Music Library News

Ravel Manuscript Acquired

The Music Library is delighted to announce the acquisition of Maurice Ravel's manuscript for the song Sainte. Composed in 1896, the song was first performed in 1907 and published in that same year by Durand. The song's text, an ode to St. Cecilia, is by Stéphane Mallarmé, whose words Ravel would set again later in the Trois poémes de Stéphane Mallarmé.

Ravel's manuscript for Sainte consists of a calligraphic title page followed by two pages of music notated in ink with a number of erasures, minor alterations, and some editorial markings in pencil. Perhaps most notable are Ravel's changes to the fourth measure, which he rewrote entirely, choosing different harmonies and bass motion in his revision. Ravel's initial version of measure four, though crossed out by the composer, remains legible.

This manuscript complements another early Ravel manuscript acquired by the Music Library in 2004. This other item, an extended fugue composed circa 1899, is a complete, unpublished work with many corrections in blue pencil, presumably applied by one of Ravel's teachers at the Paris Conservatoire.

The manuscript for Sainte, as well as the earlier fugue, were purchased with support of the Constance Heilman Brakke Endowed Fund, the James A. and Sally Ann Hagan Endowed Fund, and the Christine S. Lewis Music Library Fund.