Ronsard à son âme (1924)

Maurice Ravel, composer (1875 -1937)
Pierre de Ronsard, poet (1524 -1585)
Jack Morin, baritone
Zan Huang, pianist

Program Note:

The poem Á son âme is a pondering of death written on Ronsard’s deathbed. Despite this, he kept the poem in a light tone, using the diminutive ‘-ette’ ending in every name he gave to his ‘little soul’. Ravel composed Ronsard à son âme for the celebration of Ronsard’s four hundredth birthday. Ravel represents the reflective and light mood of the poem with a piano texture of perfect fifths throughout. He wrote: “I have written my Epitaphe, or at least Ronsard’s…” He also declared it his favorite among his own songs, because he could play it while holding a cigarette.

~Jack Morin

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