The composer assimilated Willy's criticism, describing the overture as "a clumsy botch-up",[3] and recognising that it was "quite heavily dominated by the influence of Russian music" (assez fortement dominé par l'influence de la musique russe).
[4] A programme note for the first performance, unsigned, but thought to be by the composer, reads: Constructed in the classical form of the overture, the piece opens with an introduction, in which the theme of Scheherezade is given first by an oboe, and then by the horns and trumpets.
In the early years of the 20th century he met the poet Tristan Klingsor,[6] who had recently published a collection of free-verse poems under the title Shéhérazade, inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite of the same name, a work that Ravel also much admired.
[n 1] Ravel's song cycle Shéhérazade, was composed for soprano solo and orchestra, setting the words of Klingsor's "Asie", "La flûte enchantée", and "L'indifférent".
It was first performed on 17 May 1904 at a Société Nationale concert at the Salle Nouveau Théâtre, Paris, with the soprano Jeanne Hatto and an orchestra conducted by Alfred Cortot.
[8] The three songs of the cycle are individually dedicated by the composer to Hatto ("Asie"), Madame René de Saint-Marceaux ("La flûte enchantée") and Emma Bardac ("L'indifférent").
[9] Ravel originally conceived the cycle with "Asie" coming last, and this order was adopted at the premiere,[10] but his final preference, in the published score, gives a sequence steadily decreasing in intensity; the critic Caroline Rae writes that the music moves "from rich voluptuousness and gentle lyricism to languid sensuousness".
"[11] With the continually repeated words "je voudrais voir…" ("I should like to see…" or "I want to see…"), the poet, or his imagined speaker, dreams of escape from quotidian life into a European fantasy of Asian enticements.
Je voudrais m'en aller vers des îles de fleurs, En écoutant chanter la mer perverse Sur un vieux rythme ensorceleur.
Je voudrais voir la Perse, et l'Inde, et puis la Chine, Les mandarins ventrus sous les ombrelles, Et les princesses aux mains fines, Et les lettrés qui se querellent Sur la poésie et sur la beauté; Je voudrais m'attarder au palais enchanté Et comme un voyageur étranger Contempler à loisir des paysages peints Sur des étoffes en des cadres de sapin, Avec un personnage au milieu d'un verger; Je voudrais voir des assassins souriants Du bourreau qui coupe un cou d'innocent Avec son grand sabre courbé d'Orient.
I want to see long pipes in lips Fringed round by white beards; I want to see crafty merchants with suspicious glances, And cadis and viziers Who with one movement of their bending finger Decree life or death, at whim.
I want to see Persia, and India, and then China, Pot-bellied mandarins under their umbrellas, Princesses with delicate hands, And scholars arguing About poetry and beauty; I want to linger in the enchanted palace And like a foreign traveller Contemplate at leisure landscapes painted On cloth in pinewood frames, With a figure in the middle of an orchard; I want to see murderers smiling While the executioner cuts off an innocent head With his great curved Oriental sabre.
[14] L'ombre est douce et mon maître dort Coiffé d'un bonnet conique de soie Et son long nez jaune en sa barbe blanche.
A tune by turns languorous and carefree Which my dear lover is playing, And when I approach the lattice window It seems to me that each note flies From the flute to my cheek Like a mysterious kiss.
Mais non, tu passes Et de mon seuil je te vois t’éloigner Me faisant un dernier geste avec grâce, Et la hanche légèrement ployée Par ta démarche féminine et lasse.
And let my wine comfort you … But no, you pass by And from my doorway I watch you go on your way Giving me a graceful farewell wave, And your hips gently sway In your feminine and languid gait… The score is orchestrated for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and cor anglais, two clarinets, two bassoons, four French horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, tambourine, triangle, glockenspiel, cymbals, gong, two harps, and strings.