Ravel the decadent: memory, sublimation, and desire

273 Pages·2012·5.964 MB·English

by  Puri, Michael J.;Ravel, Maurice

Ravel the Decadent
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Ravel the Decadent
Memory, Sublimation, and Desire
BY MICHAEL J. PURI

1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Puri, Michael J.
Ravel the decadent : memory, sublimation, and desire / by Michael J. Puri.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-973537-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Ravel, Maurice, 1875–1937—Criticism and
interpretation. I. Title.
ML410.R23P87 2011
780.92—dc22 2011012644
Publication of this book was supported by the AMS 75 PAYS Publication Endowment
Fund of the American Musicological Society
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
vii
Introduction: Memory, Decadence, and Music
3
1. Th ematic Cyclicism and the Ravelian Finale
32
2. Reanimation and the Primal Scene
52
3. Dandy, Interrupted
84
4. Idylls and Bacchanals
121
5. Epilogism in the Valses nobles et sentimentales
140
6. Dynamism in L a valse
168
Conclusion: In the Footsteps of the Faun
185
Notes 2 03
Bibliography 239
Index 253
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
F or their research assistance on behalf of this volume, I am grateful to the follow-
ing people: Catherine Massip, director of the Department of Music at the Bibli-
othèque nationale de France (BnF) in Paris; the relevant staff at three branches of
the BnF: Louvois, l’Opéra, and François-Mitt errand; Dell Hollingsworth and
Richard Workman, music librarians at the Harry Ransom Center of the Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin; Fran Barulich, the Mary Flagler Cary curator of music
manuscripts and printed music at the Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum in
New York City; and Madame Claude Moreau of the Maison-musée de Maurice
Ravel in Montfort-l’Amaury.
Th e following sources of support enabled me to visit these sites and complete
my research: a Franklin Travel Grant from the American Philosophical Society, a
Mellon Travel Grant from the Harry Ransom Center, and several grants from my
home institution, the University of Virginia (UVa), including a Vice President for
Research Grant, a Sesquicentennial Research Fellowship, and four Faculty Sum-
mer Research Stipends in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Costs for the pro-
duction of this book were off set by generous subventions from the American
Musicological Society 75 PAYS Fund and the Society for Music Th eory.
Th is book has also benefi ted from the friendly, supportive, and intellectual
environment that characterizes UVa’s McIntire Department of Music, as well as
the many fruitful interactions I have enjoyed when presenting my work not only
at national meetings of the American Musicological Society and the Society for
Music Th eory but also in colloquia at the following institutions: the University of
Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell University.
A bove all, I cherish the input of specifi c individuals: Arbie Orenstein, whose
incomparable knowledge of Ravel and enthusiasm for all related scholarship were
indispensable to me, especially at the beginning and end of this project; Steven
Huebner and Brian Hyer, both of whom read the full manuscript carefully and
off ered excellent, detailed feedback; Suzanne Aspden, Bruce Alan Brown, Eric
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Drott , Walter Frisch, Dan Harrison, Denis Herlin, Peter Kaminsky, Lawrence
Kramer, Deborah Mawer, Susan McClary, Robert Morgan, Jann Pasler, Alexan-
der Rehding, Steven Rings, Marianne Wheeldon, and Richard Will, all of whom
provided invaluable advice and guidance at various stages. Th is help notwith-
standing, I take full responsibility for any remaining problems or errors in this
text.
M y deepest thanks are reserved for my family, former advisors, editor, and
partner. My appreciation of knowledge, education, and the arts is a direct conse-
quence of the values instilled in me by my late mother, Duane, and my father,
Yogishwar; my relationships with my great friend of several decades, David R.
Elliott , and the Baumanns—an artistic and erudite family who adopted me dur-
ing my years of pianistic pilgrimage in Switzerland—have only heightened and
deepened this appreciation. Every sentence of this book is an homage to the infl u-
ence that my undergraduate and graduate thesis advisors, David Lewin and James
Hepokoski, have had on me as researchers, teachers, musicians, and passionate,
ambitious thinkers. For more than fi ve years Suzanne Ryan has been not only a
brilliant and visionary editor but also a patient and encouraging one, and I am
proud to call her a dear friend. Sylvia Chong, my wife and fellow professor, has
given me during the composition of this book more love, support, and intellectual
companionship than I could ever have hoped for.
* * *
E arlier versions of chapters 3 and 5 appeared respectively as “Dandy, Interrupted:
Sublimation, Repression, and Self-Portraiture in Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé ,”
Journal of the American Musicological Society 60.2 (Summer 2007): 317–372, and
“Memory and Melancholy in the ‘Epilogue’ of Ravel’s V alses nobles et sentimentales ,”
Music Analysis 29/ii–iii(2011): 1–37.
Ravel the Decadent