Histoires Naturelles

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), in composing his song cycle Histoires Naturelles, did not intend to completely rewrite the story of Jules Renard’s famous poems that he was setting. In fact, in explaining his desire to set Renard’s poetry to Renard himself, Ravel responded “Mon dessein n'était pas d'y ajouter, mais d'interpreter... Dire avec de la musique ce que vous dites avec des mots” (“My intention was not to add, but to interpret… To say with music that which you say with words”). This intention is readily apparent in the five song cycle, which tells the stories of five animals; the peacock, the cricket, the swan, the king fisher, and the guinea hen. Using what was at the time a radical form of word setting, Ravel imitates the pace, vocal patterns, and attitudes of the five animals. The first song Le Paon’s tempo marking reads “Sans hâte et noblement” (“Without haste and nobly”), and later “Avec majesté” (“with majesty”), and the second song Le Grillon’s tempo marking simply reads “Placide” (placid). Because of this careful interpretation of the poetry, the songs have an extremely expressive and dramatic quality; the peacock cries out in anguish over its mate’s absence, and the kingfisher waits quietly for its meal, both in the lyrics and the music.

Though Ravel had achieved a certain amount of critical and professional success when he composed Histoires Naturelles at 32, and had already composed pieces such as Jeux d’eau and his cantatas Myrrha, Alycone, and Alyssa which are still popular today, he had certainly not received critical or popular success yet. The cycle was premiered in 1907 by Jane Bathori, with Ravel himself accompanying, to a dissatisfied, even rowdy audience. The concertgoers were upset with the radical text-setting that Ravel had used, and according to the report one attendee, found some irony in the first lyrics of Le Martin Pecheur: “Ça n'a pas mordu, ce soir…" (“It hasn’t bitten, this evening”), and openly guffawed during the pauses of Le Grillon. Bathori later explained how radical the cycle really was, saying that it had “completely broken with what is customarily called ‘melody.’ The voice was subservient to the prosody, which embraced the text to such an extent that the mute e’s were no longer heard”. What Bathori means by the last section of that quotation is that the text the performer sings more closely approximates how French is spoken than how it was traditionally sung, as was done to a certain extent by composers such as Mussorgsky and Chabrier, but never before to this extent. This break with tradition may seem small to the modern audience member, who has heard considerably more radical breaks with the melodic tradition, but to Ravel’s contemporaries, this music was unlike anything they had heard before, and at first upset them. Much like The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky and Pelléas et Melisande by Debussy, however, the initial popular hostility to Histoires Naturelles has since yielded, and the pieces have become staples in the French song repertory.

Analysis of Ravel's Menuet sur le Nom d'Haydn

Maurice Ravel’s Menuet sur le Nom d’Haydn, composed in 1909 as part of a series of compositions commissioned by a French magazine from composers including Debussy and d’Indy, is at first glance quite a simple piece. The piece, like the others commissioned with it, is written based on the theme “B-A-D-D-G”, a musical transcription of Haydn’s name using the German tradition of “H” being what we would call “B natural”, “D” and “A” being their respective pitch names, and Y and N corresponding to where they would fall if the scale were repeated through the alphabet (“D” and “G” respectively). This progression of notes appears repeatedly through the song, a total of 8 times, sometimes in the melody, others in the background. In measure 19, in the left hand, Ravel even uses the same theme backwards (G-D-D-A-B); in measure 25 he intentionally uses the notes achieved by rotating the staff of the original melody 180 degrees (D-G-G-C#-B).

The piece, at fifty four measures long, is in rounded binary form (AABA, the form traditionally used in minuets), a form which Haydn used extensively in his symphonies, sonatas, and other instrumental works. The “A” theme itself, and much of the “B” theme, is analyzable in terms of tonal harmony, though even in these parts Ravel stretches the rules to fit 20^th century influences, including Jazz. For instance, the first two chords, “ii⁷” and “iii⁷” in the key of G major, would almost never be seen next to each other in tonal harmony. Most of the chords in the first theme have at least a seventh added on to them, sometimes even an altered seventh as in the “V” major-major seventh chords in bars five and six, moving towards the half cadence in measure eight. On the first beat of measure seven, Ravel even employs a vi¹¹ chord, which would essentially never be seen in classical period music.

