program notes

Rapsodie espagnole
– Maurice Ravel
Born March 7, 1875, in Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, France
Died December 28, 1937, in Paris, France
This work was premiered on March 15, 1908, at the Theatre de Chatelet in Paris by the
Orchestre des Concerts Colonne conducted by Edouard Colonne. The score calls for two
piccolos, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons,
sarrusophone (usually performed by contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three
trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celesta, two harps, and strings.
In the year 1908, when Maurice Ravel composed his Rapsodie espagnole, he was well
established as a composer with piano pieces, art songs, and choral works to his credit. In 1897,
at the age of twenty-two, he began composition lessons at the Paris Conservatoire with Gabriel
Fauré and continued them until the elder master’s retirement in 1903. Ravel was always an
outsider at the Conservatoire because he insisted on being an original voice as a composer.
Between 1900 and 1905, he wrote a series of four cantatas as entries in the school’s prestigious
Prix de Rome competition. He lost each year to less talented students. Upon his departure in
1905, he created a scandal, L’Affaire Ravel, in which he exposed administrative corruption at the
Conservatoire—the winners of the Prix de Rome each year had been the students of the same
teacher, who chaired the jury that awarded the prize.
By that time, Ravel was already established with the Societé Nationale de Musique, an
organization devoted to the cultivation of French music. A few of his chamber works and piano
pieces had been performed on Societé concerts, but more strife occurred when Ravel’s songs
were given there in 1909. The conservative Schola Cantorum, which held majority control of the
board of directors of the Societé, objected to the composer’s unorthodox method of text-setting.
Ravel responded by leaving the group and founding a competing society, the Societé Musicale
Indépendente.
Throughout this period, Ravel had been absorbing the influences that were around him. Like
Debussy, he found an ideological kinship with the symbolist poets and their influences, including
Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and the nearly century-old writings of American author and poet
Edgar Allan Poe. He was also influenced by the vibrant French culture in turn-of-the-century
Paris. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, Ravel was a member of an
unofficial group of artists called Les Apaches, a term used during the period in Paris for street
hooligans, that was comprised of composers, painters, poets, and critics, including Manuel de
Falla, Tristan Klingsor, and Igor Stravinsky. They found the name perfect for their no-prisoners
approach to art.
Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole dates from 1908 and was composed between his opera L’heure
espagnole and the masterful ballet Daphnis et Chloé. It was the composer’s first major work for
orchestra. The shape of the work is derived from the Baroque suite with a prelude followed by
dance movements. In this case, the dances are Spanish in character. The work first existed in a
version for two pianos in 1907, but Ravel immediately orchestrated the work. The third

movement, Habanera, was composed in 1895 as the first movement of the Sites auriculaires and
was included in Rapsodie espagnole when the other movements were composed.
The Prélude à la nuit opens with a mysterious four-note descending pattern that conjures images
of the night. In the middle of the movement, two cadenzas are heard—one for two clarinets
followed by one for two bassoons. As if a dream, the music fades away in the final measures.
Malagueña, the second movement, is a tour-de-force of orchestration. A festive celebration
gently disturbs the peace of the night, quietly at first, and then building in fervor until the party is
in full swing. An evocative English horn solo reclaims the nocturnal peacefulness and the
movement ends with a return to sweet slumber.
Spain’s sunny and seductive side comes to life in the third movement, Habanera. Although the
dance originated in Havana, the habanera has become associated with Spain. Bizet chose the
same dance to introduce Carmen to the world. Ravel accentuates the sultry side of the Iberian
Peninsula with conflicting duple and triple rhythms. He inscribed the original 1895 piano
version of this movement with the words “Au pays parfumé que le soleil caresse”—“In the
perfumed land that the sun caresses.”
Ravel’s finale is one of his miniature masterpieces. Feria, or “carnival,” is an energetic
depiction of a Spanish festival. It is difficult to believe, but the composer had never been to
Spain at the time he composed this music. The energy is palpable from the opening measure.
Theme after theme flies by in this orgiastic feast of musical color. Splashes of orchestration
erupt, only to be outdone by another climax. The four-note ‘night’ theme from the prelude
returns, but not even the darkness can stop the carnival. Rapsodie espagnole ends with an
exquisite explosion of orchestra excitement.
©2012 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com

