Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 06/08/2001, uploaded on 07/08/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

In 1900, Maurice Ravel joined a group of young, like-minded musicians, artists and writer called Les Apaches. The group met regularly at the homes of Paul Sordes and Tristan Klingsor, and came to include such other prominent names as Igor Stravinsky and Manuel de Falla. Les Apaches, which obviously refers to the Native American tribe, also had the additional meaning of “hooligans” in French and was coined by Ricardo Viñes to describe the group as “artistic outcasts.” Viñes would premiere several of Ravel’s piano works, including his Miroirs, which the composer dedicated each of its five movements to a member of Les Apaches.

Miroirs was composed during 1904-05 and given its premiere in 1906. Meaning “Reflections,” the work demonstrates the development of Ravel’s technique as a composer of piano music, which had first leapt into maturity in his 1901 piece, Jeux d’eau. Ravel’s treatment of the vast possibilities of the piano was simultaneously inspired by the florid style of Franz Liszt and the most profound advancement in piano technique since that great virtuoso’s time. This style came to be a cornerstone of French Impressionism and even influenced Ravel’s older contemporary, Claude Debussy.

The fifth and final piece of Miroirs, “La vallée des cloches” (“The Valley of Bells”), Ravel dedicated to his student Maurice Delage. As its title suggest, the piece is evocative of the tolling of bells, beginning with a solitary octave G-sharps sounded quietly as if in the distance. As the texture increases, and more and more “bells” are added, Ravel relies much upon parallel fourths, as well as quartal and extended harmonies, to imitate their sound and intricate system of overtones. Roughly a third of the way through the piece, a solemn, somewhat chant-like melody emerges out of the thickening texture. It rises quickly to its highest point, yet glides slowly down until finally coming to rest on a long-sustained C. As the melody disappears amidst the continual sound of bells, Ravel returns to the music heard prior to its appearance, slowly regressing towards the opening. However, instead of the high-pitched ring that opened the piece, it closes somberly with deep, resonant tones.     Joseph DuBose

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