Maurice Ravel's Miraculous Orchestration

Ravel volunteered as an ambulance driver on the Western Front during World War I. Between 1914 and 1917 he composed Le Tombeau de Couperin, a suite for piano, with a sequence of movements, modelled on Baroque dances but composed in Ravel’s own unique idiom. He subsequently orchestrated four of the movements. Each movement of the suite was dedicated to a friend who had died fighting in the war. Despite his own personal experiences of the horrors of Verdun, and his increasing ill health (and what would now be classified as PTSD), Ravel refused to allow a sombre mood into his music, commenting, “the dead are sad enough in their eternal silence.” The music in this extract comes from the Prelude, first in its original version for piano, and then in Ravel’s own orchestration of 1919.

MUSICAL EXCERPTS USED IN THIS VIDEO
Prelude from Le Tombeau de Couperin (version for piano solo)
Nathalia Milstein, piano

Prelude from Le Tombeau de Couperin (orchestral version)
Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
Zoltán Kocsis, conductor

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#Ravel #orchestration #musicprofessor

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Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew King

[DenizKupanaha]

It’s already hard to find friends who love classical music (in the general sense). It’s even harder to find Ravel fans!

[gljm]

After a concert, a woman came up to Ravel at a party and gushingly exclaimed to him " Oh Monsieur Ravel you are a Genius!' To which Ravel answered "No Madam, I am just able to put one note after another better than anyone else."

[Peculate]

The piano version is brilliant, but the orchestration is absolutely breathtaking. It shows how being a good composer and being a good orchestrator are not exactly the same thing.

Ravel's compositions were brilliant. But his orchestration was a whole new level of mastery

[toothlesstoe]

Ravel is simply one of the best composers of all time, no question. He was a perfectionist, and it shows.

[ДаниилКириллов]

If you know Ravel well, you take things like that for granted. Daphnis is in my opinion the best color palette for orchestra ever written.

[teelurizzo]

Le Tombeau is a masterpiece, the Prelude and the Menuet are my favorite parts and some of the greatest pieces of music written in any style. yeah that final piano arpeggio you can tell he had a harp line in mind, because even in the solo piano version you can hear it as a harp like phrasing and articulation.

[chicolofi]

Indeed he was. To me Ravel is one of the greatest composers ever.

[leesmythe]

Harpist here: I love you Maurice! Thank you for giving us that moment to play. I had never felt like I did when I got to play that gliss.

[Toon]

Finally this piece gets some recognition! The prelude of tombeau is so magical to me, it's one of my fav classical pieces for piano. It just has this mistiful sound to it, I love it!

[Kieop]

The orchestration is more dramatic, but the piano is more magical.

[olliemartinelli]

They shimmering strings when the woodwind drop out at the end is beautiful and so clever. Almost sounds like fire embers slowly dying

[anne]

I played the violin for this piece in orchestra, and the way all of the instruments come together is absolutely spectacular! Ravel's orchestration of this piece is genius.

[robertm]

Absolutely no question - Ravel is a musical genius, especially at orchestration! I have to say, Ravel is my favorite composer! It bugs people when they ask me, "What about Beethoven?" and I reply, "Beethoven is relentlessly tonal!" And that's why I like Ravel!

[richiejohnson]

The final movement is dedicated to two brothers who died their first day of service, 1914. Ravel and Puccini are the only composers that can make me cry.

[rachmaniwuff]

I absolutely agree! Quite unfortunate that Ravel's genius is rather underrated, but that simply makes his music a hidden gem to enjoy to whoever stumbles upon him and willingly listens to his wonderful compositions! I should really listen to the orchestrations of Le Tombeau de Couperin, because I have only heard the piano transcriptions and I didn't know he orchestrated it!

[maluse]

It's fun taking a stab at thinking about how a piece could be orchestrated when it's absolutely bonkers, and then to see a master do it better than you could have convinced, and in a few ways you yourself had imagined. Love the layout of the video.

[MrInterestingthings]

I didn't realize Ravel wrote this around first World War. That really changes my appreciation ! Gaspard 1908. I never forget that I came here for instruction. But just the score and music.

[gracewenzel]

I had the immense pleasure to see the LSO perform Le Tombeau at the Barbican while I was abroad in London. It moved me so very deeply. (The Forlane is positively magical.)

[NvxOWnK]

Hands down my favourite piece of Classical music

[Hailey_Paige_]

I’m a Music student and many friends of mine have never really heard of Ravel. My family aren’t musicians, so of course they haven’t heard of him, either. Ravel is #1 (Tied with Schubert) on my Top 10 List. I heard Boléro once and was obsessed with it for a good month. Then Daphnis and Chloe, his two Piano Concertos, and the rest is history. I dove HARD into his music, and I love even his obscure works (His “Frontispiece” for two pianos is HEART-BREAKING, written right after WWI and just weeks after his mother passed away. Plus, check out his “ Scheherazade, ” his two Operas, and his “Pieces in the Styles of…….” Suite.)

I saw Daphnis and Chloe live about a month ago. I left the Symphony hall crying and in a puddle of sheer ecstasy and euphoria. Never have I felt so STIRRED TO MY CORE with such power and stunning musicality from the orchestra and chorus alike. I was in the 3rd row. I could FEEL the music vibrating through me. I saw it by myself, and a lot of older people seemed surprised to see me there, lol.

I’m VERY VERY SLOWLY trying to play the 5th Movement of the “Miroirs” Suite on the piano. (I’m not a pianist at all, but a vocalist.) I’m also trying to convince my voice teacher to let me sing Ravel next semester (like his “3 Poems of Melarme, ” his Greek Song Cycle, etc), but he’s UNFAMILIAR WITH RAVEL!!!! 😱🥺🥺🥺🥺 So I’m dumbfounded and trying to convert him, lol.

Also, for anyone curious, my favorite composers are: Ravel, Schubert, Copland, Chopin, Liszt, Bach, Händel, Messiaen, Fauré, Scriabin, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff, Reich, Bartók, Elgar, Vaughan-Williams, Gershwin, Lili Boulanger, Busoni… And way more, lol. I need Classical Music friends!!