The Dolci Show

Dolci Show #4: Ravel and Villa-Lobos

April 17, 2020 Ted Rust and Viva Knight Season 1 Episode 4
The Dolci Show
Dolci Show #4: Ravel and Villa-Lobos
Show Notes

In this episode Dolci plays:

Pavane for a Dead Princess by Maurice Ravel
arranged for English horn and piano by Carolyn Hove
Ravel was born and educated in Paris. His Pavane for a Dead Princess began as a piano piece in 1900, and has become standard concert repertoire in myriad instrumentations. Ravel never intended it as funereal, but rather as a stately court dance honoring a long-ago Spanish princess. He once commented to the unlucky conductor of an orchestral performance that its title was “Pavane for a dead princess,” not “Dead pavane for a princess.”

Aria (Cantilena) from Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos
arranged for voice and piano by Burle Marx, adapted for oboe and piano 
Villa-Lobos, a Brazilian, composed Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5 in 1938 for voice and six cellos. It has been arranged for countless instrumental and vocal combinations. The score directs the opening section to be sung on the syllable “ahh” and the closing section to be hummed with the singer’s lips closed. In the middle section the singer chants a poem by Ruth Valadares Correa, describing the moon as a beautiful maiden rising from the sea, her beauty modestly veiled by translucent pink clouds.