Histoires naturelles

Histoires naturelles (FR) Nature Stories. Ravel's settings (1906) for voice and piano of five prose-poems about animals, selected from the book of the same title by Jules Renard. Ravel writes: » The direct, clear language and the profound, hidden poetry of the poems in prose tempted me for a long time. My author's text demanded a particular kind of musical declamation from me, closely related to the inflections of the French language. « This style includes elision of the mute e, not normally…