Ex. 4-13: Chanson de la Mariée

No. 1 from Ravel's Cinq mélodies populaires grecques (Five Greek Folk Songs), arranged between 1904 and 1906. The melodies are anonymous Greek folk songs translated from modern Greek into French by Michel Dimitri Calvocoressi, Ravel's close friend and a member of the artistic circle known as Les Apaches.

Four of the five melodies originated from the island of Chios, recorded on wax cylinders by the Greek scholar Hubert Pernot and transcribed by Paul Le Flem in 1903. This first song, "The Bride's Song" ("Awake, dear little partridge"), was arranged for a lecture on Greek folk songs by Calvocoressi on April 28, 1906, with singer Marguerite Babaïan and probably Ravel himself at the piano. Ravel reportedly completed the arrangement in just 36 hours.

The piano accompaniment features repeated-note patterns that suggest the excitement of the wedding morning.

Ravel later orchestrated two of the five songs (No. 1 and No. 5), and the remaining three were orchestrated by his student Manuel Rosenthal in 1935.

Music video by Sabine Devieilhe and Alexandre Tharaud (2020)

From the album Chanson d'Amour by Sabine Devieilhe and Alexandre Tharaud (2020)
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