Ravel's Jeux D'eau

[bach_ko]

hi everyone... i'm currently taking advanced musicology class in conservatory now. I've chosen impressionism as my presentation topic. We are to demonstrate the stylistic traits of Impressionism in both visual arts and music (with reference of Debussy n Ravel's work)

i decided to choose Ravel's Jeux d'eaux as my discussion's reference for this topic bcos i'm more familiar with it. so i got to do analysis and reseach base on this work. can anyone of u give opinion about it? i'd like to discuss on the impressionistic tendencies as demonstrated in Ravel's Jeux d'eau.

i've came out an outline of my analysis :

-   Ravel as an impressionist. What elements in Ravel’s Jeux d’eau show the impressionistic style?

o   Rhythm
o   Texture
o   Harmony/poly harmony
o   Harmony progression
o   Mixture of modal scales

-   In English translation it called “Water Games”, what elements reflect the image of “Water Games”?
o   Tonalization
o   Harmony
o   Accompaniment part
o   the usage of glissando-like, arpeggio and tremolo technique)

-   How does it relate to impressionism of visual art? Give the similarities.

[bach_ko]

i'm sort of lost now... all the points i mentioned are too little to discuss. what other things can i do other than analyze the chords, harmony progression etc to "prove" that its an impressionism work? as i know, Jeux d'eau was the 1st impressionism composition of ravel. any suggestion? thanks 

[bach_ko]

.

[dchoit]

That translation is not correct - the correct translation is "Fountains". Ask anyone who speaks French properly.
Just as the proper transation for "idee fixe" is NOT fixed idea, but "obsession" or "fascination".
Both of these were badly done in many editions of "The Enjoyment of Music" . 

[ramseytheii]

In my view, the more advanced one develops, the more banal the questions should become.  

After all, all art is nothing more than exalted solutions to banal problems.

My banal question is, what is the impressionist style?  Answer that, and you have your thesis.

Walter Ramsey