Ravel’s Gaspard de La Nuit was written in 1908. It’s three movements contain some of the most intricate, poetic and technically difficult piano music ever written. They were inspired by the fantastical poems of Aloysius Bertrand. The first movement, Ondine, is about a seductive underwater nymph, and Ravel’s music is unprecedentedly rich and virtuosic in presenting an array of shimmering watery textures of various sorts. The music in this extract comes from the climax of the movement, in which giant tertiary steps of harmony are presented in complex cascades of notes in both hands. On the page it looks almost unplayable, but the passage is worked out with extraordinary precision so that the patterns lie under the fingers with the thumbs playing a crucial melodic role.



MUSICAL EXCERPTS USED IN THIS VIDEO

Maurice Ravel: Ondine from Gaspard de la Nuit (1908)

Louis Lortie, piano solo.


John Coltrane: Giant Steps (1959)

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Edited by Ian Coulter ( https://www.iancoultermusic.com )
Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew King