Daphnis et Chloé: Suite No.2

Lever du jour - Pantomime - Danse générale

Ravel suffered agonies in writing Daphnis et Chloé. Commissioned by Diaghilev well before its scheduled first performance in Paris in 1910, the score was completed only just in time for the Ballets Russes season at the Théâtre du Châtelet two years later. The major problem was that

Michael Fokine’s scenario – drawn from a second-century Greek romance about the frustrated passions of an innocent goatherd and shepherdess on the Isle of Lesbos – was far from what he would have chosen himself Even after reducing its (for him) embarrassing erotic element to three chaste embraces for Daphnis and Chloé he was still not ready to set the story to music. He had never attempted a serious love scene before and he had no experience of working on the epic scale required by Fokine’s structural concept. When, eventually and miraculously, he had all but completed what he proudly referred to as his “vast musical fresco” he continued to despair of being able to devise music wild enough for the closing bacchanal.

The Second Suite comprises the whole of the third and last scene of the ballet. Chloé has been abducted by pirates and Daphnis has fallen in a faint in the grotto of the nymphs. He is still unconscious when a new day dawns: as the sun rises from the bass of the orchestra gradually to assume its full melodic shape, birds sing their dawn chorus on flutes and violins and shepherds play their pipes in the distance. As Daphnis is awakened and re-united with Chloé, who has been rescued through the intervention of the god Pan, their yearning love theme is heard on unison strings.

An old shepherd, represented by repetitive solo oboe, explains that if Pan saved Chloé it was in memory of Syrinx, a nymph the god once loved. The lovers re-enact the story, dancing together for once, but only briefly: the nymph eludes the god’s advances and disappears into a reed bed. Daphnis takes a pan-pipe fashioned from the reeds to express the god’s sorrow and frustration while Chloé reflects his eloquently virtuoso flute solo in an increasingly animated dance. Exhausted she sinks into Daphnis’s arms, provoking a last full-scale treatment of their romantic theme.

There are glimpses of Daphnis and Chloé in the final celebrations but they, like everyone else, are carried away by the Danse générale - Fokine’s “whirlpool” choreography propelled by the quintuple-time impulse which (with some help from Rimsky-Korsakov) was Ravel’s inspired last-minute solution to the problem of stimulating and sustaining an authentically orgiastic bacchanal.

Lever du jour - Pantomime - Danse générale

Ravel suffered agonies in writing Daphnis et Chloé. Commissioned by Diaghilev well before its scheduled first performance in Paris in 1910, the score was completed only just in time for the Ballets Russes season at the Théâtre du Châtelet two years later. In the meantime – to put Ravel’s efforts in their context – Stravinsky had supplied Diaghilev not only with The Firebird, to replace Daphnis et Chloé in 1910, but also with Petrushka for his 1911 Paris season and had got well started on The Rite of Spring.

Ravel’s problem was that, for the first time in his career, he had undertaken to work on a subject not of his own choosing. Michael Fokine’s scenario – drawn from a second-century Greek romance about the frustrated passions of an innocent goatherd and shepherdess on the Isle of Lesbos – did not suit him for a variety of reasons. Even after reducing its embarrassing erotic element to three chaste embraces (and no pas de deux) for Daphnis and Chloé he was still not ready to set the story to music. Apart from the fact that he had never attempted a serious love scene, he had no experience of working on the epic scale required by Fokine’s structural conception of the piece. When, eventually and miraculously, he had all but completed what he proudly referred to as his “vast musical fresco” he continued to despair of being able to devise music wild enough for the closing bacchanal.

The Second Suite comprises the whole of the third and last scene of the ballet. Daphnis is still lying unconscious in the grotto when a new day dawns (Lever du jour). Dew runs off the rocks on rippling flutes and clarinets; the sun rises from the bass of the orchestra gradually to assume its full melodic shape; birds sing their dawn chorus on flutes and violins; shepherds play their pipes in the distance. As Daphnis is awakened and re-united with Chloé, who has been rescued from the pirates through the intervention of Pan, their love theme is heard on unison strings with the dew still rustling on woodwind.

An old shepherd explains that if Pan saved Chloé it was in memory of Syrinx, a nymph the god once loved. In a Pantomime the lovers re-enact the story, dancing together for once, but only briefly even now: the nymph eludes the god’s advances and disappears into a reed bed. Daphnis takes a pan-pipe fashioned from the reeds to express the god’s sorrow and frustration while Chloé gives expression to his eloquent flute solo in an increasingly animated dance. Exhausted she sinks into Daphnis’s arms, provoking a last full-scale treatment of their theme.

There are glimpses of Daphnis and Chloé in the final celebrations but they, like everyone else, are carried away by the Danse générale - its “whirlpool” choreography propelled by the quintuple-time impulse which (with some help from Rimsky-Korsakov) was Ravel’s last-minute solution to the problem of stimulatin

Lever du jour - Pantomime - Danse générale

Ravel suffered agonies in writing Daphnis et Chloé. Commissioned by Diaghilev well before its scheduled first performance in Paris in 1910, the score was completed only just in time for the Ballets Russes season at the Théâtre du Châtelet two years later. In the meantime - to put Ravel’s efforts in their context - Stravinsky had supplied Diaghilev not only with The Firebird, to replace Daphnis et Chloé in 1910, but also with Petrushka for his 1911 Paris season and had got well started on The Rite of Spring.

