Histoires naturelles

Rarely has a song cycle caused such a scandal. After the première of Histoires naturelles, given at the Salle Érard on 12 January 1907 by Jane Bathori with Ravel at the piano, the critic for La Revue musicale (probably Auguste Serieyx) took exception, like most of the audience: “It would be difficult to mock music and musicians more intolerably.” Much of the uproar was caused by the choice of texts: animal vignettes in prose, using a deliberately trivial vocabulary, unsuitable for musical settings. And the composer made the work even more provocative by ignoring the mute “e” (hitherto always set as a true syllable), which resulted in fast declamation in a style often close to recitative. He sprinkled his harmony with biting dissonances, especially in La Pintade, the final song of the set, which Jane Bathori and Ravel actually repeated at the première, probably as an act of defiance. But perhaps the composer was poking fun at himself. Isn’t Le Paon an ironic self-portrait of a musician (always impeccably dressed) indirectly confiding his sentimental disappointments? And is not the cricket’s secret, discreet activity in Le Grillon a reference to the artist’s work, hidden from the eyes of the world? The encounter with the kingfisher (Le Martin-Pêcheur) reminds us that a finished work is often far removed from the initial project. Louis Laloy was perceptive in his analysis of Ravel’s musical personality: “Maurice Ravel’s thought is naturally circumspect, penetrating and inclined to make fun of whatever moves him [...] for he discovers in the blink of an eye the unexpected comedy and as it were the secret grimace inside all things. And this light ironic touch, far from lessening the emotion, on the contrary quickens it and makes it more poignant.”