Maurice Ravel composed this piece in 1901 and admitted that it was the beginning of a certain novelty that appeared in his music style.
Literally, “Jeux d’eau” is translated from French as ‘water games’, but you can come across other translations of the piece’s title such as ‘playing water’ or even ‘fountains’. The original manuscript contains an inscription made by Ravel that says ‘river god laughing as the water tickles him…’ This is a quote from a poem by Henri de Régnier – “Cité des eaux”.
In fact, the creation of this solo piano piece had a couple of powerful influences. First of all, at the time of composition, Ravel was a student of Gabriel Fauré and it is Fauré to whom “Jeux d’eau” was dedicated. Another strong inspiration was Franz Liszt. Particularly, his piece “The Fountains of the Villa d'Este” from the 1883 “Third Year” suite. The playful melodic sound of the water cascades made many composers think of expressing this natural phenomenon in their music, in fact.
The first pianist to perform “Jeux d’eau” publicly in 1902 was Ricardo Viñes who often premiered piano works by notable composers like Debussy, Falla, Satie. I personally love the 1977’s performance of this beautiful piano work by Martha Argerich:
Literally, “Jeux d’eau” is translated from French as ‘water games’, but you can come across other translations of the piece’s title such as ‘playing water’ or even ‘fountains’. The original manuscript contains an inscription made by Ravel that says ‘river god laughing as the water tickles him…’ This is a quote from a poem by Henri de Régnier – “Cité des eaux”.
In fact, the creation of this solo piano piece had a couple of powerful influences. First of all, at the time of composition, Ravel was a student of Gabriel Fauré and it is Fauré to whom “Jeux d’eau” was dedicated. Another strong inspiration was Franz Liszt. Particularly, his piece “The Fountains of the Villa d'Este” from the 1883 “Third Year” suite. The playful melodic sound of the water cascades made many composers think of expressing this natural phenomenon in their music, in fact.
The first pianist to perform “Jeux d’eau” publicly in 1902 was Ricardo Viñes who often premiered piano works by notable composers like Debussy, Falla, Satie. I personally love the 1977’s performance of this beautiful piano work by Martha Argerich:
