Ma Mère L'Oye
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''Ma mère l'Oye'' (English: ''
Mother Goose Mother Goose is a character that originated in children's fiction, as the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. She also appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as ...
'', literally "''My Mother the Goose''") is a suite by French composer
Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...
. The piece was originally written as a five-movement piano duet in 1910. In 1911, Ravel orchestrated the work.


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 (age 11) and Geneviève Durony (age 14 (10 by another source)) premiered the work at the first concert of the Société musicale indépendante on 20 April 1910. The piece was transcribed for
solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''Star Wars Legends'' continuity * Kylo Ren (Ben Solo), a ''Star Wars'' character * Napoleon Solo, fr ...
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 ''Le Tombeau de Couperin'' (''The Tomb of Couperin'') is a suite (music), suite for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, composed between 1914 and 1917. The piece is in six movements, based on those of a traditional Baroque music, Baroque suite. Each ...
'' was dedicated to Charlot's memory after his death in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. Both piano versions bear the subtitle "cinq pièces enfantines" (five children's pieces). The five pieces are: # ''Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant'': Lent (
Pavane The ''pavane'' ( ; , ''padovana''; ) is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century (Renaissance). The pavane, the earliest-known music for which was published in Venice by Ottaviano Petrucci, in Joan Ambrosio Dalza's ...
of
Sleeping Beauty "Sleeping Beauty" (, or ''The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood''; , or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess curse, cursed by an evil fairy to suspended animation in fi ...
) # ''Petit Poucet'': Très modéré (Little
Tom Thumb Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. ''The History of Tom Thumb'' was published in 1621 and was the first known fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, ...
/
Hop-o'-My-Thumb Hop-o'-My-Thumb (or Hop-on-My-Thumb and similar spellings) also known as Little Thumbling, Little Thumb, or Little Poucet (), is one of the eight fairytales published by Charles Perrault in '' Histoires ou Contes du temps passé'' (1697), now wo ...
) # ''Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes'': Mouvt de marche ( Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas) # ''Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête'': Mouvt de valse très modéré (Conversation of
Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...
) # ''Le jardin féerique'': Lent et grave (The Fairy Garden) ''Sleeping Beauty'' and ''Little Tom Thumb'' are based on the tales of
Charles Perrault Charles Perrault ( , , ; 12 January 162816 May 1703) was a French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales, published in his ...
, while ''Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas'' is inspired by a tale ( The Green Serpent) by Perrault's "rival"
Madame d'Aulnoy Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy (September 1652 – 14 January 1705), also known as Countess d'Aulnoy, was a French author known for her literary fairy tales. Her 1697 collection ''Les Contes des Fées'' (Fairy Tales) ...
. ''Beauty and the Beast'' is based upon the version by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. The origin of ''The Fairy Garden'' is not entirely known, although the ballet version interprets this as
Sleeping Beauty "Sleeping Beauty" (, or ''The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood''; , or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess curse, cursed by an evil fairy to suspended animation in fi ...
being awakened in the garden by her prince. On several of the scores, Ravel included quotes to indicate clearly what he is trying to invoke. For example, for the second piece, he writes:


Orchestrated version

In 1911, Ravel orchestrated the five-piece suite. This form is the most frequently heard today. Later the same year, he also expanded it into a
ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
, separating the five initial pieces with four new interludes and adding two movements at the start, ''Prélude'' and ''Danse du rouet et scène''. The ballet premiered on 29 January 1912 at the Théâtre des Arts in Paris. The eleven numbers are:


