Talk:Pavane pour une infante défunte

Untitled

In a newspaper article from the Rocky Mountain News, Sunday, March 8, 1970 (on the anniversary of Ravel's birth) noted Italian-American, conductor-composer Manoah Leide-Tedesco talks of his relationship with Ravel:

"In Prague in the mid 20's, I was entrusted by Mr. Ravel with the first performance in Czechoslovakia of the Alborada del Gracioso and L'enfant et les Sortileses. I saw a great deal of Mr. Ravel in Europe and America. Many hours and days were spent together. To describe him I can think of only two words -- Grand Seigneur. How, I dared ask him one day: 'Monsieur, how did you ever come to the title for your Pavane pour une Infanta Defunte? He smiled coyly and said, 'Do not be surprised, that title has nothing to do with the composition. I simply liked the sound of those words and I put them there, c'est tout' and we went on talking about something else. Maurice Ravel never talked about his own music."

TCoussens (talk) 03:33, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

As far as I know, the word Pavane comes from the Latin "pavo" (peacock)....the dance is supposed to imitate the strutting of the said creature. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.129.88.226 (talk) 18:44, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Peter Gabriel's San Jacinto shares many elements with Ravel's piece; e.g. the keyboard figure that runs through most of the song right from the start, the bassline and the melody of the verses are all close, though in slightly different keys. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.254.151.33 (talk) 20:32, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

English version of title

Are we sure about "Pavan for a Defunct Infanta" in the lead and the info-box? As we are told by no less an authority than the Rocky Mountain News that Ravel chose the French title for its euphony, mightn't we use an English translation that's a little less clunky? In the body of the text we use the more usual one, "Pavane for a Dead Princess", which I suggest we adopt in the lead. Tim riley talk 11:40, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

Sounds good to me, and much more musical. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:23, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

Agreed. I've only ever heard it translated as "Pavane for a Dead Princess" anyways. Aza24 (talk) 06:53, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

Which Velasquez painting?

Ravel also stated that the piece depicted a pavane as it would be danced by an infanta found in a painting by Diego Velázquez.

Could he possibly have been referring to Las Meninas? The only other qualified painting in the relevant category would be a smaller painting which has the same princess: Margaret Theresa of Spain Avindratalk / contribs 04:36, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

The untimely nature of her death (age 21) and other tragedies in her life give credence to this idea. Velasquez also painted an Austrian princess, but Ravel specifically refers to a princess who would have danced in the Spanish court. Case closed? Avindratalk / contribs 04:47, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

@Aavindraa: You're probably right that it was Margaret Theresa of Spain he was referring to. Specifying Las Meninas without a reliable source would be a stretch though since he painted her quite a bit. (see his later paintings) Aza24 (talk) 06:42, 23 July 2020 (UTC)