Gaspard de la nuit
Gaspard de la nuit: Trois poèmes pour piano d'après Aloysius Bertrand is a piece for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, written in 1908. It has three movements, each based on a poem by Aloysius Bertrand. The work was premiered on January 9, 1909, in Paris by Ricardo Viñes.
The piece is famous for its difficulty, partly because Ravel intended the Scarbo movement to be more difficult than Balakirev's Islamey. Because of its technical challenges and profound musical structure, Scarbo is considered one of the most difficult solo piano pieces ever written.[1]
The manuscript currently resides in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of The University of Texas at Austin.
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[edit] Etymology
The name "Gaspard" is derived from its original Persian form, denoting "the man in charge of the royal treasures": "Gaspard of the Night" or the treasurer of the night thus creates allusions to someone in charge of all that is jewel-like, dark, mysterious, perhaps even morose.[2] Gaspard de la nuit is an old French expression for the Devil.[citation needed]
[edit] Structure
[edit] Ondine
An oneiric tale of a water fairy singing to seduce the observer and accompany her to visit her kingdom deep at the bottom of the lake in the triangle of water, fire and earth. It is reminiscent of the tinkling of the water in a stream, woven with cascades. This movement was intended to describe the water sprite in Aloysius Bertrand's poem, attempting to lure men into her domain. This piece contains technical problems for the right hand such as the fast repetition of three-note chords.
[edit] Le gibet
The observer is presented with a view of a gibbet and the lone corpse of a hanged man reddened by the setting sun; a bell tolls in the distance, creating the deathly atmosphere that surrounds the observer. Throughout the entire piece is a B-flat octave ostinato, imitative of the tinting[clarification needed] bells, that must remain distinctive and constant in tone as notes cross over and dynamics change.
[edit] Scarbo
| “ | I wanted to make a caricature of romanticism. Perhaps it got the better of me. | ” |
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—Maurice Ravel, on "Scarbo".[3][1][4] |
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This movement depicts the nighttime mischief of a small fiend or goblin of some sort, making pirouettes, flitting in and out of the darkness, disappearing and suddenly reappearing. Its uneven flight, hitting and scratching against the panels of the bed, casting a growing shadow in the moonlight creates a nightmarish scene for the observer lying in his bed. With its repeated notes and two terrifying climaxes, this is the high-point of technical difficulty of the three movements. Technical difficulties include repeated notes in both hands, and tricky double-note scales in major seconds in the right hand. Ravel reportedly said about Scarbo: "I wanted to write an orchestral transcription for the piano."[1]
[edit] Orchestral versions
Eugene Goossens orchestrated Gaspard in 1942.[5] Marius Constant orchestrated the piece in 1988.
[edit] "Music Wall"
Part of the sheet music is painted on the wall of the old Schmitt Music Company headquarters in Minneapolis. The piece was chosen for the locally known "Music Wall" by a Schmitt Music employee that found it aesthetically pleasing. Though Schmitt Music has since moved out of the building, the now famous landmark remains.[citation needed]
[edit] References in popular culture
- Manchester band Oceansize used a repeated quote from "Le gibet" as the basis for a track titled "Unravel", which appears on the 2003 album Effloresce.
- In the 1982 film The Hunger, the vampire Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve) plays "Le gibet".
- From 1987 until 1991, Stephen Desberg and Johan De Moor have written and drawn a four-part comic book series named after and based on this piece.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c "The Brilliant Music of Ravel" by Charles Rosen (review of Ravel by Roger Nichols), The New York Review of Books (10 November 2011) (subscription required)
- ^ Bruhn, Siglind (1997). Images and Ideas in Modern French Piano Music: the Extra-musical Subtext in Piano Works by Ravel, Debussy, and Messiaen. Aesthetics in music. 6. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press. xxviii. ISBN 0945193955. OCLC 37573693.
- ^ Ravel, Maurice (1988). Ravel according to Ravel. compiled Vlado Perlemuter, Hélène Jourdan-Morhange; trans. Frances Tanner; ed. Harold Taylor. London: Kahn & Averill. ISBN 0900707941. OCLC 17983922.
- ^ Piano & Keyboard: The Bimonthly Piano Quarterly. Vol. 184–189. p. 62. String Letter Press, 1997. "The entire Gaspard de la Nuit was not intended as a 'caricature of romanticism'. That statement of Ravel to Vlado Perlemuter only referred to 'Scarbo'."
- ^ "Ravel – Goossens: Gaspard de la nuit (arr. 1942)" at Boosey & Hawkes
[edit] External links
- Piano Society.com – Ravel – Gaspard de la nuit – includes free recordings of "Ondine" and "Scarbo".
- Gaspard de la nuit: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
- BBC Discovering music podcast – Includes lecture and performance – 1 hour and 30 minutes (RealPlayer)
- The Shady Lane Publishing Includes Creative Commons recording and sheet music of "Le gibet" transcription for two guitars by M. Jacquot.