The “B” section, however, moves into much more complex areas than the “A” section. It rapidly modulates through a series of keys, and though up to measure 38, it maintains a fairly strong tonal center with-in each two or four bar phrase, the seventh and ninth chords obscure much of the connection to traditional harmonic patterns. Beginning in measure 38, however, Ravel combines a simple upward chromatic scale with a series of descending chordal patterns in the right hand and ascending chordal patterns in the left hand, creating an incredibly complex and dissonant harmony, all over a B pedal, which builds tension and volume into the return of the A theme at the end of bar 43.

The final iteration of the “A” theme is similar to the first and second iterations, although the second half of the theme goes briefly into C major (IV of G major), leading into the last six bars, a coda which modulates through the keys a minor and A flat major (ii and the Neapolitan of G major respectively), into the final cadence in G major. Though these key changes are direct and fairly chromatic, the idea of altering the second theme going into the coda is absolutely a device that was used during Haydn’s lifetime. Menuet sur le Nom d’Haydn is a piece that is at once modern and classical; the ornamentations, phrase structure, and most of the tonal movement serves the same purpose as the music of a Haydn minuet would (though Ravel’s minuet is far less “danceable”) tonally, but the chromaticism and “jazz chords” give it a deeply modern edge.

A rant

On the British newspaper The Independent’s homepage, there is currently a story entitled “Matthew Norman: How did this wastrel ever find his way to the White House? It takes a certain minimal intelligence for the truly dim to have a notion of their own dimness, but this is denied George Bush. He has the self-awareness of a bison”, about George Bush’s recently released memoir. The article doesn’t just blindly lash out at Bush; it carefully breaks down the message that Bush pushes in his book, putting it into a clearer perspective given what actually happened during Bush’s reign. Norman’s article, besides being a down to earth, honest piece of writing, is entertaining to read; it doesn’t seem like a faux-balanced “everybody is the same amount of right” suck up article.

Those articles are written instead by American news media. Recent articles in the New York Times, a paper frequently lampooned as a leftist propaganda rag, include “With Book, Bush Is Back in Spotlight” (a bland, insubstantial title that carefully avoids implications), “In Memoir, Bush Strikes back against Kanye West” (slightly more interesting, but still completely insubstantial), and “Bush Considered Dropping Cheney from 2004 Ticket” (this one is somewhat substantial, but still buries the lead beneath politeness). One would think that this, one of only a few newspapers in the US that still does a little bit of investigative reporting, would have the courage of conviction to tell the truth, but as always, they have proven that American news media is buried so far below the corporations that own them and the politicians who lead them around like dogs with “access” as the method of payment for loyal pets.

It’s pretty ironic, really, that the country that enshrined the freedom of press in its Bill of Rights, and was founded out of trying to get away from the stodgy, censored British system of government, would end up being the one in which journalists are afraid to take a stand. There was a reason that freedom of the press was included in the constitution; the framers were afraid that any single politician or political entity would be able to gain too much influence and power without the press to point out their flaws and lies. Unsurprisingly, in this time where the press has become so afraid and stuck in its ways, politicians are gradually accumulating more wealth and power, and spreading it around to their rich and powerful neighbors. A recent Supreme Court ruling allowed corporations to exert almost unlimited influence on elections, worsening the problem even more. Politicians are able to propagate lies with literally no repercussions electorally, and have passed enormous tax cuts for the richest Americans, while trying to cut off support for the lower classes. Wealth disparity is already at its highest levels in American history, but the media didn’t seem to notice. They’re too busy sucking up to politicians to worry about poor people. It’s no wonder the American newspaper business is dead.

Degenerate art

This evening, as a part of my multi-evening performance extravaganza, I sang with the Lewis and Clark College Cappella Nova Choir in our Winter Concert. Though I must confess I was a little bit worried about a few of the pieces before the concert (and during the concert...), the performance went very well, and I had a lot of fun.