Noches en los Jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain)
– Manuel de Falla y Matheu
Born November 23, 1876, in Cádiz, Spain
Died November 14, 1946, in Alta Gracia, Argentina
This work was premiered on April 9, 1916, in Madrid Spain, by the Madrid Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Enrique Fernández Arbós with pianist José Cubiles. It is scored for solo piano,
piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two
trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta, piano, and strings.
During a seven-year sojourn in Paris beginning in 1907, Manuel de Falla became acquainted
with the young lions of the musical world – Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Igor
Stravinsky – and he intended to settle there, but the outbreak of World War I forced him to return
to Spain in 1914. In 1909 Falla began a new work for the pianist Ricardo Viñes. Originally
planned as a set of nocturnes, the piece took on a new life when Viñes and composer Isaac
Albéniz suggested that it should be orchestrated. When Falla returned to Spain, Nights in the
Gardens of Spain had grown to its present form as a three-movement set of “symphonic
impressions” inspired by different Spanish gardens. In fact, the French impressionistic influence
is quite apparent in this work.
Although it is scored for solo piano and orchestra, Nights in the Gardens of Spain is not a
traditional concerto. The solo part, although difficult, is not the primary focus at all times.
Instead, both elements – the solo piano and orchestra – provide two intricate palettes of musical
color that work together to produce a captivating work of scintillating beauty.
The first movement, En el Generalife (In the Generalife), evokes the garden of a fourteenthcentury
Moorish palace in Grenada, where cypresses and walnut trees rose above terraced
gardens. Piano arpeggios throughout the movement waft over the lush orchestra texture in an
atmospheric wash of color.
Although the second movement, Danza lejana (Distant Dance), names no specific garden, the
effect is Moorish-flavored. Violas, English horn, and flutes set the exotic tone, but soon give
way to the full orchestra. The soloist rises to the surface and presents a rhythmic theme of
simple beauty. Oboes and English horn return with an extended version of the theme. As the
movement ends, the music becomes more subdued and moves without pause into the finale.
En los jardines de la Sierra de Córdoba (In the Gardens of the Sierra de Córdoba), depicts the
dancing of gypsies at the feast of Corpus Christi. At the outset, the full orchestra erupts in a
blaze of Andalusian dance music. The soloist has a much more virtuosic role and introduces
much of the thematic material. Boisterous moments alternate with more lyrical interludes.
Unlike most works featuring a soloist, this evocative and impressionist masterwork ends with a
subdued and transcendent coda, in which the strings reach ever upward as they fade into the
distance.
©2012 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com

Nocturnes
– Claude Debussy
Born August 22, 1862, in St. Germain-en-Laye, France
Died March 25, 1918, in Paris, France
The first two movements of this work were first performed on December 9, 1900, in Paris. The
entire work was given, as a whole, for the first time on October 27, 1901, in Paris. It is scored
for three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, three
trumpets, three trombones, tuba, percussion, two harps, female chorus, and strings.
In the late nineteenth century, the music of Richard Wagner was generally regarded as the
newest and most progressive in Europe. In Vienna, Paris, and a few other cities, a younger
generation of composers began to write in reaction to Wagner’s music – some following his
model, and others rejecting it and producing newer styles. One of the newer fashions in music
was that of Impressionism. There is a dream-like atmosphere, loose flowing rhythms, diffuse
textures, and mysterious tone colors.
The first composer to gain prominence writing in this style was Claude Debussy. However, he
should not be grouped solely with the Impressionists. Debussy had a varied career, beginning
with his admission to the Paris Conservatoire at the age of ten, in lieu of ordinary school. His
first compositions date from seven years later when he began to write art songs. Soon afterward,
he was hired as a tutor by Nadezhda von Meck, the wealthy widow who became Tchaikovsky’s
patroness shortly thereafter. After returning from Russia, Debussy found a mentor in famous
French Charles Gounod. After winning the coveted Prix de Rome in 1884 for his dramatic
cantata L’enfant prodigue (The Prodigal Son), he was on the course for an illustrious career as a
composer. Debussy composed piano pieces, art song, and opera, constantly searching for new
methods of depicting the texts and vast varieties of images associated with his numerous
compositions.
It seems only natural that Debussy and his followers would have been drawn to the placid, often
dream-like, nocturne as made popular in the 1830s and 1840s in the salon works of Frederic
Chopin. The subdued hues of the night suited Debussy’s music well – one might recall his Clair
de lune. In 1892 he composed an orchestral work entitled Trois Scènes au Crépuscule (Three
Twilight Scenes) and reworked it into a violin concerto two years later. Both works are now
lost, but only a small degree of speculation is needed to understand the link between these night
pieces and the three-movement orchestra work that Debussy was to compose in 1899 – his
evocative Nocturnes. Debussy described the work as “a study in gray painting” – a statement
that immediately brings to mind the work of American artist James McNeill Whistler, who spent
his creative life in Europe and lived in Paris from 1890 until his death in 1903. Whistler’s
monochrome paintings often bore musical titles (Arrangement in Black and Gray, Symphony in
White, and Harmony in Blue and Silver are but a few of his works).
Set in three movements, Nocturnes examines three distinct facets of the night. For the first
complete performance on October 27, 1901, Debussy wrote a colorful description of his music.

