Ravel, Maurice. (1875-1937)
Alborada del Gracioso pour Orchestre. Partition.
Paris: Max Eschig. 1923. First edition. Folio, 42 pp. [PN] E. 1939 D.. Original wrappers bound into brown and crimson cloth, ex-library with gift plate and stamps on inner front and rear boards, generally very good throughout. A rare copy of the full orchestral score."Originally composed as the fourth of the five numbers in the piano suite Miroirs, which Ravel completed in 1905 and his friend Ricardo Viñes introduced at the Salle Erard on January 6, 1906. The orchestral version of the Alborada, which Ravel created in 1918, was introduced in Paris on May 17 of the following year by the Pasdeloup Orchestra under Rhené-Baton....The title Alborada del gracioso is usually translated as "Morning Song of a Jester," the gracioso having been the household jester in the classic Spanish comedies of Calderón and Lope de Vega. The piece has remained enormously popular on its own, in both the original keyboard version and the subsequent one for orchestra. Ravel's pupil, confidant and biographer Alexis Roland-Manuel characterized the piece as one 'in which the dry and biting virtuosity is contrasted, Spanish-wise, with the swooning flow of the lovelorn melodic line which interrupts the angry buzzing of guitars.'" (Richard Freed, Kennedy Center Online) (8568)
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