Ex. 4-14: Chanson de la Mariée

Ravel arranged this song in April 1906, at 31, for a talk on Greek folk songs given by his friend Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi. A singer performed it at the talk, probably with Ravel at the piano. It was published that year in a set of five, with two songs he had arranged in 1904.

The tune comes from the Greek island of Chios. A French scholar of the Greek language, Hubert Pernot, recorded songs there on wax cylinders in 1898 and 1899. In Paris, a young composer named Paul Le Flem listened to the cylinders and wrote the tunes down. He lived to 103.

The words are folk words, and no one knows who wrote them. Calvocoressi (1877–1944) put them into French. He was born in Marseille to Greek parents, and he worked as a music critic and translator. The first edition also printed the Greek words, so some singers sing the song in Greek.

At dawn, a young man wakes his bride and calls her his pretty partridge. He brings her a golden ribbon for her hair, and he asks her to marry him.

Ravel later arranged this song for orchestra.

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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