Runtime: Approx. 21 minutes 

French Impressionist composer Maurice Ravel began work on his beloved “Le Tombeau de Couperin” in 1914. As with many of Ravel’s orchestral works, it began as a piece for solo piano and was later orchestrated by the composer. The work – one of his most famous – pays homage to the composer François Couperin (1668-1733), and to the tradition of French Baroque music in general, bridging 200 years of French musical tradition and artfully connecting the prior two works on this program. Listeners will recognize both the distinctive turn-of-the-century French aesthetic of Fauré and the ornate Baroque sensibilities of Vivaldi reflected in Ravel’s masterpiece.  

The title, translated to “The Grave of Couperin,” bears Ravel’s trademark ambiguity. Both apt and misleading, the term “tombeau,” while translating to “grave” or “tomb” in modern French, was a 17th-century term used to describe a piece written in memoriam, and it’s this version of the word that Ravel seems to be using, changing the meaning to something more like “Ode to Couperin.” In discussing the work, Ravel stated that his intention was to pay homage more broadly to the tradition of the French Baroque keyboard suite, using Couperin as a figurehead for the style.  

Ravel’s ode is crafted in the form of a traditional Baroque dance suite. Structured in six movements, these suites encompass an array of contrasting traditional and social dances each with a prescribed style, meter, and tempo.  

Prélude: A brief introduction 

Fugue: An intricate development of a theme by imitation in multiple voices. Simply put, it’s a bit like a round, except that there is a primary round happening in two or more voices, and then a secondary round (a different melody) being played simultaneously, and they all fit together to create harmony.  

Forlane: Friulian dance, a fast Slavic folk dance in duple meter.  

Rigaudon: A lively French Baroque dance in duple meter. 

Menuet: Also written “minuet,” this well-known triple meter dance has also found its place in the Classical symphony.  

Toccata: Meaning “touch,” a Toccata is a flashy, virtuoso piece of music, most often seen for keyboard instruments.