Composed in 1899, the Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a dead princess), became Ravel’s first widely known work. It was commissioned by Princess Edmond de Polignac, at whose elegant salons Ravel regularly performed. The immense popularity of the Pavane surprised and somewhat galled the composer, who later opined that “the influence of Chabrier is much too glaring, and the structure is rather poor. The remarkable interpretations of this inconclusive and conventional work have, I think, in great measure contributed to its success.”

Ravel alluded sarcastically here to many fabricated descriptions by critics attempting to “explain” the unusual title and to the thousands of awkward, dirgelike performances by amateurs. He nevertheless continued to perform the Pavane, possibly as a counterweight to tasteless performances. He also returned to it in 1910 to make an orchestral version, which only strengthened its popularity.

Despite or because of the many “remarkable interpretations” the title had elicited, Ravel frequently insisted that it had no significance for him other than “the pleasure of alliteration.” In 1925 he was quoted as saying, “Do not attach to the title any more importance than it has. Do not dramatize it. It is not a funeral lament for a dead child but rather an evocation of the pavane which could have been danced by such a little princess as painted by Velasquez at the Spanish court.” A pavane was a stately Renaissance court dance, and Ravel’s evocation, as with his Alborado del gracioso and Tombeau de Couperin, speak to the composer's interest in earlier historical periods.

The structure, which Ravel apparently found faulty but which he never changed, actually unfolds as an elegant rondo form that can be mapped as A, B, B1, A1, C, C1, A2.. In addition, the Pavane’s unforgettable melody and lyrical expansiveness creates a delicate soundscape that leaves no one concerned about whatever influence Chabrier may have had on Ravel.

—©Jane Vial Jaffe