Thanks to J for the comments on Ravel, that Grice played at Clifton. The piece he played to great applause was "Pavane for a dead princess".
This from wiki:
"Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) is a well-known piece written for solo piano by the French composer Maurice Ravel in 1899 when he was studying composition at the Conservatoire de Paris under Gabriel Fauré. Ravel also published an orchestrated version of the Pavane in 1910. A typical performance of the piece lasts between six and seven minutes."
----------- Grice repeated the coda, and started with the introduction again, while his little 'sister' (a boy really, dressed as a girl) was giving away some brownies to the audience. This allowed Grice to repeat the coda and the bride. In total, the piece lasted 23 minutes.
"Ravel described the piece as "an evocation of a pavane that a little princess might, in former times, have danced at the Spanish court".[1] The pavane was a slow processional dance that enjoyed great popularity in the courts of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries."
"This antique miniature is not meant to pay tribute to any particular princess from history, but rather expresses a nostalgic enthusiasm for Spanish customs and sensibilities, which Ravel shared with many of his contemporaries (most notably Debussy and Albéniz) and which is evident in some of his other works such as the Rapsodie espagnole and the Boléro."
"Ravel dedicated the Pavane to his patron, the Princesse de Polignac. The Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes gave the first performance on April 5, 1902. The Pavane was warmly welcomed by the public, but received much more subdued reviews from Ravel's fellow musicians. Indeed, Ravel himself complained that it "lacked daring". Subsequent performances tended to be much too slow and plodding. In one instance, Ravel attended just such a performance, and afterward mentioned to the pianist that it was called "Pavane for a Dead Princess", not "Dead Pavane for a Princess"."
-----
I suppose Grice would say that the difference, being one of scope, is merely implicatural.
"When Ravel published his orchestrated version of the Pavane in 1910, he gave the lead melody to the horn, and specified a non-generic instrument: the score calls for "2 Cors simples en sol" (two hand-horns in G). The teaching of the valveless hand-horn had persisted longer in the Paris Conservatory than in other European centers; only in 1903 had the valve horn replaced it as the official horn of primary instruction."
References
1.Robert Andres. An introduction to the solo piano music of Debussy and Ravel
Heninger, Barbara (2001-11-23). Maurice Ravel: Pavane for a Dead Princess (program notes). Eric Kujawsky, Peter Stahl, Wyatt Doug (eds.). Redwood Symphony. http://www.barbwired.com/barbweb/programs/ravel_pavane.html. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
[edit] External links
Pavane pour une infante défunte: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
Recording of Pavane pour une Infante Défunte by Therese Dussaut in MP3 format
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAh R. composed the "Pavanne" in 1902. That sort of falsified my comment. It's a charming piece of muzak, at least the first few movements are.
ReplyDeleteI've read someone made an opera out of Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" (and...even TS Eliot supposedly involved with the libretto scribbling, as y'all say). That would be quite copacetic.
Yes. It's a charming piece of music. And Grice played it well.
ReplyDeleteA tear was seen in someone in the audience, as the title of the piece was remembered, "a Pavane for a dead princess"
---- 'dead'? 'defunte' in French. Hardly the same.
----- 'princess'? 'infante' in French. Hardly the same.
"Pavane" IS 'pavane' in French.
Difunto in spanish ...means dead, or even corpse. Or La Difunta! As in ...defunct.
ReplyDeletePavanne from ..de Padua may be correct. Probably not De Pava ..."of the turkey hen". But also related to..peacock...(pavon, I think in span.) so the dance of the peacock? Perhaps... slow, stately spreading of her tail...
To be honest I prefer Faure's Pavanne to Ravel's (Faure was R's mentor for some time), though it's a bit over-exposed--quite poignant, even tragic. Like Debussy Ravel always cooks up a beautiful cake, but his icing's so rich...laced with creme de menthe, or is it absinthe. At times Faure's slightly minimalist touch out does them. Or not.
ReplyDeleteYes. One wonders why Grice played THAT piece. I assume it was the influence of his music teacher. As Noel Coward used to say, "I never liked my piano teacher". Coward attended one class by this teacher. He was taken aback when the piano teacher mentioned he was against 'consecutive fifths'. "What's good for Debussy is good enough for me," said Coward, and left.
ReplyDelete