Instrumentation

''Ma mère l'Oye'' is scored for an orchestra with the following instruments: ;
Woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and Ree ...
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flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
s (2nd doubling
piccolo The piccolo ( ; ) is a smaller version of the western concert flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" or piccolo flute, the modern piccolo has the same type of fingerings as the ...
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oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...
s (2nd doubling
cor anglais The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn (mainly North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially ...
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clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...
s in B and A :2
bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...
s (2nd doubling
contrabassoon The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences. Differences from the bassoon The Reed (mouthpie ...
) ;
Brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...
:2 horns in F ;
Percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
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timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...
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bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter usually greater than its depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. The head ...
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cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sou ...
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triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...
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tamtam The tamtam, sometimes spelled tam-tam, is a type of Gong#Chau gong (tam-tam), gong. TamTam, Tam-Tam, tamtam, or tam-tam may also refer to: * Tam-Tam (album), ''Tam-Tam'' (album), a 1983 album by Amanda Lear * Tam Tam (Samurai Shodown), Tam Tam (' ...
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xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African ...
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snare drum The snare drum (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often u ...
in the ballet) ; Keyboards :
celesta The celesta () or celeste (), also called a bell-piano, is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. It looks similar to an upright piano (four- or five-octave), albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet, or a large wooden music ...
: ''jeu de timbre'' ; Strings :
harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...
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violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
s I, II :
viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...
s :
cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
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double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...
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In popular culture

* On his 1974 album, ''
So What So What may refer to: Law *Demurrer, colloquially called a "So what?" pleading Music Albums * So What (Anti-Nowhere League album), ''So What'' (Anti-Nowhere League album) or the 1981 title song (see below), 2000 * ''So What?: Early Demos and L ...
'', American guitarist
Joe Walsh Joseph Fidler Walsh (born Joseph Woodward Fidler; November 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Best known as a member of the rock band Eagles (band), Eagles, his five-decade career includes solo work and stints in other ...
recorded the first piano movement, which he simply titled "Pavanne", on the synthesizer. * On his 1980 album, ''Bolero'' (also titled ''The Ravel Album''), Japanese synthesizer artist
Isao Tomita , often known simply as Tomita, was a Japanese composer, regarded as one of the pioneers of electronic music and space music, and as one of the most famous producers of analog synthesizer arrangements. In addition to creating note-by-note realiza ...
recorded the five movements of the piano version. * In the 1984 TV short ''Jean Shepherd on Route 1... and Other Major Thoroughfares'', an orchestral version of ''Le jardin féerique'' plays in the background while
Shepherd A shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations; it exists in many parts of the globe, and it is an important part of Pastoralism, pastoralist animal husbandry. ...
narrates a segment about U.S. Route 22. * The 1993 album '' Audrey Hepburn's Enchanted Tales'' includes selections from the suite. *In the 2007 anime ''Clannad'', the characters choose "Ma mére l'oye" (more specifically a section of "Petit Poucet: Très modéré") as the background music for their school play. * The 2017 film ''Call Me by Your Name'' makes extensive use of a section of ''Le jardin féerique'', * In the 2021 film '' The Worst Person in the World'', a section of ''Les entretiens de la belle et de la bete'' plays while Julie freezes time to meet with Eivind at a cafe. * The Korean Drama "Sky Castle" (2018-2019) employs Bolero and The Fairy Garden throughout the 20 episode saga. * In
Rick Owens Richard Saturnino Owens (born November 18, 1961) is an American fashion designer from Porterville, California. In addition to his main line, Owens has a furniture line and a number of diffusion lines. Early life and education Richard Saturnino ...
' Fall/Winter 2024 women's show "Porterville", a looping synthesizer cover of the first movement was used throughout.


References


External links

*
Free recording
by the
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
Orchestra.
Free recording
of ''Ma mère l'Oye'' by Felipe Sarro {{DEFAULTSORT:Ma mere l'Oye Suites by Maurice Ravel Orchestral suites Compositions for solo piano Compositions for piano four-hands Ballets by Maurice Ravel 1912 ballets 1910 compositions 1911 compositions 1912 compositions Music based on fairy tales Works based on nursery rhymes Music with dedications Ballets based on works by Charles Perrault Piano compositions by Maurice Ravel