Maurice Ravel - Chansons madécasses [With score]

-Composer: Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) -Performers: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Baritone), Wolfgang Sawallisch (Piano), Karheinz Zoller (Flute), Wolfgang Boettcher (Cello) Chansons madécasses, song cycle for voice, flute, cello and piano, written in 1925-26 00:04 - I. Nahandove 05:24 - II. Aoua 09:18 - III. Il est doux de se coucher During the final phase of Maurice Ravel's career, he experienced hampered creativity and a confused emotional state -- which in the years that followed evolved into a preoccupation with economy of means and ensemble combinations. For example, the Chansons madécasses (Madagascar Songs), with their unique chamber ensemble, was, as Ravel indicated, "a kind of quartet in which the voice plays the part of the main instrument." The vocal line is uncharacteristic of Ravel's detached and objective style; instead the song sensuously and frightfully declares its message. The texts, taken from the eighteenth century Creole poet Evariste-Desire de Parny, are a cry for liberation from colonialism, exploitation, and slavery as they occurred in Madagascar. "Nahandove" depicts the erotic seduction of a native woman, in which Ravel uses the cello in counterpoint to the flute and piano. "Aoua!" is the frightful warning of the deceiving and dangerous white men; it opens with shrieks of the song's title, made on descending minor thirds. The vocal line is supported by dissonant piano crunches, while a tam-tam effect is made by the resonances of the piano and low notes of the flute. "Aoua!" was probably the most discussed of the three songs. When it was sung by Jane Bathori in 1925, at a concert in the Paris Salle Majestic, it was well received, except by a few members of the audience, who found the song's message especially disturbing because fighting was occurring in Morocco. The song comes to a bitter ending where the singer again proclaims "mefiez-vous des blancs" ("Don't trust the whites"). "Il est doux," featuring exotic timbres, returns to the earlier sexual lure. The first complete performance of the three songs was in 1926. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, an American patroness of chamber music, made only one suggestion when she commissioned the songs, in regards to the instrumentation of the accompaniment; the choice of text reveals Ravel's interest in the exotic. Ravel stated that he viewed the years shortly before and during which the Chansons madécasses were written as a turning point in his career. In that time he turned from harmonic techniques to "the spirit of melody." The composer revealed in a late interview that these three songs were his favorites. [allmusic.com]