24
Example 145: Histoires naturelles, “Le grillon” mm. 65-68
Unfortunately, it is difficult to figure out precisely what is meant by such notation. We know only that it is seldom used.
90 APPENDIX A
NOTATION OF MUTE ES IN THE HISTOIRES NATURELLES
Purpose: In dealing with the mute e in the Histoires naturelles, Ravel employed a variety of notations. This chart documents them.
How to Read This Chart: Song There are five songs in the Histoires naturelles. The numeric entry in the Song column displays this information.
Measure Entries in the Measure column refer the measure or measures in which mute es occur.
Text Entries in the Text column designate the text in question.
In this example, the first two syllables of “sûrement” are connected with a tie. Thus, in the Text column of the chart, “sûrement” is written.
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 1 8 sûrement two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen
Mute es that are fully sounded, as in the final syllable of “relève” also appear in the Text column.
91
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 1 50 relève eighth yes
Notes Values In the Note Values column, the manner in which Ravel has notated the mute e is recorded. At times Ravel uses a tie to connect the last two syllables of a word ending in a mute e. These two notes are most often of short duration (a sixteenth or eighth note) and equal value.
In the next example, Ravel has assigned an eighth note to each of the two syllables of “toute” and two sixteenths to “lourde.” He has connected the two eights and two sixteenths with a tie. This is reflected in the entry under Notes Values.
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 1 51 toute two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 51 lourde two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen
Occasionally, Ravel ties notes of unequal value. In this example, there is an eighth tied to sixteenth at “nègre.”
92 Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 2 10 nègre eighth tied to sixteenth slight hyphen
Rarely, Ravel ties notes of larger value, such as a two quarter notes, such as in the following example at “plumes.”
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 3 27-28 plumes two quarters w/tie slight no hyphen
Standard Elision? In the case of standard elision, as seen in the example below at “promenade et” and “répare avec,” the mute e syllable is struck through in the Text column and a “yes” is entered under the Standard Elision column.
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 2 10-11 promenade et yes no 2 11 répare avec yes no
Voiced Mute E? In the Voiced mute e? column, there are a few options. Here is a break down of the possibilities: There is a yes entered if Ravel has given a mute e its own note, as in the following example, where the mute es at “aigrette and “une” are both voiced.
93
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 1 23 aigrette yes 1 23 une yes
There is a “no” entered if there is no possibility of a voiced final e. This arises in two distinct situations: In the next example there is no chance that the mute e (following a vowel) of “fiancée” is voiced because Ravel has assigned only two notes to this word’s two syllables, “fian-cée.” This is apocopation.
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 1 12 fiancée quarter note no
This is also a possibility when the mute e follows a consonant, as in the following example.
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 5 20 cette eighth no 5 20 poseuse eighth no
94 There is a “no” entered if standard elision applies:
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 3 4 nuage en yes no
There is a “slight” entered if the normal case for the tie notation applies, i.e., the notes corresponding to the penultimate and ultimate syllables of a word ending with a mute e are connected with a tie. This is seen in the following example at the word “tête.”
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 5 14 tête two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen
There is a “perhaps” entered if the two notes are connected with a slur. In the following example, we see two syllables—the last of which is a mute e syllable—connected with a slur.
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 1 23 tremble two eighths w/slur perhaps hyphen
95 The “?” appears only once. At this spot there may be a mistake in the score. At the first “marches” there is no tie, indicating that Ravel would like a voice mute e syllable. However, later in the same measure he repeats the word, this time with a tie, which indicates a slightly pronounced mute e. The two cases are reflected in the chart following the example.
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 1 47 marches quarter plus eighth ? no hyphen 1 47 comme two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 47 marches two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen
Text Underlay? The Text Underlay? column records whether or not Ravel uses a hyphen to connect the tied syllables of polysyllabic words containing mute e syllables. If Ravel has used apocopation—assigning the last two syllables of a word to a single note—this column will remain blank.
Since the two tied syllables of “volailles,” “lèvent,” and “meme” are not connected with a hyphen, under the column Text Underlay, a “no hyphen” is entered.
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 1 36 volailles two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 36 habituées sixteenth note no 1 36 lèvent two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 36 même two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen
96
However, in the following example, a hyphen connects the tied mute e syllable “-ne” to the previous syllable, “d’u-”. Thus, “hyphen” is entered in the chart under the column Text Underlay?.
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 4 21 d’une two eighths w/tie slight hyphen
A complete chart of mute es in the Histoires naturelles follows:
Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 1146 8 sûrement two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 10 être two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 12 fiancée quarter note no 1 12 elle eighth note no 1 13 elle sixteenth note no 1 16 promène avec yes no 1 17 une allure yes no 1 17 allure eighth note no 1 17 prince indien yes no 1 18 porte two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 19 riches quarter note no
146 In the original Durand score (1907), the hyphen is placed as above. In the newer score, Maurice Ravel, Collected Songs (Paris: Durand, 2004), it is placed between “sû” and “re.”
