"Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees at letter A (1:13) an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo letter B (2:16). Set in an imperial court, about 1855."
- Maurice Ravel, 1921
Through one of his students (Manuel Rosenthal), Ravel also reveals a thought about his techniques of orchestration:
“In the end, we must try to dupe the listener. He/she must be led astray, made to believe in things to which we alone are privy. If, for example, you wish to assign a certain melodic line to the clarinet, anyone can do that well enough. But, if you wish to seduce the listener, then beneath the clarinet you will put something else, something that the listener will not straightaway notice: only you can know, for instance, the possibilities of pizzicati in the cello. No one will hear them, since you will have placed them pianissimo, underneath the mezzo forte clarinet; but it will be just enough to gently reshape the sound of the clarinet, creating behind it a kind of strange haze, a halo. So, that is how one orchestrates: it is what I call “fooling the listener.”
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