---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment =20 Hi Paul I didn't se any response to this. A very artistic picture of this piece= .=20 Well written & passionate. Thanks for taking the time. Dale Erwin ing for Jeux d'eau by Ravel. ......"Written on the manuscript by Ravel, and often included on=20 published editions, is "Dieu fluvial riant de l'eau qui le=20 chatouille... / Henri de R=E9gnier" which in English editions is =20 translated to "River god laughing as the water tickles him..."; this =20 quote is from R=E9gnier's F=EAte d'eau as a note that the piece is to be =20 played lightly." (from Wikipedia) I think it conveys a great deal more than 'to be played lightly' =20 (though that is certainly correct!). This is practically direct orders to play it in a meantone tuning. The=20 tickling is perfectly expressed in the E major seventh chord, which=20 immediately provokes the laughter, an A major seventh chord. The laugh=20 arpeggio's note speed doubles. A major is the sub-dominant of E: in=20 sharps keys the sub dominant is a step back down the energy-excitement=20 scale, so the tickling of the E seventh is acting on the A. The=20 objective in tickling is to provoke a higher energy state in the one=20 being tickled, and a burst of laughter; which 'vibrates' faster than=20 the act of the tickling. E major has another quality of tickling; the=20 G#-Eb diminished sixth, which is the secret special energy source in=20 the E major seventh that provokes the thirty-second note outburst in=20 the A major arpeggio. (Think of G#-D# as a fifth that is 15 cents wide,=20 and tremolos like a third, it's character changing in the different=20 registers just as a wide third changes.) Well, I do have a little 'story' about what pictures and sounds this=20 tone poem is portraying, I'm reluctant to try to tell the whole story=20 in words, if only because the picture-sound story is always changing;=20 the better I play the piece, the clearer the voices are, the more I can=20 hear them say. The sounds of the music evoke images of fountains and=20 cascades and pools that produce those sounds. I will say this: the piece needs to start in E major to have the=20 variety and contrasts required for the story. E major is at one=20 extreme of the eight 'Major Thirds keys and so there are ample=20 resources both 'up' the energy scale, and also 'down' the energy scale.=20 And the 'up' harmonic modulation immediately leads to the =20 quasi-diminished fourth keys. ( The Major thirds keys are C, G, D, A,=20 and E; and F, Bb and Eb. The diminished fourths keys are B, C#, F#,=20 G#.) So there are contrasts of Mode, which are great enough to express=20 the extremes of emotion and physical sensation, and the contrast =20 between air and water. Example; ever see somebody laughing so hard it's =20 really not clear whether they're laughing or crying? Tickling can be =20 everything from friendly to provocative to cruel. The last, biggest cascade falls into a pool, carrying air with the=20 water deep Deep DEEP and then the air explodes upward into foam, and=20 the wavelets spread out in larger circles as the energy subsides. F# Major (a=20 diminished fourth key) and C Major (the purest Major third key) can't=20 get away from each other - it's a 'resolution' that doesn't resolve at=20 all, except as the two extremes work it out; but they never quite do=20 work it out. Notice this is the only section in the piece where an=20 'odd' number of rhythmic impulses defines a section: the rising and=20 falling patterns of arpeggios in this long unmeasured gesture happen 43=20 times. The sounds of F# and C are essential to this - perhaps F# being=20 the 'air' and C being the 'water'. The F#-A# diminished fourth is=20 pretty wide (about twice as wide as an 'ET' third) - which gives it a=20 great variety of expressions in the different registers of the=20 keyboard. In the lowest bass it's tremolo slow but insistent; an octave=20 higher it has a pleasing vocal vibrato effect, another octave and it=20 becomes irritating, above that it becomes like a siren. But C major it=20 pure, that purity is much more the same in all registers. What better=20 to express the difference between air and water? The last eight bars sound like the brook disappearing into the=20 distance. The tickling fades away, and the last we hear is the E-B =20 fifth (a quiet fifth, nearly pure) in the bass, and the G#-D#(Eb) wolf=20 fifth in octave 6-7, where it's tickling characteristic has passed out=20 of view, So we have relief from the tickling that started it all in the=20 beginning, but it's still there..... Paul Bailey ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/6c/f7/45/ef/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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