Ma Mère l'Oye

Why didn't Ravel compose anything for the organ? This is the eternal question that organists ask themselves... But did he love this instrument? Could his music, so graceful and infinitely moving, embrace the organ's apparent rigidity? On the other hand, one might wonder what his attraction to this instrument would have been if the organ music of his time had been more connected to the musical life of the early 20th century. And what if he had known our modern instruments... And so we could continue to speculate and engage in pointless debates. Of course, transcription allows us to fill some of this gap. But ultimately, do we have the right to divert a work imagined and dreamed of for a sonic purpose simply to satisfy our frustration? For my part, I hesitated a lot before embarking on this adventure. But while working on it, I realized that it opened up new avenues in organ writing in order to transcribe not the musical text, but this flexibility of sound so present in Ravel's work. I relied for this on the two versions of Ma Mère l'Oye: the one for piano 4 hands composed in 1910 and the orchestration dating from 1911. The piano, whose sonic development is so particular and elusive, remains an instrument that is always difficult to transcribe. Also, the orchestration of this work by the author provided many answers as to how to deal with questions of resonances or sound masses. The organ of Saint-Eustache was also a true accomplice in this realization; a sort of laboratory to seek to transpose the sound effects generated by the orchestration. The registrations were inspired by the colors of this organ, although rationalized for a three-manual organ. Also, it is important not to be too scrupulous in the application of these guidelines. Generally speaking, you must ensure that each sound plane remains balanced and clear. Do not hesitate to remove certain background effects to promote the readability of the speech. Finally, color the solo effects by the measured addition of harmonics. Thomas Ospital