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Ravel

4/18/2007 2:56:35 PM

aaroncurtisneil

103 posts

Ravel

Hey what happened? The ornithology conversation was ROLLIN' and now that we have a venue dedicated specifically to it it's dropped???

Let's see if we can shake this up again...

So this is repetative, but I'll lay out my favorite Andrew Bird lineage of sound rooted directly in Ravel.

Ravel's one and only string quartet is a thing of real beauty, and I listen to it constantly. The second movement informed quite a bit of AB's material. Bird says this of the piece in an article at Pitchfork:

"I played this when I was 18. Most classical music is pretty lacking in rhythmic drive or groove. This early 20th century piece is pretty rocking. I'm sure Radiohead is no stranger to Ravel. Lots of pizzicato polyrhythms."

Minor Beatrice from Music of Hair jumps into that bit, quoting nearly ver batum (if that's an appropriate term for music quotation) a large chunk of the piece.

Ravel Live Stuff: Obviously the piece has become a major fixture in his live show, kicking off instrumental stuff quite a bit leading too...

The Supine Armchair Apocrypha in which bits and pieces of it can be heard, though much more spliced up and less complete than in Minor Beatrice.

There's another connection here, but it's not as much of a quote, per se. I've always felt that although it is not a direct quote, the Ravel piece can be vaguely and more influentially heard in Skin (from Weather Systems) and Skin Is, My. I don't think it's a quote as much as an influence in this case, but I remember the first couple shows I went to, he started off on Ravel, but I at first thought it might be Skin...

I suggest y'all ornithologists get yourself a copy of Ravel's string quartet, because it is Hot Hot HOT!

This is the recording I have:

Quartet performed by The Emerson String Quartet

But this one is only $7, so I won't be hearing excuses from any of you that don't have this within a month:

Quartet performed by the Keller Quartet

So that's that. I'll be quizing you on this piece next week. You'd best study up!

4/18/2007 4:36:19 PM

ilud

39 posts

Re: Ravel

Hey thanks a million for all the information, teach! It was interesting when you mentioned this in the other topic, but this post is much more elaborated so thanks. I used to love and play tons of Ravel in the past but never found out about this piece, I will enthusiastically do all the studying in the next few weeks ;)

It might also have influenced bits of The Ballad of the Red Shoes (there's a bit of everything instrumental in it, you can even spot primordial nucleuses of The Happy Birthday Song and Weather Systems if memory doesn't fail me), but I haven't properly listened to it in ages, so I guess I'll get Ravel in the first place and then make comparisons.

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