Ma Mère l'Oye

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Ma Mère l'Oye (Mother Goose), is a musical work by French composer and pianist Maurice Ravel.

Ravel originally wrote Ma Mère l'Oye as a piano duet for the Godebski children, Mimi and Jean, ages 6 and 7. Ravel dedicated this work for four hands to the children (just as he had dedicated an earlier work, Sonatine to their parents). Jeanne Leleu and Geneviève Durony premiered the work.

The piece was transcribed for solo piano by Ravel's friend Jacques Charlot the same year as it was published (1910).

Both piano versions bear the subtitle "cinq pièces enfantines" (five children's pieces). The five "pieces" were as follows:

I. Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant

Pavane of Sleeping Beauty

Lent

II. Petit Poucet

Little Tom Thumb / Hop o' My Thumb

Très modéré

III. Laideronnette, Impératrice des pagodes

Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas

Mouvt de Marche

IV. Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête

Conversation of Beauty and the Beast

Mouvt de Valse très modéré

V. Le jardin féerique

The Fairy Garden

Lent et grave

On several of the scores, Ravel included quotes to indicate clearly what he was trying to invoke. For example, for the second "piece":

"Il croyait trouver aisément son chemin par le moyen de son pain qu'il avait semé partout où il avait passé; mais il fut bien surpris lorsqu'il ne put retrouver une seule miette: les oiseaux étaient venus qui avaient tout mangé. (Ch. Perrault.)"

["He believed he'd easily find his way because of the bread that he'd strewn all along his path; but he was very surprised to find not a single crumb: the birds had come and eaten everything."]

Sleeping Beauty and Little Tom Thumb were based on the tales of Charles Perrault, while Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas was inspired by a tale by Perrault's "rival" Marie-Catherine, Comtesse d'Aulnoy. In this movement, Ravel takes advantage of the pentatonic scale. Beauty and the Beast is based upon the version of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. The origin of The Fairy Garden is not entirely known. The "Mouvt de Marche" of Little Ugly Girl uses quartal harmony:

In 1911, Ravel orchestrated the work. Then, in 1912, he expanded it into a ballet adding new movements and interludes: "Prélude" (Prelude) and "Danse du rouet et scène" (Spinning Wheel Dance and Scene).

[edit] Media

Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- Arranged for solo piano in 1910 by Jacques Charlot, a friend of Ravel. Please note that this recording has many performance errors (ignored accidentals, etc.) throughout, including random accented notes in every bar.
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