Ravel began sketching this ‘French Suite’ for piano (‘In memoriam François Couperin’) in 1914 in a burst of patriotism after first – and to his annoyance – being rejected for active service. But in 1915 he was drafted after all (see La Valse above), and by the time he was discharged he was a changed man, profoundly depressed and with serious health worries. Fortunately a clear task in hand was the completion of the Suite, which eventually emerged as six character pieces, each dedicated to one of his friends who had lost their lives in the war. Marguerite Long, to the memory of whose husband the last of the six was dedicated, gave the first performance in Paris in April 1919, and the entire suite was encored on the spot.

Few of Ravel's works were originally written for orchestra, yet he was an outstanding orchestrator and several of his piano pieces have become equally or even more well-known in their orchestral guise. For Le Tombeau de Couperin he dropped the two most overtly pianistic movements, orchestrated the remaining four, and the Suite was first performed in February 1920 by Rhéne-Baton and the Pasdeloup Orchestra. The string parts contain an unusual quantity of harmonics, some of which regularly cause doubt and confusion; all are listed and decoded in section 4 below.

sources

A  Autograph score, on loan by the Robert Owen Lehman Foundation to the Morgan Library, New York

E,P  First edition score and parts, published by Durand in 1919