Deux mélodies hébraïques (1914)

Kaddisch

L’énigme éternelle

Ravel was no folklorist but, as he found when he so successfully provided piano accompaniments in a matter of hours for a selection of Greek folk songs in 1904, he had an aptitude for tasteful settings of traditional material. His skill in this respect was confirmed six years later when he won first prize in four (Spanish, French, Italian and Hebraic) of the seven categories in competition organised by the Maison du Lied in Moscow. It was no doubt on the strength of his treatment of the Chanson hébraïque on that occasion that, four years later, he was asked by Madame Alvina-Albi for voice-and-piano arrangments of the Aramaic prayer for the dead, the Kaddish, and a Yiddish song “Frägt die Velt die alte Casche.” Of the two, Kaddisch, his one setting of a sacred text, proved particularly successful and has been performed in many instrumental arrangements as well as Ravel’s own orchestral version. They are best heard together, however, the cantorial melismas of the one effectively offset by the simplicity of the other.