Miroirs
The Miroirs (Eng. "Mirror images") are a cycle composed by Maurice Ravel in 1905 of five piano pieces with the titles:
- Noctuelles (moth),
- Oiseaux tristes (sad birds),
- Une barque sur l'océan (A boat on the ocean),
- Alborada del gracioso (Fool's Morning Song) and
- La vallée des cloches (The valley of the bells).
Along with Ravel's later cycle Gaspard de la nuit and the piano works of his contemporary Claude Debussy, the work is one of the key works of French Impressionism that were composed for this instrument. All pieces, especially Une barque sur l'océan and Alborada del gracioso , are technically extraordinarily demanding and characterized by a virtuoso piano setting that takes up inspiration from piano works by Liszt , Mussorgsky , Debussy and earlier piano works by Ravel. The composer uses the entire technical, harmonic and tonal spectrum of the instrument in order to produce extremely diverse and refined color nuances in all pieces.
The cycle Miroirs was premiered in 1906 by the pianist Ricardo Viñes , who was friends with Ravel .
style
Ravel combines late romantic and impressionistic harmony, while at the same time pre-classical forms are taken up. Ravel's special style was further developed with Gaspard de la nuit and taken to a new, more complex level. After that, Ravel's style changed and became more catchy and harmonious.
Noctuelles
The technically challenging piece follows the course of an ABA shape with a slower middle section; it changes again and again between B flat minor and G flat major and can be associated with a moth that circles a light source and repeatedly switches between light and shadow.
Oiseaux dreary
The second piece is an extremely dark work, but the melancholy tones are decorated throughout with bright, pearly melodies.
Une barque sur l'océan
In this comparatively demanding piece, Ravel's desire to translate images into music (impressionism) is most evident. As Ravel wrote, the entire piece is played "enveloped by the pedal". The figures of the left hand initially aim for a full sound. In the further course the melody is distributed to both hands.
Alborada del gracioso
The fourth work is the most technically and musically demanding piece. Bitingly dissonant , short-to-play and pearly motifs alternate. The work alternates between dark and light, loud parts, in which the main themes are repeatedly taken up. The high demands of the piece on the pianist result from the tone repetition, a musically difficult to process polyphonic passage at the end of the piece, as well as a multitude of other technical finesse. The title Alborada del Gracioso literally means “a fool's morning serenade”.
La vallée des cloches
The last piece contains, as the title suggests, bell sounds, which are represented by low and loud octaves as well as high, soft, light sounds. In the later works of Ravel the chimes of bells are taken up again and again and play a major role there.
literature
- Maurice Ravel: Miroirs for piano . Peters, Leipzig 1989 (Edition Peters; 10603) (score)
Web links
- Maurice Ravel's miroirs for piano: historical background and some performance related aspects. PhD thesis by Ruti Abramovitch, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, December 2012.
- Free sheet music and audio files