Description
Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) was originally written in 1910 as a piano duet for children. Based on a set of fairy tales, the work is firmly in the impressionistic style. It was later orchestrated by Ravel to become a ballet, adding more movements and interludes.
Opening with Sleeping Beauty’s enigmatic Pavane (a slow processional dance), tranquility gives way to Petit Pouchet (Tom Thumb) wandering through the forest. He is searching for a trail of breadcrumbs to find his way back home, unaware that birds have come and eaten everything! Both stories are from Charles Perrault’s Les Contes de ma Mère l’Oye (Tales from Mother Goose).
Laideronette (little ugly one) is based on the tale Serpentin vert (Green Serpent) by Madame d’Aulnoy. A cursed princess is sent off to a far away land where she is rescued by a king that had been transformed into a green serpent. The princess becomes empress of the small residents of this land, called Pagodes. Ravel writes on the score:
“The pagodas and pagodines began to sing and play their instruments. Some had theorbos [lute-like instruments] made of walnut shells and others had violes made from the shells of almonds - for they had to have instruments made of their own small proportions.” This arrangement takes some textures from the orchestrated version, in particular florid harp gestures to emulate the pagodas strumming on their theorbos.
The fourth movement, Beauty and the Beast, is a waltz based on Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s famous tale. The first two sections see the Beauty’s gentle high melody contrasted with the Beast’s low theme, incorporating a rather beastly de-tuning of the low E string to achieve a grotesque lower octave sound, akin to a contrabassoon as found in Ravel’s orchestration. A magical lydian glissando across the four guitars signifies the transformation of the Beast into a prince.
Finally, Le Jardin féerique (the magic garden), is not based on any particular fairytale but an imagined story from Ravel himself, building on the theme of transformationfound throughout the suite. Subtitled Apothéose, the piece progresses in the rhythm of a sarabande before slowly building to a huge, joyful climax, celebrating transformation into something greater than oneself.