My favorite piece that we sang was a Christmas themed piece from Hugo Distler's "Geistliche Chormusik" (op.12), which combines elements of renaissance, neo classical, and jazz/popular music. Distler, born in 1908, was a German composer who sadly was reaching his prime at just about the time that Hitler took power in Germany. He composed a fairly large amount of mostly choral music, but in 1942, chose to take his own life rather than face the wrath of the "Third Reich" towards his music (he was one of the artists who the Nazis decided were creating "degenerate art"), or the perhaps inevitable moment when he would be drafted into the military.

Is Love Alive?

My parents are visiting from out of town to see my choir concert this weekend, and they just got in tonight. They made it just in time to sit in on my a cappella practice, which was really cool. I was really glad that they were able to see what I have been spending so much of my time and effort on for the last few years.

On a related note, I am so glad that I have been a part of my a cappella group Section Line Drive through my college experience. It is such a diverse, amazing, talented group of people, and I have had absolutely some of my best musical and friendship experiences through it. A cappella has been a music activity, like playing in a band, that I don't have to take too seriously, where I can sit back and enjoy the music and the people a little bit more. Arranging music has been really fun also, and I have learned a lot about music simply through that. I am so lucky to be a part of such a fun group of people. At first, I was a little disappointed that I didn't get into the other a cappella group at my school, but looking back on it, I would never trade the experiences I've had with Section Line Drive for some other group.

Finale

Tonight is the final Bella Novella Show until next fall! Two of our members are studying abroad next semester, so we will be taking a hiatus next semester, sadly. However, I am so glad that I've had this band where I can go and blow off steam once or twice a week, and create music with three of my best friends. It's been such a valuable experience to work on my performance, songwriting, and ensemble playing with the band. Most importantly, it's fun, and people enjoy it!

The Craziest Week of the Year

So, as I've realized today, this week (and the first half of next) is the culmination of essentially everything I've done this semester. I have 2 choir concerts, a variety of projects, tests, presentations, a show with my band, etc., all within this small time span. I think this is probably a good time of the semester to remind myself why I am doing all of this crazy work, so I think I will use this blog for the next couple of weeks to relax at the end of each long, stressful day, and think about music. It's so easy in the storm of rehearsals and performances to get bogged down in the details, but the reason for all of the work is what it's really about.

Joseph, and Jacob, and Joseph, and Jacob

I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center last night, and though it is not my favorite musical, it was a fun production. I read up a little bit on the musical and Mister Lloyd Weber after it was over, and was surprised to see that the original version was only 15 minutes long! I really wish I could see that version of the score, since I am curious if there is any music in the 2 hour version that was not in the 15 minute version...

Opera

We just finished with the Opera workshop production this weekend. We did scenes from two versions of the story of the Merry Wives of Windsor by Shakespeare, one by Otto Nicolai and the other by Ralph Vaughan Williams. I played Falstaff in the Nicolai scenes, which means I had to put on the guise of being a crude, drunk, conceited fool, which was quite interesting to say the least. Moreover, I wore an enormous fat suit, which probably would have at least tripled my body fat had it been real flesh. The workshop was a really good experience for me, because I got experience singing solo, which I don't have much of, as well as experience acting, which I have even less of. It took up a lot of time (looking back on it, I have no idea how I fit all of the things I have done so far this semester in). I am definitely looking forward to having a little more free time on my hands, but also to trying out again next year.

Practice makes tired

Due to an extremely surprisingly small amount of homework, I spent a lot of time in the practice room this weekend. I mostly worked on one piece by Ravel that I am working on for piano right now. I spent far more time practicing in the last few days than I had in any similar period of time before. It was a huge help in learning the piece, but sucked a lot of energy out of me. I found that when people came in to talk to me while I was practicing, I was unable to concentrate on what they were saying, and could hardly keep a conversation going. While I was practicing, I could concentrate extremely well on the piece, but then as soon as I had to think about something else, it was as though a wall had been built up around my brain to protect it from extraneous thoughts...

Just some observations.