Semantics of Movement and Dance in the Works of Maurice Ravel

Abstract

The relevance of the study. The semantic layers formed by Maurice Ravel's lifelong appeal to dance genres have been studied. It has been noted that the semantic thesaurus manifested through connections with dance genres is a multi-valued component of Ravel's unique artistic world, which he carefully created from the first to the last composition, connecting all the layers of his work with through-going plastic lines. It has been emphasized that the artist's constant appeals to previously written compositions with the aim of making a new orchestral or ballet version, as well as numerous allusions to them and quotations in his later opuses (especially in the opera The Child and the Charms and The Piano Concerto in g major) form the impressive integrity of his artistic world, the basis of which were dance genres and, more broadly, attention to the category of movement and the means of its embodiment in music. It is emphasized that the ‘grounding’ and provocative simplicity of using the expressive possibilities of dance (after all, it is originally a household, everyday genre) introduce into Ravel’s works the rhythm of the ‘breathing’ of a huge layer of European culture, which structures the dynamic semantic space of the composer’s works in the unfolding ‘from the earthly to the heavenly’. It is proven that it is precisely in this act of the inextricable connection of what is in the moment of ‘here and now’ and the timeless, everyday and high supra-mundane that Ravel’s loyalty to the philosophy of dandyism, which was for him the basis of life and creativity, was manifested.

The main objective of the study is to highlight the semantic layers formed by the composer's constant appeal to dance genres, his desire to embody the expression of gesture and movement in music, and to extrapolate the visual characteristics of dance figures into the musical space.

The methodological basis of the article is the use of historical, comparative, and phenome- nological methods of analysis.

Results and conclusions. Ravel retains the traditional reliance on dance genres for French composers, but for him this connection turns into a special channel of communication with the listener. The deep feeling of the moving bodily nature of dance becomes a sign of Ravel’s devotion to the rhythms of life — they must be beautiful and convey an energetic impulse, which the artist called  ‘enthusiasm for living’. This ‘touch of life’ through all forms of movement fills Ravel’s music and directs us to understand the meaning of the composer’s works.

The Basque world of his mother, a wonderful dancer, and the dynamic world of super-speed and precise mechanisms of his father were united in the consciousness of Ravel the artist. Serving Beauty, the search for perfect form complemented the family spectrum of the meanings of life and formed a unique spiritual space that does not lose its relevance for us today.