Pièces pittoresques

• Chabirer composed his piano suite 10 pièces pittoresques in 1880-1.¹
• Chabrier wrote this suite while on vacation at the seaside at Saint-Pair.²
• Listen for: the influence of French baroque music, especially harpsichord music.³
• Chabrier orchestrated 4 movements from this suite as Suite pastorale.

“We have just heard something extraordinary: this music links our time with that of Couperin and Rameau.”

César Franck, on 10 pieces pittoresques.⁴

• Maurice Ravel orchestrated the “Menuet pompeux” from this set for use in a Ballets Russes production, Les Jardins d’Aranjuez (1919)⁵

1. Steven Huebner, “Chabrier, (Alexis-)Emmanuel,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 19, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000005351.
2. Roy Howatt, ed., Emmanuel Chabrier: Works for Piano(New York: Dover, 1995), x.
3. Roger Nichols, “Chabrier: Orchestral Works,” liner notes to Naame Järvi Conducts Chabrier, Chandos 5122, CD, 2013.
4. Howatt, ed., Emmanuel Chabrier: Works for Piano, x.
5. Mary Ann Feldman, liner notes to Ravel Orchestrations: Pictures at an Exhibition, Eije Oue, Minnesota Orchestra, Reference Recordings79, CD, 1997.