Ravel’s problem was that, for the first time in his career, he had undertaken to work on a subject not of his own choosing. Michael Fokine’s scenario - drawn from a second-century Greek romance about the frustrated passions of an innocent goatherd and shepherdess on the Isle of Lesbos - did not suit him for a variety of reasons. Even after reducing its embarrassing erotic element to three chaste embraces (and no pas de deux) for Daphnis and Chloé he was still not ready to set the story to music. Apart from the fact that he had never attempted a serious love scene, he had no experience of working on the epic scale required by Fokine’s structural conception of the piece. When, eventually and miraculously, he had all but completed what he proudly referred to as his “vast musical fresco” he continued to despair of being able to devise music wild enough for the closing bacchanal.

The Second Suite comprises the whole of the third and last scene of the ballet. Chloé has been abducted by pirates and Daphnis has fallen in a faint in the grotto of the nymphs. He is still unconscious when a new day dawns: dew runs off the rocks on rippling flutes and clarinets, the sun rises from the bass of the orchestra gradually to assume its full melodic shape, birds sing their dawn chorus on flutes and violins, shepherds play their pipes in the distance. As Daphnis is awakened and re-united with Chloé, who has been rescued through the intervention of the god Pan, their love theme is heard on unison strings with the dew still rustling on woodwind.

An old shepherd, represented by repetitive solo oboe, explains that if Pan saved Chloé it was in memory of Syrinx, a nymph the god once loved. The lovers re-enact the story, dancing together for once, but only briefly: the nymph eludes the god’s advances and disappears into a reed bed. Daphnis takes a pan-pipe fashioned from the reeds to express the god’s sorrow and frustration while Chloé gives expression to his eloquent and virtuoso flute solo in an increasingly animated dance. Exhausted she sinks into Daphnis’s arms, provoking a last full-scale treatment of their romantic theme.

There are glimpses of Daphnis and Chloé in the final celebrations but they, like everyone else, are carried away by the Danse générale - Fokine’s “whirlpool” choreography propelled by the quintuple-time impulse which was Ravel’s inspired last-minute solution to the problem of stimulating and sustaining an authentically orgiastic bacchanal.

Lever du jour - Pantomime - Danse générale

Towards the end of his life Ravel confessed that it was not until he heard Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune that he understood “what music was all about.” The influence of that seminal score rarely shows in his own works however. The erotic was something that, unlike Debussy, he tended to suppress in both his life and his music. Daphnis et Chloé, the subject of which compelled him to draw on resources he had rarely exploited before, is different.

Commissioned by Diaghilev to write the score for a ballet devised by Michel Fokin, Ravel found himself committed to a scenario - derived from a second-century Greek romance about the frustrated passions of an innocent goatherd and shepherdess on the Isle of Lesbos - that he would never have chosen for himself. Even after reducing its embarrassing erotic element to three chaste embraces for Daphnis and Chloé he was still not ready to set the story to music. Apart from the fact that he had never attempted a serious love scene, he had no experience of working on such an epic scale. When, eventually - and not without the unwitting help of Debussy and others - he had all but completed what he proudly referred to as his “vast musical fresco” he continued to despair of being able to devise music wild enough for the closing bacchanal. The score was completed two years late and just in time to be presented in repertoire with Nijinsky ‘s scandalous interpretation of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 1912 .

The Second Suite comprises the whole of the third and last scene of the ballet. Chloé has been abducted by pirates and Daphnis has fallen in a faint in the grotto of the nymphs. He is still unconscious when a new day dawns: dew runs off the rocks on rippling flutes and clarinets, the sun rises from the bass of the orchestra gradually to assume its full melodic shape, birds sing their dawn chorus on flutes and violins, shepherds play their pipes in the distance. As Daphnis is awakened and re-united with Chloé, who has been rescued through the intervention of the god Pan, their love theme is heard on unison strings with the dew still rustling on woodwind.

An old shepherd explains that if Pan saved Chloé it was in memory of Syrinx, a nymph the god once loved. The lovers re-enact the story, dancing together for once, but only briefly: the nymph eludes the god’s advances and disappears into a reed bed. Daphnis takes a pan-pipe fashioned from the reeds to express the god’s sorrow and frustration while Chloé gives expression to this eloquent flute solo in an increasingly animated dance. Exhausted she sinks into Daphnis’s arms, provoking a last full-scale treatment of their theme.

There are glimpses of Daphnis and Chloé in the final celebrations but they, like everyone else, are carried away by the Danse générale - its “whirlpool” choreography propelled by the quintuple-time impulse which was Ravel’s last-minute solution to the problem of stimulating and sustaining an authentically orgiastic bacchanal.