Alborada del gracioso (Morning Song of the Jester)

Composer: RAVEL, Maurice
  • Alborada del gracioso (Morning Song of the Jester) was originally written for piano. It comes from Ravel’s Miroirs (a set of five piano pieces, composed 1904-5.) Miroirs also contains Une barque sur l’ocean.1
  • Ravel orchestrated this piece in 1918.2
    • The orchestration was commissioned by Diaghilev, who wanted Alborada along with Chabrier’s Menuet pompeux and Fauré’s Pavane for a performance by the Ballets Russes.3 The ballet was going to be entitled Les jardins d’Aranjuez, but the project never got off the ground.4
  • Alborada del gracioso (orchestral version) premiered on May 17, 1919, performed by the Orchestra Pasdeloup.5

Sources

  1. Barbara L. Kelly, “Ravel, (Joseph) Maurice,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed December 11, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052145. 
  2. Ibid.
  3.  Michael Russ, “Ravel and the Orchestra,” in The Cambridge Companion to Ravel, ed. Deborah Mawer (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 135. 
  4.  Deborah Mawer, The Ballets of Maurice Ravel(London: Routledge, 2006), 215.
  5. Barbara L. Kelly, “Ravel, (Joseph) Maurice,” Grove Music Online.

Cut IDs

10719, 21045, 40924