MODERN FRENCH PIANOFORTE MUSIC
Played by Mrs. NORMAN O'NEILL
A S regards the laying out of musical ideas for the Pianoforte, Ravel is with justice reckoned one of the most imaginative and resourceful composers since Chopin.
The first of these two pieces is from the set entitled Mirrors (1905). Those who are familiar with one or other of Debussy's pieces in which bells figure (notably Cloches a travcrs les feuilles) will find it interesting to compare Ravel's treatment here of the sonorities of the little tinkling bells and the big booming ones.
Fountains, written in 1901. when Ravel was twenty-six, was the first piece in which he showed his brilliant powers in Pianoforte writing
It has for preface a few words calling up the sight of one of those sculptured, happy water-gods wo have seen smiling beneficently in the midst of an ornamental fountain.