the leading tone

Ravel - “A la manière de Chabrier”
Pascal Rogé, piano

In 1913, Ravel contributed two brief, light piano pieces to an anthology of works in homage to various composers, a project administrated by Alfredo Casella. The first was “A la manière de Borodine,” and this, a paraphrase on a theme from Gounod’s Faust in the style of Chabrier, was the second. Because of their technical and musical accessibility, these miniatures are often the first works of Ravel encountered by developing pianists.

Emmanuel Chabrier (1841 - 1893), though not a concert favorite today (with the exception of his orchestral rhapsody España), was highly influential to the coming generation of French modernists and to Ravel in particular, who believed that the opening statement of his opera Le roi lui malgré “changed harmony in France.” He was also admired by Richard Strauss, who made an effort to revitalize his operas in the early 20th Century. Like Ravel, Chabrier’s works are relatively few but unfailingly high in quality.  

(Manet | Portrait of Emmanuel Chabrier, 1880)