''Tzigane'' is a rhapsodic composition by the 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 ...

featuring a virtuosic violin part. The original instrumentation was for

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 ...

and piano (with optional luthéal attachment). The first performance took place in London on 26 April 1924 with the dedicatee, Jelly d'Arányi, on the violin and Henri Gil-Marchex at the piano. In his biographical sketch of 1928 Ravel termed it a ''rapsodie de concert'', as "a virtuoso piece in the style of a Hungarian rhapsody". It consists of "a string of successive variations juxtaposed without development".Jankélévitch, Vladimir. ''Ravel'' (translated by Margaret Crosland, Evergreen Profile Book 3. Grove Press, New York & John Calder, London, 1959, p61.

Background

In the early 1920s, Ravel had been planning a piece for violin and piano for his closest female friend, Hélène Jourdan-Morhange. Around the same time Ravel became acquainted with Hungarian violinist d'Arányi when she played his Sonata for Violin and Cello with Hans Kindler in London at a private soirée, and afterwards regaled the composer with a selection of folk-tunes from her country until 5 in the morning. In the ensuing two years Jourdan-Morhange retired from playing due to a chronic illness. Ravel put aside the

sonata In music a sonata (; pl. ''sonate'') literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cantare'', "to sing"), a piece ''sung''. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until th ...

he had intended for Jourdan-Morhange and was inspired to write a virtuoso piece that "could not be anything but Hungarian". During composition, Ravel consulted with both Jourdan-Morhange and d'Arányi on the violin figuration, studied the Paganini Caprices, and studied

Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most pro ...

's '' Hungarian Rhapsodies'' that were supplied to him by Lucien Garban. It is dedicated to Jelly d'Arányi. Ravel orchestrated the piano part in July 1924, and also created a version of the piano score noted for luthéal accompaniment. The autograph manuscript for the orchestrated version is held by the Morgan Library & Museum. The name of the piece is derived from the generic

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an term for "

gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

" (in French: gitan, tsigane or tzigane rather than the Hungarian ''cigány'') although it does not use any authentic Gypsy melodies.

Music

''Tzigane'' is a late entry into the gypsy-themed violin virtuoso concert piece; the most prominent prior works being Sarasate's '' Zigeunerweisen'' from 1878 and

Vittorio Monti Vittorio Monti (6 January 186820 June 1922) was an Italian composer, violinist, mandolinist and conductor. His most famous work is his ''Csárdás'', written around 1904. Life and career Monti was born in Naples, where he studied violin and ...

's '' Czárdás''. Ravel's audience would also have been familiar with a ''style hongrois'' that had suffused light music and the Parisian café scene. The composition is in one movement, with an approximate duration of ten minutes, scored for strings and harp, double woodwinds, two horns in F, one trumpet in C, celesta, triangle, timbre, and cymbal. The opening is marked 'Lento, quasi cadenza' and is for solo violin, playing on the G string for the first 28 bars; Jankélévitch describes the preamble ( Lassan) as "superior exercises – runs,

staccato Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of Articulation (music), musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and ...

notes, trills and mordents". Then follow a succession of "gipsy improvisations – the Friska, then the Czardas", at the end of which "the rhapsody becomes impatient and runs feverishly through all kinds of successive tonalities without retaining any of them". Rhythmical, structural, and melodic elements in common with Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies have been identified. Liszt's attempts to mimic the cimbalom may have inspired Ravel to create a version of the score that included the use of the luthéal, a new piano attachment (first patented in 1919) with several tone-colour registrations which could be engaged by pulling stops above the keyboard. One of these registrations had a

cimbalom The cimbalom, cimbal (; ) or concert cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by József Schunda, V. ...

-like sound, which fitted well with the verbunkos style of the composition. Cotte, Roger J. V. 2001. "Luthéal iano-Luthéal. ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...

'', second edition, edited by

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was a British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition ...

and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers. The original score of ''Tzigane'' included instructions for these register-changes during execution. The luthéal, however, did not achieve permanence. By the end of the 20th century the first print of the accompaniment with luthéal was still available at the publishers, but by that time the attachment had long since disappeared from use.

Noteworthy performances

* April 26, 1924: Premiere (violin and piano), by Jelly d'Arányi and Henri Gil-Marchex in London at Aeolian Hall. * October 15, 1924: Premiere (violin and piano with luthéal), by Samuel Dushkin and Beveridge Webster in Paris at Salle Gaveau * October 19, 1924: Premiere (violin and orchestra), by Samuel Dushkin with

Pierre Monteux Pierre Benjamin Monteux (; 4 April 18751 July 1964) was a French (later American) conductor. After violin and viola studies, and a decade as an orchestral player and occasional conductor, he began to receive regular conducting engagements in 1 ...

conducting the

Concertgebouw Concertgebouw may refer to one of the following concert halls: * Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands * Concertgebouw, Bruges, Belgium * Concertgebouw de Vereeniging, Netherlands {{disambiguation Buildings and structures disambiguation pages ...

in Amsterdam * November 30, 1924: first performance in Paris of orchestrated version, and first performance of orchestrated version by d'Arányi, with

Gabriel Pierné Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné (16 August 1863 – 17 July 1937) was a French composer, conductor, pianist and organist. Biography Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz. His family moved to Paris, after Metz and part of Lorraine were annexed to Germ ...

and the Concerts Colonne. * A performance by Lucien Schwartz, violinist in the Orchestre Pasdeloup, made in front of Ravel. This performance, the first of the piano version, was recorded by Gramophone and released in January 1930.

Critical Reception

The critical reception of ''Tzigane'' has been generally unfavorable, categorizing the work as kitsch. Contemporaries Jourdan-Morhange, Szigeti, and Sauguet all expressed doubts on the music's value, labelling it pastiche and finding "music has surrendered too much place to instrumental acrobatics". ''Tzigane'' did not rate a mention in Alexis Roland-Manuel's 1938 biography of Ravel. Recent critique has been as unfavorable. While noting the work's enduring popularity with performers and record labels, Roger Nichols and Robert Orledge have both noted ''Tzigane'' is not one of Ravel's compositionally great works. Nevertheless, the work is popular with performers and is frequently recorded.

References

External links