Friday, April 3, 2009

Hidden messages in Ravel's works

Ravel expert David Lamaze argues that Ravel coded some of his works with hidden messages. Here's a quote from the BBC article that discusses this idea:
The French composer, Maurice Ravel may have left a hidden message - a woman's name - inside his work.

A sequence of three notes occurring repeatedly through his work spells out the name of a famous Parisian socialite says Ravel expert David Lamaze.

He argues that the notes, E, B, A in musical notation, or "Mi-Si-La" in the French doh-re-mi scale, refer to Misia Sert, a close friend of Ravel's.

Well known in art circles, she was painted by Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec.

This interesting speculation on the part of Lamaze is helped by the fact that Ravel kept his personal life under wraps. So, musicologists will probably be debating this matter for many years to come.

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