A secret dedication hidden in Maurice Ravel's music - Home


Page 4
Le Coeur de l'horloge
"Nor do I blow my nose..."
(II) (1)
The hidden Chopin.


[what he said]
Consciousness opposed to sincerity.

""Nothing less hateful than music without ulterior motive."
Deep words, rather little known. It is true that Chopin claimed it constantly in his work. Did we understand ? The other way round."
Les Polonaises... Courrier musical January 1910
~"I don't like much this sort of sincerity. I try to make art"~ ~New York Times, 7 août 1927 .(retranslation)
~" However I initiated the reaction againt him [Debussy], in favour of the Classical composers, because I wished more will and intelligence than his music contained"~ ~The musical Digest mars 1928, (retranslation. AO p327)

Charm and emotion.

"If [the Chansons Madécasses] were not completely in Schoenberg's style, it is because I am less afraid, in music, of the element charm, avoided by him until asceticism, until martyrdom."
La Revue musicale, mars 1931.
"The Music for the musicians. True interpretation of Chopin's idea. Not for the professionals, good gracious no. Musican : creator or dilettante; human being, sensible to the rythm, the melody, the harmony, the atmosphere that creates sounds. Being thrilled by the progression between two chords as by the relation between two colors. The material : this matters first in all arts. The rest ensues."
Les Polonaises...Article of the Courrier musical (Juanuary 13th  1910

The dandy
"You wouldn't really want that I went out with this pre-war overcoat  ! Now It is bell-shaped fashion!" (HJM)
Ravel et  nous. Hélène Jourdan-Morhange, éd. du Milieu du Monde,

Ideas...
"I never was so happy to live and I firmly believe that joy is more fruitful than suffering." (letter to Mrs René de Saint-Marceaux )
AO  p.78.
"I am from no [political] party, I am anarchistic !" Ravel et  nous.
[Mozart] " For us, the members of the young modern school, he is the greatest of musicians, the musician par excellence, our god !" Vienne, October 28th 1920. AO p. 344

(1) Mallarmé's answer to the question "So you never cry,  in your poems, Mr. Mallarmé ? (quoted by Hélène Jourdan-Morhange in Ravel et nous)
David Lamaze
Le Cygne de Ravel ~ Le Coeur de l'horloge