Ravel's Favourite Chord

It's everywhere...and it's delicious.

Many thanks to all the pianists who kindly allowed me to feature their stunning playing. You can find the full performances here:

[vivianlangchen]

Astute observations as always ☺️ What an honour to be included in your work and to be able to be connected in this way ❤️ Thank you Fred!!

[rushunnhfernandes]

Minor 9s are just something else, the beauty is transcendent.... I'd love to know if other composers have a so called 'favourite chord'.

[huzzzzzzahh]

Saw the thumbnail, went straight to the piano, and instantly said “yep that’s the one”

[PipeDreamerJacques]

It is fascinating to me that almost every single example was in the same key as well…

[SCRIABINIST]

Minor 9ths are so beautifully tragic, it's fragile and when Ravel utilizes it, it's like wind blowing caressing or when violently, humanity falling apart

[Smin-fh]

Minor 9ths feel, self-reflective and melancholy to me. I just found out that every single musical piece or part that I especially love contains the minor add 9th chord! It's just so beautiful and can convey lots of different emotions!

[oudompianist]

Ravel always knows how to use a minor 9th chord and give it a new color and character. It never gets old and is everlastingly beautiful whenever it happens.

[Ivan_]

I'm glad I knew the chord that was coming haha. Ravel is sublime, imagine the works we would have gotten if he had lived as many years as R. Strauss for example.

[eel]

YEP NOTICED THIS ALSO!!! Ravel is SO GOOD at using this chord....

[enriquesanchez]

OMG! I've noticed this magical chord in Ravel for years and wondered what it was! Thank you! ♥♥♥♥

[MarcoLongoMusic]

Great selection! The Pavane is also filled with minor 9ths

[theaussiewaffle]

Whenever I produce or compose, the first thing that I need to make sure is, 'Do these chords sound "pretty" enough?'. If the chords don't spark intrigue, keep you anticipating for something, or evoke a deep emotional response I tend to give up and find new inspiration. A bland progression with good lyrics can be popular to most - a beautiful progression can carry even the worst of lyrics.

[SJ-gyrf]

you can find this chord in his vocal pieces like the trois poemes de mallarme and sheherazade too

[Scriabin_fan]

Literally everything Ravel wrote is just perfect, I've never heard a single Ravel piece that I didn't like.

[andrewfortmusic]

This chord is so present and effective in Ravel’s music that I started using it without intending to, or even knowing what it was called!

[damienheemskerk]

Great video! The best thing is that in Ravel's music the chord never gets old

[InstrumentManiac]

Such a gorgeous chord & his many ways of using it never get old🥲❤
great video, nice to see it all side by side!

[JudithValerieEngel]

Love this video, thanks for including me :)

[Black-bmwc]

This is extremely funny because i've always thought "this chords comes back so often, or maybe im just paranoid" and you actually showed me it was even more present than i thougt

[johnchessant]

Great video! I must've noticed this subconsciously but now I'm gonna be looking for this chord everywhere haha. From the thumbnail the first example I thought of was the gorgeous restatement of the main theme midway through Act I, mvmt. 4 of Daphnis et Chloe. It's actually not technically an F#m(add9) because there's a D# in the bass, so I guess it'd be a D#m7(b5, add11). It's one of my favorite moments from the piece.