Ex. 1-15: Chanson à boire

In June 1932, at 57, Ravel was asked to write three Spanish songs for a film of Don Quixote, with the great Russian singer Chaliapin as the knight. The songs had to be ready by 15 August. Ravel said that this was impossible, and on 2 September the film company broke the contract. It had also been asking several other composers, and the film used songs by Jacques Ibert. Ravel took the company to court.

Ravel finished his three songs anyway, and they were his last finished work. He built each one on a different Spanish dance, and this one on the jota of Aragon. A young baritone first sang them in Paris in December 1934.

The words are by Paul Morand (1888–1976), a French writer and diplomat. In the 1920s his quick, funny stories of travel and city life made him one of the most read young writers in France. He also helped to write the film's script. Ibert's songs used other poets' words, so Morand's poems are known through Ravel's songs.

Don Quixote raises his glass to his lady, and he laughs at a man who tells her that love and wine will bring him grief. He drinks to joy, "the only goal I head straight for, once I've had a drink." In the second verse he laughs at a pale, jealous lover who puts water in his wine.

From the album The Ravel Edition, sung by Gérard Souzay with Dalton Baldwin, piano
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