Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Ravel Mother Goose Suite

I Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant 

II Petit Pousset 

III Laideronette, Imperatrice des Pagodes 

IV Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête 

V Le Jardin féerique 

The Mother Goose Suite is not an occasional composition based on fairy tales but a work intended to evoke what Ravel called “the poetry  

of childhood”. The Suite was originally composed in 1908 as a piano duet for Ravel’s young friends Mimi Godebski (who was eight at the time) and her brother Jean. However, they were not the soloists at the first performance in Paris in 1910 when the five pieces were played by two children who were six and seven years old. In 1912 Ravel orchestrated the work and added another movement as well as interludes for a ballet performance. These additions were not, however, included in the orchestral suite, which consists of the five movements originally composed for piano duet. 

The orchestral version of the Mother Goose Suite is scored for a small orchestra in which three of the woodwind players double on piccolo, cor anglais and contra bassoon. This is unusual for an orchestra of this size, but even more so is the addition of a harp and a considerable number of percussion instruments. The original title of “Ma Mére L’Oye” simply means a collection of fairy tales from different sources. Quotations from the respective tales appear in the score above the second, third and fourth movements. 

 The opening movement, the Pavane of Sleeping Beauty, is followed by Tom Thumb. The third movement is based on the tale of The Ugly Little Empress of the Pagodas who takes a bath while the Pagodas and the little ‘Pagodines’ play for her on string instruments made of nut and almond shells. In conversation in the fourth movement between Beauty and the Beast, the latter is portrayed by the contra bassoon until the Beast is transformed into a prince. The finale represents a Fairy Garden.  

© Stefan de Haan 

Eleanor Alberga Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs