The Cambridge Companion to Ravel

by Edited by Deborah Mawer

• ISBN13: 9780521648561
• ISBN10: 0521648564
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This Companion provides a comprehensive introduction to the life, music and compositional aesthetic of French composer Maurice Ravel (1875SH1937). Leading international scholars offer a powerful reassessment of this most private and elusive musician, examining his work in detail within its cultural context. Marking the 125th anniversary of Ravel's birth, the volume explores the full range of his work--piano repertory, chamber works, orchestral music, ballets, songs and operas--and concludes by analyzing the performance and reception of his music, including previously untranslated reviews.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	viii
Acknowledgements	x
Chronology of Ravel's life and career	xi
Note on the text	xv
Introduction	1	(6)
Deborah Mawer
Part I Culture and Aesthetic
History and homage	7	(20)
Barbara L. Kelly
Evocations of exoticism	27	(20)
Robert Oreledge
Musical objects and machines	47	(24)
Deborah Mawer
Part II Musical explorations
Ravel and the piano	71	(26)
Roy Howat
Harmony in the chamber music	97	(21)
Mark DeVoto
Ravel and the orchestra	118	(22)
Michael Russ
Ballet and the apotheosis of the dance	140	(22)
Deborah Mawer
Vocal music and the lures of exoticism and irony	162	(26)
Peter Kaminsky
Ravel's operatic spectacles: L'Heure and L'Enfant	188	(25)
Richard Langham Smith
Part III Performance and reception
Performing Ravel: style and practice in the early recordings	213	(27)
Ronald Wodley
Ravel and the twentieth century	240	(11)
Roger Nichols
Appendix: Early reception of Ravel's music (1899-1939)	251	(16)
Roger Nichols
Deborah Mawer
Notes	267	(16)
Select bibliography	283	(4)
Index of names and works	287