Five Pieces from Ma mère l'Oye (Mother Goose) 
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) 

THE STORY

     Maurice Ravel never married and remained childless, but he adored other people’s children—and in 1908 he wrote a piano duet for the six- and seven-year-old son and daughter of his close friends. He greatly enjoyed the project, saying that writing for children challenged him to “simplify my style and clarify my writing.”
     The suite was inspired by fairy tales and stories from Mother Goose, including Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, The Green Serpent, and Beauty and the Beast. The music is elegant and full of wonder and imagination, but a hint of sadness is also present throughout—perhaps revealing nostalgia for his own childhood. (Ravel had an idyllic upbringing and continued to collect toys as an adult).
     Ravel followed a suggestion that he expand the work and create a ballet, and then extracted five selections for an orchestral suite. The orchestral version begins and ends with Sleeping Beauty—opening with the princess pricking her finger and falling into a deep sleep, and concluding when she is awakened by her prince. The tales of the middle three movements seem to work themselves in by way of Sleeping Beauty’s dreams.
     Ravel was a master orchestrator and his work here is exquisite. An especially charming touch is the theme that reappears before each movement—as if a narrator is saying, “What story would you like to hear next?”

LISTEN FOR

• The pastel hues of “Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty,” opening with a poignant melody on the flute

• A constantly shifting meter signaling unease as Tom Thumb meanders through the forest, birds chirping happily as they eat the crumbs he had scattered to help find his way out

• The pentatonic melodies Ravel used to represent Laideronette, a cursed Chinese princess whose only companion is a serpent

• In “Beauty and the Beast,” the clarinet’s portrayal of Belle and the contrabassoon’s portrayal of the Beast; the Beast’s transformation back to his princely form is cued by the harp and breathy violin harmonics, and he is then portrayed by the cellos

• The sound of wedding bells after the prince awakens Sleeping Beauty with a kiss in “The Enchanted Garden,” concluding with a sweeping, triumphant melody in the strings

INSTRUMENTATION

Piccolo, two flutes, two oboes (second doubling English horn), two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, two horns, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta, strings