Maurice Ravel
Miroirs
“Miroirs” – Ravel dedicated each of these five piano pieces to a member of the Parisian artistic circle “Les Apaches”. Ravel also belonged to this circle of poets, painters and musicians, giving first performances of many of his works at gatherings of this illustrious group.
In “Miroirs” he went a step further than in “Jeux d’eau”. The music was to sound as if it came from a sketchbook. The bold harmony irritated his contemporaries at first but pointed the way ahead for Ravel’s subsequent works. This famous cycle – it also contains the well-known “Alborada del gracioso” – is now available in Henle Urtext in a particularly clear and larger format with an extensive commentary.
About the Composer
Maurice Ravel
Together with Satie and Debussy, Ravel numbers among the innovators who had a falling out with academic education and created their own avant-garde tonal languages – inspired, in Ravel’s case, by Russian and Spanish music, but also by exoticism – without abandoning tonality. This master of orchestration begins with piano works, which he orchestrates; songs with piano and piano compositions exist on an equal footing in orchestral versions.
| 1875 | Born in Ciboure on March 7; the family moves to Paris that same year. |
| 1882 | Lessons in piano, theory, and composition. |
| 1889 | Beginning of his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris, from which he will never graduate.around 1893 Influence of Chabrier and Satie. |
| 1901 | “Jeux d’eau” for piano, in a new “Impressionist” tonal language, as is “Miroirs” (1904–05). |
| 1903 | “Shéhérazade” for voice and piano/orchestral accompaniment with orientalist tonal elements. |
| 1905 | Scandal surrounding Ravel’s third application for the Prix de Rome. |
| 1907 | Premiere of the “Histoires naturelles” after Jules Renard provokes astonishment in audiences and critics. |
| 1907–08 | Rhapsodie espagnole for orchestra. |
| 1908/10 | “Ma mère l’oye” (“Mother Goose”) for piano, four-hands, as a ballet in 1911. |
| 1911 | Premiere in Paris of his opera “L’Heure espagnole.” |
| 1911/12 | “Valses nobles et sentimentales” for piano/orchestra. Premiere of the ballet “Daphnis et Chloé” in 1912. |
| 1914/19 | “Le tombeau de Couperin” for piano/orchestra anticipates the coming neoclassicism. |
| from 1920 | Many concert tours through Europe and the United States. |
| 1925 | Premiere of his opera “L’Enfant et les sortilèges.” |
| 1928 | Conferral of an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. “Bolero” for orchestra. |
| 1929–31 | Piano Concerto in G major with elements of jazz. |
| 1937 | Death in Paris on December 28. |
About the Authors
Peter Jost (Editor)
Dr. Peter Jost, born in 1960 in Diefflen/Saar, read musicology, German and comparative studies at Saarland University in Saarbrücken. He did his PhD in 1988 with a thesis on Robert Schumann’s Waldszenen.
From November 1991 to April 2009 he was a research associate at the Richard Wagner Complete Edition in Munich, and since May 2009 has been an editor at G. Henle Publishers. His Urtext editions comprise predominantly French music of the 19th and 20th centuries, including works by Lalo, Saint-Saëns and Ravel.
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