Ravel: Vocal Works
View all works by Ravel in the main appExplore the complete catalog of Vocal compositions by Ravel. This curated list includes composition years, historical Wikipedia context, and interactive audio to add specific tracks directly to your listening queue.
| Title | Year | Actions |
|---|---|---|
| 2 mélodies hébraïques |
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. Renowned for his abilities in orchestration, Ravel made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' piano music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known. A slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies or church music. Many of his works exist in two versions: first, a piano score and later an orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance. Ravel was among the first composers to recognise the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public. From the 1920s, despite limited technique as a pianist or conductor, he took part in recordings of several of his works; others were made under his supervision. |
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| 3 Chansons, for a cappella chorus |
Trois Chansons (French for "Three Songs"), or Chansons de Charles d’Orléans, L 99 (92), is an a cappella choir composition by Claude Debussy set to the medieval poetry of Charles, Duke of Orléans (1394–1465). Debussy wrote the first and third songs in 1898 and finished the second in 1908. He premiered the piece in 1909 and Trois Chansons is his only composition for unaccompanied choir. |
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| Alcyone, cantata for 3 voices and orchestra |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Alyssa, cantata for 3 voices and orchestra |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Ballade de la reine morte d'aimer |
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. Renowned for his abilities in orchestration, Ravel made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' piano music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known. A slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies or church music. Many of his works exist in two versions: first, a piano score and later an orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance. Ravel was among the first composers to recognise the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public. From the 1920s, despite limited technique as a pianist or conductor, he took part in recordings of several of his works; others were made under his supervision. |
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| Chanson du rouet |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Chansons madécasses, for soprano, flute, cello, and piano |
Chansons madécasses (Madagascan Songs) is a set of three exotic art songs by Maurice Ravel written in 1925 and 1926 to words from the poetry collection of the same name by Évariste de Parny. |
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| Chants populaires, for voice and piano |
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. Renowned for his abilities in orchestration, Ravel made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' piano music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known. A slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies or church music. Many of his works exist in two versions: first, a piano score and later an orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance. Ravel was among the first composers to recognise the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public. From the 1920s, despite limited technique as a pianist or conductor, he took part in recordings of several of his works; others were made under his supervision. |
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| Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, for voice and piano |
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. Renowned for his abilities in orchestration, Ravel made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' piano music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known. A slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies or church music. Many of his works exist in two versions: first, a piano score and later an orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance. Ravel was among the first composers to recognise the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public. From the 1920s, despite limited technique as a pianist or conductor, he took part in recordings of several of his works; others were made under his supervision. |
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| Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, for voice and orchestra |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Epigrammes de Clément Marot |
Below is a sortable list of compositions by Jean Françaix. The works are categorized by genre, date of composition and titles. Scores by Françaix are published mainly by Schott Music, Éditions Transatlantiques, Éditions Max Eschig and Éditions Gérard Billaudot. |
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| Histoires naturelles, for voice and piano |
Histoires naturelles ("Natural Histories") is a song cycle by Maurice Ravel, composed in 1906. It sets five poems by Jules Renard to music for voice and piano. Ravel's pupil Manuel Rosenthal created a version for voice and orchestra. The cycle is dedicated to the mezzo-soprano Jane Bathori, who gave the first performance, accompanied by the composer, on 12 January 1907. |
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| L'aurore, cantata for tenor, chorus and orchestra |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| La nuit, cantata for soprano, chorus and orchestra |
