Ravel – Jeux d’eau

^{Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)}

^{Jeux d’eau (1901)}

^{Ravel’s Jeux d’eau (Water Games) was written while he was a student at the Paris Conservatory. As its brilliant virtuosity might suggest, it was heavily influenced by the music of Franz Liszt, particularly the latter’s Les jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este. Like many Ravel scores, there’s more than a hint of Classicism that runs through Jeux, as can be seen in its lucid textures and the sonata-like quality of its form. The first of its two motives is heard at the very beginning, a cascading gesture that well depicts the “noise of water and…the musical sounds which make one hear the sprays of water, the cascades, and the brooks,” as the composer’s note described the piece. Jeux’s second theme offers a strong contrast to the first, with a simple diatonic tune first heard in octaves and later harmonized in parallel fifths. The two alternate and develop over Jeux’s brief, but focused, five-minute duration.}

^{© Jonathan Blumhofer}

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