97 Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 1 19 d’usage two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 22 avive two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 23 aigrette yes 1147 23 tremble two eighths w/slur perhaps hyphen 1 23 comme une yes no 1 23 une yes 1 24 lyre quarter no 1 26 fiancée eighth note no 1 26 n’arrive eighth note no 1 29 monte au yes no 1 29 regarde two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 31 jette eighth note no 1 31 diabolique two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 33 appelle sixteenth note no 1 33 fiancée eighth note no 1 35 personne two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 36 volailles two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 36 habituées sixteenth note no 1 36 lèvent two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 36 même two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 37 tête two eighths w/slur perhaps no hyphen 1 37 elles eighth note no 1 37 lasses eighth note no 1 39 d’être two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 40 incapable two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 40 rancune two eighths w/slur perhaps no hyphen
147 Here is a case where it is unclear what the slur indicates. That there is a hyphen leads the author to believe that Ravel wanted a portamento and a voiced mute e.
98 Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 1 41 marriage two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 44 faire dotted eighth note no 1 45 reste two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 45 journée quarter note no 1 45 dirige sixteenth note no 1148 47 marches quarter plus eighth ? no hyphen 1 47 comme two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 47 marches two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 48 temple two quarters w/tie slight hyphen 1 50 relève eighth yes 1 51 robe à yes no 1149 51 queue eighth no 1 51 toute two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 51 lourde two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 52 d’elle two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 55 répète encore yes no 1 55 une two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 1 56 cérémonie sixteenth tied to quarter slight no hyphen
2 7-8 l’heure où yes no 2 9 l’insecte sixteenth yes 2 10 nègre eighth tied to sixteenth slight hyphen 2 10-11 promenade et yes no
148 There is either a missing tie or a missing hyphen here. As it is written it is ambiguous. Given that later in the same measure there is a setting of the same word with a tie, it is likely that the tie is missing in the first example. 149 This is a standard treatment. As David Adams explains on p. 204 of his book, A Handbook of Diction for Singers, 2nd Ed. (New York: Oxford, 2008): “When a vowel-mute e pattern is final in a word but internal in a phrase, usually the e is not set; there is no schwa.”
99 Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 2 11 répare avec yes no 2 12 désordre two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 2 13 domaine quarter no 2 20 ratisse two sixteenths w/tie slight hyphen 2 21 étroites two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 2150 21 allées sixteenth no 2151 23 scie eighth no 2 24 écarte au standard elision no 2 25 retraite quarter no no hyphen 2 27 lime eighth no 2 28 racine quarter no 2 28 cette two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 2 28-29 grande herbe yes no 2 29 herbe two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 2 29 propre à yes no 2 33 repose eighth no 2 35 remonte two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 2 36 montre two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 2 39 elle two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 2152 39 cassée eighth no 2 39 repose encore yes no 2 39 encore un yes no 2 40 rentre eighth yes 2 41 ferme eighth no
150 It is standard to have this set as [e] and to avoid the schwa. “When this pattern [ée(s)] is internal in the phrase, it is usually set as [e] only. Adams, 205. 151 This is another case of an internal vowel-mute e pattern. As in “queue,” it is standard not to set the schwa. 152 Since this is the end of a line, there should normally be a schwa following the [e], according to David Adams.
100 Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 2 42 porte two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 2 43 tourne eighth yes 2 44 serrure eighth no 2 45 délicate two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 2 48 écoute eighth no 2 49 d’alarme eighth yes 2 51 trouve sixteenth no 2 52 sûreté eighth no 2 54 comme two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 2 54 une eighth no 2 54 chainette two sixteenths w/tie slight hyphen 2153 55 poulie sixteenth no 2 55 grince eighth tied to sixteenth slight hyphen 2 57 terre eighth no 2 63 campagne two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 2 64 muette two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 2 65 dressent eighth yes 2 65 comme sixteenth yes 2 66 désignent eighth yes 2154 66 lune two eighths w/tie slur hyphen
3 2 glisse quarter tied to eighth slight hyphen 3 3 comme un yes no 3 4 nuage en yes no 3 5 nuage quarter tied to eighth no hyphen
153 See n. 150. 154 In the score, the tie is almost surely a mistake, placed as it is, from the note of –ne to the next measure. It makes more sense if the tie connects the two syllables of “lu-ne.”
101 Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 3 6 nuages two sixteenths w/tie slight hyphen 3 6 naître two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 3 7 perdre eighth yes 3 9 désire two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 3 10 vise sixteenth yes 3 11 plonge eighth no 3 12 neige two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 3 13 femme two sixteenths w/tie slight hyphen 3 13 d’une two sixteenths w/tie slight hyphen 3 14 manche il yes no 3 14 retire quarter no 3 16 regarde quarter no 3 17 nuages eighth no 3 19 reste sixteenth yes 3 20 nuages two sixteenths w/tie slight hyphen 3 20 tardent sixteenth yes 3 22 meurent eighth note no 3 23 reforme quarter no 3 26 doucement eighth yes 3 27-28 plumes two quarters w/tie slight no hyphen 3 28 cygne eighth yes 3 29 s’approche two quarters w/tie slight no hyphen 3 31 s’épuise à yes no 3 32 victime two sixteenths w/tie slight hyphen 3155 34 nuage three sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 3 36 qu’est-ce que eighth no
155 This could have easily been written as an eighth tied to a sixteenth. Ravel may not have wanted to do that for reasons of legibility.