The French composer Hector Berlioz made four attempts at winning the Prix de Rome music prize, finally succeeding in 1830. As part of the competition, he had to write a cantata to a text set by the examiners. Berlioz's efforts to win the prize are described at length in his Memoirs. He regarded it as the first stage in his struggle against the musical conservatism represented by the judges, who included established composers such as Luigi Cherubini, François-Adrien Boieldieu and Henri-Montan Berton. Berlioz's stay in Italy as a result of winning the prize also had a great influence on later works such as Benvenuto Cellini and Harold en Italie. The composer subsequently destroyed the scores of two cantatas (Orphée and Sardanapale) almost completely and reused music from all four of them in later works. There was a revival of interest in the cantatas in the late 20th century, particularly Cléopâtre, which has become a favourite showcase for the soprano and mezzo-soprano voice. |
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| Les bayadères, cantata for soprano, chorus and orchestra |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Les Grands Vents venus d'Outre-mer |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Manteau de fleurs |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Matinée de Provence, cantata for voice, chorus and orchestra |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Mélodies popularies grecques | ||
| Myrrha, cantata for 3 voices and orchestra |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Noël des jouets |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Rêves |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Ronsard à son âme |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Sainte |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Shéhérazade |
Shéhérazade is the title of two works by the French composer Maurice Ravel. Both have their origins in the composer's fascination with Scheherazade, the heroine and narrator of The Arabian Nights. The first work, an overture (1898), Ravel's earliest surviving orchestral piece, was not well received at its premiere and has not subsequently been among his most popular works. Four years later he had a much greater success with a song cycle with the same title, which has remained a standard repertoire piece and has been recorded many times. Both settings are influenced by Russian composers, particularly Rimsky-Korsakov, who had written a symphonic suite based on Scheherazade in 1888. The first composition was heavily influenced by Russian music, the second used a text inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic poem. The musical relation between the overture and the song cycle is tenuous. |
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| Si morne! |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Sur l'herbe |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Tout est lumière, cantata for soprano, chorus and orchestra |
Tout est lumière (All is light), M. 28, is a piece of choral music by Maurice Ravel. He wrote it as a student in 1901 for the Prix de Rome competition, setting a poem by Victor Hugo for soprano, mixed choir and orchestra. |
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| Trios Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, for voice and chamber ensemble |
Trois poèmes de Mallarmé is a sequence of three art songs by Maurice Ravel, based on poems by Stéphane Mallarmé for soprano, two flutes, two clarinets, piano, and string quartet. Composed in 1913, it was premiered on 14 January 1914, performed by Rose Féart and conducted by D.-E. Inghelbrecht, at the inaugural concert of the société musicale indépendante of the 1913–1914 season in the Salle Érard in Paris. The work bears the reference M. 64, in the catalogue of works of the composer established by musicologist Marcel Marnat. |
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| Tripatos |
This is a complete list of compositions by Maurice Ravel, initially categorised by genre, and sorted within each genre chronologically in order of date the composition was completed. Catalogue "M" numbers were assigned by the musicologist Marcel Marnat according to date of composition. Arrangements by Ravel of his own works were assigned the "M" number of the original followed by a letter (a, b, c, etc.). Arrangements by Ravel of other composers' works or of "traditional" music were assigned a separate "MA" number, in order of date of arrangement. |
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| Trois chansons, for voice and piano |
Trois Chansons, M 69, is a composition by Maurice Ravel for a cappella choir, set to his own texts. Ravel began the composition in December 1914 in response to the outbreak of World War I, in which he hoped to be enlisted to fight for France. While he waited for months, he wrote text and music of the three songs in the tradition of 16th-century French chansons. He completed the work in 1915, and it was published by Éditions Durand in 1916. The songs were premiered in 1917, performed by a choral ensemble conducted by Louis Aubert. They remained his only composition for a cappella choir. |
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| Un grand sommeil noir |
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. Renowned for his abilities in orchestration, Ravel made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' piano music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known. A slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies or church music. Many of his works exist in two versions: first, a piano score and later an orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance. Ravel was among the first composers to recognise the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public. From the 1920s, despite limited technique as a pianist or conductor, he took part in recordings of several of his works; others were made under his supervision. |
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| Vocalise: Étude en forme de habanera |
A vocal warm-up is a series of exercises meant to prepare the voice for singing, acting, or other use. Vocal warm-ups are essential exercises for singers to enhance vocal performance and reduce the sense of effort required for singing. Research demonstrates that engaging in vocal warm-ups can temporarily elevate vocal effort, which normalizes after a short rest, enhancing vocal readiness for performance. |