Ma mère l'oye

The title of this article contains the character è. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Ma mere l'oye.

This article is about the Ravel composition. For Jerome Robbins' 1975 ballet to this music, see Mother Goose (ballet).

Ma mère l'oye (Mother Goose) is a musical work by French composer Maurice Ravel.

Piano versions

Ravel originally wrote Ma mère l'oye as a piano duet for the Godebski children, Mimi and Jean, ages 6 and 7. Ravel dedicated this work for four hands to the children (just as he had dedicated an earlier work, Sonatine to their parents). Jeanne Leleu and Geneviève Durony premiered the work.

The piece was transcribed for solo piano by Ravel's friend Jacques Charlot the same year as it was published (1910); the first movement of Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin was also dedicated to Charlot's memory after his death in World War I.

Both piano versions bear the subtitle "cinq pièces enfantines" (five children's pieces). The five "pieces" were as follows:

• I. Pavane de la belle au bois dormant

Pavane of Sleeping Beauty

Lent

• II. Petit Poucet

Little Tom Thumb / Hop o' My Thumb

Très modéré

• III. Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes

Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas

Mouvt de marche

• IV. Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête

Conversation of Beauty and the Beast

Mouvt de valse très modéré

• V. Le jardin féerique

The Fairy Garden

Lent et grave

On several of the scores, Ravel included quotes to indicate clearly what he was trying to invoke. For example, for the second "piece":

"Il croyait trouver aisément son chemin par le moyen de son pain qu'il avait semé partout où il avait passé; mais il fut bien surpris lorsqu'il ne put retrouver une seule miette: les oiseaux étaient venus qui avaient tout mangé. (Ch. Perrault)"

["He believed he'd easily find his way because of the bread that he'd strewn all along his path; but he was very surprised to find not a single crumb: the birds had come and eaten everything." (Charles Perrault)]

Sleeping Beauty and Little Tom Thumb were based on the tales of Charles Perrault, while Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas was inspired by a tale (The Green Serpent) by Perrault's "rival" Madame d'Aulnoy. In this movement, Ravel takes advantage of the pentatonic scale. Beauty and the Beast is based upon the version of Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. The origin of The Fairy Garden is not entirely known. The "Mouvt de marche" of Little Ugly Girl uses quartal harmony:

Quartal harmony in "Laideronnette" from Ravel's Ma mère l'oye.  Play (help·info)

Orchestrated work

In 1911, Ravel orchestrated the work. Then, in 1912, he expanded it into a ballet adding new movements ("Prélude" and "Danse du rouet et scène") and interludes:

• I. Prélude

Prelude

Très lent

• II. Premier tableau - Danse du rouet et scène

Spinning Wheel Dance and Scene

• III. Deuxième tableau - Pavane de la belle au bois dormant
• IV. Interlude
• V. Troisième tableau - Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête
• VI. Interlude
• VII. Quatrième tableau - Petit Poucet
• VIII. Interlude
• IX. Cinquième tableau - Laideronnette, impératrice des Pagodes
• X. Interlude
• XI. Sixième tableau - Le jardin féerique

It was premiered on 29 January 1912 at the Théâtre des Arts in Paris^[1]

Instrumentation

Ma mère l'oye was scored for the following orchestra:

• Woodwinds: 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling English horn), 2 clarinets in B-Flat and A, and 2 bassoons (2nd doubling contrabassoon)
• Brass: 2 horns in F
• Percussion: Timpani, a bass drum, cymbals, a triangle, a tamtam, a glockenspiel, and a xylophone
• Keyboard: a celesta
• Strings: a harp, first and second violins, violas, violoncellos, and double basses

References

1. ^ Concert Booklet of HKPO by Marc Rochester

External links

• Free recording by the Columbia University Orchestra.