About this Piece

Whether to the never-never lands of the East (Shéhérazade), the cool beauty of Classical Greece (Daphnis et Chloé), or the innocent world of childhood as expressed in the works of 17th-century fairy-tale collector and writer Charles Perrault and his contemporaries (Tales of Mother Goose), Ravel was the ultimate musical escapist. The children—unlike the lands of his imaginings—were often real, he was comfortable with them, and they adored him in turn. This side of his nature is shown in the set of piano duets, Ma mère l’Oye, that he wrote in 1908 for young Mimi and Jean Godebski, whose parents, Ida and Cyprian (“Cipa”) Godebski, were among the few close friends the composer ever had.

Mimi would later write: “Ravel used to tell me marvelous stories. I would sit on his knee and he would begin, ‘Once upon a time...’ And it was Laideronnette, Beauty and the Beast, and the adventures of a poor mouse that he had made up for me. It was [at the Godebskis’ country home] that Ravel finished and presented us with Ma mère l’Oye. But neither my brother nor I were of an age to appreciate such a dedication and we regarded it rather as something that involved hard work.” 

The piano duets were instead performed by two other children of the composer’s acquaintance, Jeanne Leleu and Geneviève Durony, in April 1910. In 1912 Ravel orchestrated the duets for a ballet, changing their order and adding numbers and transitions. He later adapted this into a concert suite, following the original piano-duet order:

Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty (Pavane de la Belle aus bois dormant) finds a princess who has been asleep for a hundred years, indicated by Ravel’s evocation of the long-ago through the use of an old Aeolian church mode and distantly tinkling chimes. 

Tom Thumb (Petit Poucet) is headed by a quotation from Perrault’s story: “He believed he would have no difficulty finding his way by means of the bread crumbs he had strewn everywhere he had passed; but he was greatly surprised when he could not find a single crumb; the birds had come and eaten them all.” The character of Tom Thumb, and his winding path, are depicted by a solo oboe, with the chirping of the birds heard midway through.

Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas (Laideronnette, Impératrice des pagodes) derives its flavor from the use of the pentatonic scale. The story, by Perrault’s contemporary the Countess d’Aulnoy, tells of an “Ugly Little Girl,” under an enchantment by an evil witch, and a green serpent, once a handsome prince, who voyage to a country inhabited by the Pagodas, tiny beings whose bodies are made of jewels and porcelain. The Ugly Little Girl and the Green Serpent are eventually restored to their original—beautiful—forms and, of course, marry. The specific scene that Ravel describes reads: “She undressed and went into the bath. The Pagodas began to sing and play...some had theorbos [stringed instruments] made of walnut shells, some violas made of almond shells, for they were obliged to proportion their instruments to their figure.”

Conversations of Beauty and the Beast (Les entretiens de la Belle et de la bête) is in the form of a languorous waltz during which Beauty tells the Beast that his kindheartedness makes him no longer ugly.  

The Fairy Garden (Le jardin féerique), the enchanted finale, in which Sleeping Beauty is awakened by Prince Charming, ends the score in a gorgeously sonorous wash of piano, harp, and celesta glissandos. —Herbert Glass