Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte hints towards a slow processional dance in Europe during the Renaissance. His teacher at the time, Gabriel Fauré, had written a Pavane as well in 1887 and we see certain similarities in terms of texture and modal harmony. Ravel himself also admitted to a strong influence from Chabrier at the time and we see this particularly in his use of unprepared dissonances, the 7th and 9th, which we can see in some of Chabrier’s later pieces (Feuillet d’album 1889). In any case, the modal harmonies used constantly create an ambiguity of tonality and this contributes to a kind of distant antiquity in its character. The piece begins in G major but already in the second bar we have a small cadence in E aeolian and the melody itself doesn’t really outline G major but hints more towards E aeolian. A harmonic analysis in E aeolian seems plausible as well and I could hear bars 5-6 as a sort of half cadence in E aeolian too.
Ravel’s pianistic textures here are lean and minimal, a far cry from what will come in his lisztian-like virtuosity in Jeux d’eau 2 years later. Yet we already see some of the harmonic devices that he'll continue to exploit in later years like chordal planing, insistent pedal points and an affinity for seventh and ninth chords.
Recording (Elena Kuschnerova) : • Maurice Ravel - Pavane...