“The title Nocturnes must be taken here in a general, and more particularly, decorative
sense. These are not nocturnes in the usual musical meaning of the word, but rather
nocturnes with respect to all the various impressions and the special effects of light that
the word suggests.
“Nuages (Clouds) renders the immutable sky and the slow, solemn motion of the clouds,
fading away in shades of gray, lightly tinged with white.
“Fêtes (Festivals) portrays the restless dancing rhythms of the night sky, interspersed
with sudden flashes of light; the episode of the procession--a dazzling and fantastic
vision--passes through the festival, becoming a part of it. But the background remains
persistently the same: the festival, its mixture of music and luminous dust, participating
in cosmic rhythms.
“Sirenes (Sirens) depicts the sea and its innumerable rhythm. Amid the waves, turned to
silver by the moon, we hear the mysterious song of the Sirens, laughing and fading
away.”
©2011 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com

Bolero
– Maurice Ravel
Born March 7, 1875, in Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, France
Died December 28, 1937, in Paris, France
This work was first performed on November 22, 1928, at the Paris Opéra, with Walter Staram
conducting. It is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, oboe d’amore, E-flat
clarinet, three clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, three saxophones
(sopranino, soprano, and tenor), four horns, four trumpets (including one piccolo trumpet), three
trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta, and strings.
Maurice Ravel was born thirteen years after Claude Debussy but, despite ardent admiration for
his elder colleague’s music, followed his own path. His dealings with authority figures were
never pleasant, as Ravel worked at his own pace, not conforming to deadlines set by others.
Having entered the Paris Conservatoire at age fourteen, he would be dismissed from the
institution three times before ending his quest for a degree. Students were required to win the
school’s competitions in order to gain approval for further studies. First as a pianist, then as a
composer, Ravel failed to win. Then in 1905, upon reaching the thirty year age limit for
competing, he was eliminated in the first round.
By this time in his career, he was already active with the Société Nationale de Musique, having
composed several works that still appear on concerts. As unseemly as it might be, all of the
finalists were students of the same teacher, who also served as a judge. In what was called the
Affaire Ravel, the French newspapers published reports of these new indiscretions at the
Conservatoire, forcing the resignation of the director, and placing Gabriel Faure at the school’s
helm.
Ravel’s interest in American jazz led to a deep friendship with George Gershwin, wo famously
treated him to several nights of jazz sessions in Harlem during a 1928 trip to the United States.
The impact of this experience was profound, and is apparent in several works, including the
ballet Bolero from 1928 and the two piano concertos he composed in 1929 and 1930.
Another influential factor in Ravel’s life at the time was the unfortunate onset of Pick’s disease,
a degenerative brain disorder that first affected the composer in 1927 at the relatively young age
of fifty-two. By 1929 he first noticed muscle control problems and aphasia (difficulty with
language, affecting reading, writing, and speaking). By the mid-1930s Ravel was unable to
communicate at all. He died in 1937 after an unsuccessful attempt to correct his disease through
surgery.
Just before the American tour, Ravel was approached by the famed Russian dancer Ida
Rubinstein about composing a new work for her to premiere. He first thought of making a quick
arrangement of music from Iberia by Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz, but he could not obtain
the rights. As a replacement, Ravel eventually decided upon an experimental approach. He

would write an insistent melody and repeat it unchanged many times while making colorful
adaptations to the orchestration. Through this technique, he would be able to keep the interest of
the listener and allow for Bronislava Nijinska, Rubinstein’s choreographer and sister of Vaclav
Nijinski, to create an exciting staging. At first he called the work Fandango, but changed the
title to Bolero before the premiere.
Ravel was true to his concept, and described his piece as,
“. . . consisting wholly of orchestral tissue without music — of one very long, very
gradual crescendo. The themes are impersonal — folk tunes of the usual Spanish-Arabian
kind.”
The result is much more thrilling than Ravel would have us believe. Bolero begins almost
inaudibly with its signature rhythm played by the snare drum. Layered onto the texture is also a
harmonic pattern – little more than a slow rhythmic C major arpeggio – that acts as a foundation
upon which the work’s melody is constructed. However, the heart of this work is the melody,
first introduced in the low register of the flute. As the piece advances, this tune passes from one
instrument to the next until it moves throughout the orchestra. Often it is presented by small
groups of instruments playing simultaneous harmonizations of the theme – one of these is a
convincing imitation of a steam calliope, the characteristic organ used in circuses. Meanwhile,
the rhythmic and harmonic elements begin a crescendo that progresses through the entire length
of the work, an effect achieved by the gradual addition of instruments. Near the end, the
hypnotic atmosphere is broken by a sudden transition from the C major tonality that has been
present for about fifteen minutes to a bright E major chord that is breathtaking in its simplistic
grandeur. The masterful and climactic coda returns to C major with brusque horn calls outlining
the interval of a tritone. Bolero ends in an unforgettably brilliant blaze of Spanish
incandescence.
©2012 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com