Daphnis et Chloé
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

[1913]

The Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev took Paris by storm in 1909 with his new endeavor, the Ballets Russes, featuring elite Russian dancers and choreographers. He began commissioning new music for the troupe’s innovative productions, including a gamble on the young and untested Igor Stravinsky, who became a household name thanks to The Firebird in 1910.

Diaghilev’s first commission outside of his Russian circle went to the French composer Maurice Ravel. Diaghilev and his choreographer, Michel Fokine, suggested the scenario: the romantic tale of Daphnis and Chloé, as recorded by Longus, a Greek writer believed to have lived on the island of Lesbos in the second century A.D.

Part I of the ballet begins with a luminous introduction that flows into a religious dance at the altar of the nymphs, ending with a tender violin solo. The perky section that follows, beginning with trumpet, corresponds to a dance in which a group of flirtatious girls invite the goatherd Daphnis to dance with them, making the shepherdess Chloé jealous, until she joins in a dance with the young men. Daphnis tries approaching Chloé tenderly (an intimacy reinforced by solo strings), but the rowdy youths intervene and propose a dance contest between Daphnis and the cowherd Dorcon, a rival for Chloé’s affections. There is loud and coarse music for Dorcon’s “grotesque dance,” and then slow and stately music to accompany the graceful Daphnis, who is declared the winner, earning a kiss from Chloé.

The group heads off with Chloé, leaving Daphnis. He is lured into a dance with another woman, until a swell of ominous music signals danger: marauding pirates chase the girls and abscond with Chloé before Daphnis can save her. At the sound of eerie string figures, “a strange light envelops the countryside,” and the nymph statues come to life, comforting Daphnis and evoking the god Pan.

A distant introduction to Part II swells to the lively and harsh music of the pirate gang showing off their plunder. The pirate commander calls for Chloé to be brought out, and she begins a “dance of supplication” to the doleful strains of English horn. The pirates carry her off menacingly, and then, as described in the libretto, “suddenly the atmosphere seems charged with strange elements. In various places, lit by invisible hands, little flames flare up. Fantastic beings crawl or leap here and there. Satyrs appear from every side and surround the brigands. The earth opens. The fearsome shadow of Pan is outlined on the hills in the background, making a threatening gesture. Everyone flees in horror.”

Part III opens with a luxurious sunrise, beginning with flutes and clarinets representing “the murmur of rivulets produced by the dew that trickles from the rocks,” and then joined by birdlike chirps and a surge of light as the sun crests the horizon. Daphnis awakens at the grotto of the nymphs, and a group of shepherdesses enter with Chloé, safely returned. After the romantic reunion of the lovers, they perform a pantomime depicting Pan and the reluctant object of his affections, the nymph Syrinx. The final section portrays a group celebration, with smeared chromatic phrases and an asymmetrical five-beat meter suggesting a general tipsiness.

Two piccolos, three flutes, alto flute, two oboes, English horn, E-flat clarinet, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, two harps, celesta, strings