Maurice Ravel
Ondine
No. 1 from Gaspard de la nuit
Inspired by the dark poetry of Aloysius Bertrand, Gaspard de la Nuit is a triptych evoking images of horror. Ondine portrays a water nymph trying to seduce a mortal man to visit her kingdom at the bottom of a lake.
Year: 1908
Period: Impressionism
Piano score: Scanned score 
Audiovisual Study Tool
The Water Nymph
Each of the pieces in Gaspard de la nuit is prefaced by one of Aloysius Bertrand’s poems. The first, Ondine, portrays a water nymph singing to seduce a mortal man to visit her kingdom at the bottom of a lake. The soft, shimmering music emerges out of nothing, and goes on to capture the swirling flow and glittering splashes of water.
...When she had breathed her song, she begged me –
begged me – to put her ring on my finger;
to be her husband and sink with her down –
down to her drowned palace
and be king of all the lakes.
I told her I loved a mortal woman.
Abashed and vexed, she dissolved into tears and laughter;
vanished in a scatter of rain…
Background
Gaspard of the Night — Fantasies in the Manner of Rembrandt and Callot is a book by Aloysius Bertrand, considered one of the first examples of modern prose poetry, which had a profound influence on many later French poets and artists. Some of Bertrand's grotesque and nightmarish poems very much appealed to Ravel, who set his impressions of three of the poems to music. The resulting suite is considered to be one of the most difficult pieces in the pianist’s repertoire – Ravel deliberately set out to make the final movement more difficult than Balakirev’s Islamey.Forum posts about this piece:
In desperate need of some piece recommendations by juncho
I just finished the last movement of my beethoven sonata for my LTCL piano and I still don't have a new piece to be working on. I've been scouring through the repertoire list but none of them...
“Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses“ by ravelfan07
Is it just me or Debussy’s “ Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses” sounds similar to Ravel’s...
Playing two notes with thumb by diegoyan
Hi everyone, I've had this question for some time so I decided to give it a try here to see if I get some answers, since due to the pandemic I'm no longer taking clases. Here it goes:...
Hands crossing in Ondine by skryabyn
I'm having problems in mm 15-16. Very frustrating! Now that I'm analyzing it, the most frustrating parts of other pieces that I never felt comfortable on were similar - hands clumsily bumping into...
Help with Ondine descending thirds fingering by minhogang
First set of thirds, I use 1-4 3-5 1-4 2-3, but I have quite short fingers so I end up rolling the thirds. What are your fingerings on...
Short story featuring Peabody, "Ondine" and two amazing pianists by earleaw
Hi everyone, I posted here about six months ago looking for some answers to research regarding my short story. Everyone was very helpful and gave me some great ideas. Anyway, I finished...
Ravel by berman
Hey guys, I was thinking of start practising Ravels Ondine from Gaspard de la Nuit in a couple of months but I havent played Ravel before. I wonder if anyone a piece(s) of Ravel to start with, to get the right...
Ravel's Ondine - RH chord tremolo by ondine88
The RH chord tremolos in Ravel's Ondine are obviously a challenge. Does anyone have tips on how to play this well if one does not have naturally great piano fingers? ((I just...
Some questions about Ondine by gregh87
I'm learning this piece, and man, is it gorgeous! I have a couple technical questions: 1. When it goes into 3 staves, do you use the middle pedal to sustain the base notes so you...
Comparative difficulty of Ravel's Ondine and Jeux d'eau by debussy symbolism
Greetings I am about to strart one of these pieces and am not sure about their difficulty in terms of technique compared to one other. If you are inclined to help please do. I look forward to...
Ravel: Ondine by Colette
I'm currently playing Ondine from Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, and I've been looking for some very good recordings. I've heard Perlamuter and Gieseking who's interpretations are excellent, but a bit cold. Has...
Members who like this piece have also downloaded:
This piece is composed by Maurice Ravel and was published in 1908. Title: Ondine, No. 1 in C-sharp Major from Gaspard de la nuit. The difficulty level if graded by ABRSM would be approximately 8+ and it belongs to the Impressionism period.