102 Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 3 36 que je eighth no 3 37 plonge il yes no 3 37 fouille eighth yes 3 38 vase eighth no 3 38 nourrissante et yes no 3 38 ramène un yes no 3 39 engraisse eighth no 3 39 comme une yes no 3 39-40 une oie yes no 3156 40 oie eighth no
4 4 rapporte une yes no 4 4 une eighth no 4 4 rare émotion yes no 4 6 comme two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 4 6 perche two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 4 6 ligne quarter no 4 12 une sixteenth yes 4 12 grosse eighth no 4 12 bleue au yes no 4 12 d’une sixteenth yes 4 12 longue two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 4 13 perche eighth no 4 16 d’être two sixteenths w/tie slight hyphen 4157 16 arbre eighth no 4 21 d’une two eighths w/tie slight hyphen
156 See n. 150. 157 If one elides the “bre” of “arbre”, how does one then portamento down to the F#3 on “par?”
103 Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 4 22 branche à standard elision yes no 4 22 une autre standard elision yes no 4 22 autre quarter no
5 4 bossue eighth no 5 5 elle eighth no 5 5 rêve quarter no 5 5 plaies à yes no 5 6 cause eighth no 5 6 bosse two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 5 8 poules quarter no 5 8 disent two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 5158 10 brusquement eighth yes 5 10 elle eighth no 5 11 précipite et yes no 5 11 harcèle eighth no 5 14 elle two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 5 14 baisse quarter no 5 14 tête two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 5 15 penche quarter no 5 16 toute sixteenth yes 5 16 vitesse two sixteenths w/tie slight no hyphen 5 17 pattes sixteenth yes 5 17 maigres two sixteenths w/tie uncertain no hyphen 5 17 elle two sixteenths w/tie uncertain no hyphen 5 18 juste au yes no
158 This is a voicing of an internal mute e. The opening of “Le paon” (m. 8 ,“Sûrement”) provides an example where Ravel suppressed an internal mute e.
104 Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 5 18 centre eighth no 5159 18 roue eighth no 5 18 d’une eighth yes 5160 19 dinde two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 5 20 cette eighth no 5 20 poseuse eighth no 5 24 tête eighth yes 5161 24 bleuie quarter no 5 26 cocardière quarter tied to eighth slight no hyphen 5 27 rage two quarters w/tie slight hyphen 5 30 elle eighth no 5 30-31 peut-être two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 5 31 parce eighth no 5 31 qu’elle eighth no 5 31 s’imagine two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 5 32 moque eighth no 5 32 taille two eighths w/slur perhaps no hyphen 5 32 crâne sixteenth yes 5162 32 chauve two eighths w/slur perhaps no hyphen 5163 33 queue eighth no 5 34 basse two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen
159 See n. 150. 160 At this point the score contains an obvious mistake; it is not possible that Ravel really meant to write a quarter tied to an eighth because that adds an extra eighth note to the bar. 161 It seems likely that the hyphen between the “i” and “e” of “bleuie” is a mistake. The hyphen should be placed between the two syllables, like this: “bleu-ie.” 162 This spot is either missing a hyphen or a slur. Because of the lack of a hyphen it seems likely that the slur was left out. 163 See n. 150.
105 Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 5 35 elle eighth no 5 35 cesse quarter no 5 36 perce eighth yes 5 36 comme une yes no 5 36 une eighth no 5 37 pointe quarter no 5 39 elle sixteenth no 5164 39 quitte sixteenth yes 5 40 elle two sixteenths w/tie slur no hyphen 5 40 laisse aux yes no 5 40 volailles eighth no 5 40 pacifiques eighth no 5 42 elle sixteenth yes 5 42 turbulente sixteenth no 5 43 criarde two eighths w/tie slight hyphen 5 43 frénétique eighth no 5 43 elle sixteenth no 5 43 vautre quarter no 5 47 t-elle eighth no 5 48 sournoise quarter no 5 48 une eighth no 5 48 farce quarter no 5 49 elle est yes no 5165 49 allée eighth no
164 It is interesting to compare this to the “chauve” from m. 32. In this case a hyphen is not needed because there are so many notes in the measure that the spacing couldn’t handle a hyphen. In m. 32, however, it seems that something is missing. That is why at this point the author believes that one should pronounce the final e, while in m. 32 one should not. 165 See n. 150.
106 Song Measure Text Note Values Standard Elision? Voiced mute e? Text Underlay 5 49 pondre two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 5 50 campagne quarter no 5 51 m’amuse quarter no 5 52 elle eighth no 5 52 roule two eighths w/tie slight no hyphen 5 53 poussière half tied to quarter slight no hyphen 5 53 comme une standard elision no 5 53 une quarter no 5 54 bossue eighth tied to quarter slight no hyphen
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