An interview with Anthony Girard about his Tombeau de Ravel, conducted by Crescendo / XXI Music.
Composing a Tombeau de Ravel in 2025 means inscribing yourself in the lineage of the Baroque Tombeaux and of the one Ravel himself dedicates to Couperin. Homage, critical dialogue?
Ravel was fond of composing after a model; this is how he himself revealed to us the similarities between Le Dialogue de la Belle et de la Bête and Satie's Gymnopédies, between Gaspard de la nuit and Liszt, between the finale of Daphnis et Chloé and that of Rimsky-Korsakov's Shéhérazade, and of course between the Tombeau de Couperin and… Couperin — all scores in which the sources fade, Ravel's own style always being immediately recognisable.
My Tombeau de Ravel takes a noticeably different approach from the Tombeau de Couperin, for it is not a composition proper, but an orchestration, echoing Ravel's taste for orchestrating both his own works and those of his fellow composers (Schumann, Chabrier, Mussorgsky, Debussy…), an art in which he excelled. Rather than orchestrating a piano piece by Ravel, I chose the Forlane by Couperin that had served as the model for the one in the Tombeau de Couperin, starting from its piano transcription by Ravel himself, which I discovered thanks to François Dru, and I arranged it — not in Couperin's style nor in Ravel's, but midway, as it were, between the two, scrupulously respecting the instrumentation of the Tombeau de Couperin. I thus pay a double homage, to Ravel and to his model. Through the brevity of the piece and its simplicity, a certain form of modesty is favoured, which also pays homage, it seems to me, to these two composers. One final detail: I add to this orchestration a coda of my own in which fragments of the initial theme of Ravel's Forlane can be heard — a little wink to lovers of the Tombeau de Couperin, who will enjoy identifying them!
How do you place yourself in this lineage that runs from Couperin to you, by way of Ravel?
It is a commonplace to speak of the particularities of the French School — its taste for measure, clarity, colour, refinement of writing — singularities that cross time and connect two composers who are nonetheless very far apart. It is also possible to bring them together in another way. Many musicians, artists or poets are drawn to opposing emotional polarities, such as sorrow and joy, and some manage to make them coincide. This phenomenon is very palpable in Couperin and perceptible, for example, in this Forlane that Ravel chose as a model: the tempo, the rhythm, the major key are conducive to the expression of joy, and yet, through subtle modal inflections, borrowings or modulations to relative and homonymous keys, through certain melodic intonations, one perceives the shadows of a secret melancholy. This ambivalence is also very perceptible in Ravel's Forlane, more rooted in melancholy than Couperin's, but which nonetheless plays, from the very first bars, on major-minor and tonal-modal ambiguities. My Tombeau de Ravel is therefore played "gaily", as indicated at the head of the original score, but a certain nonchalance, a tenderness, a fluidity should be preserved, which will favour the emergence of another emotional register, that of regret and nostalgia.
Today, I perceive this ambivalence as an essential given. Musical composition is, as far as I am concerned, a creative activity that is positive, joyful, ascensional in nature. And yet, the realities of the world around us steer us inexorably towards disillusionment. One must therefore manage to reconcile these antagonistic forces.
You teach orchestration, and Ravel has the reputation of being one of the greatest orchestrators in history. What does he represent for you?
Ravel is quite evidently a masterful orchestrator! He excels equally in miniatures, such as those of Ma mère l'Oye, and in works for a large orchestral ensemble. For teaching orchestration, Ravel offers us a multitude of models: one need only compare the piano and orchestral versions of the same composition, and there we are, instructed on how to arrange the instruments to differentiate the sound planes clearly, on the art of renewing timbres in relation to contrasts of harmonic colour, on the notes to add or modify with respect to the piano writing in order to obtain a living, colourful orchestra, avoiding all heaviness and capable of brilliance and radiance. Ravel's orchestration also invites us to question the notion of style, in view of the liberties he takes in his work on Pictures at an Exhibition. And, of course, if Ravel manages to integrate the academic principles of quality orchestration, faithful in this to tradition, he is nonetheless always surprising and innovative through his extraordinary sonic imagination. So, in my classes, I encourage my students to experience orchestration "alla Ravel", of the very highest technical and aesthetic demand. Students will begin with relatively simple pieces, such as the Menuet sur le nom de Haydn, and, at the end of their course of study, will take the risk of orchestrating more ambitious pages, such as Noctuelles or Scarbo. Among my personal works are numerous orchestrations of works by Ravel, such as the Histoires naturelles, the posthumous Sonata (titled Ballade, for cello and orchestra), the Chansons madécasses, and others to come — works that stem from my sixteen years teaching orchestration at the CNSMDP and the CRR de Paris, classes in which Ravel held an essential place.
Le Tombeau de Ravel — details
- Reference: XXI Music 32
- ISMN: 9790803766418
- Forces: orchestra
- Duration: 3 minutes
- Orchestral material available for hire
- Contact: sales@21-music.be
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