Le Tombeau de Couperin - Composition

Composition

The movements are:

  • I. Prélude
"To the memory of Lieutenant Jacques Charlot" (who transcribed Ravel's four-hand piece Ma mère l'oye for solo piano)
  • II. Fugue
"To the memory of Jean Cruppi" (to whose mother Ravel dedicated his opera L'heure espagnole)
  • III. Forlane
"To the memory of Lieutenant Gabriel Deluc" (a Basque painter from Saint-Jean-de-Luz)
  • IV. Rigaudon
"To the memory of Pierre and Pascal Gaudin" (brothers killed by the same shell)
  • V. Menuet
"To the memory of Jean Dreyfus" (at whose home Ravel recuperated after he was demobilized)
  • VI. Toccata
"To the memory of Captain Joseph de Marliave" (killed in action in August 1914)

The first performance of the original piano version was given in 1919 by Marguerite Long, who was Joseph de Marliave's widow.

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