Ravel, Tzigane, and virtuosic female violinists

Check out this performance by the St. Olaf Orchestra and Professor Anderegg!

My first attempts at researching Ravel were slightly troubling. You think there would be an abundance of online resources examining such a well-known composer, and his piece, Tzigane, which has become a staple of the violin repertoire. There are many dissertations, concert reviews, and articles examining Tzigane, but I initially found it difficult to find sources that frame the premiere and reception of this piece in its original time. It seemed the popularity of the piece on concert programs around the world after the 1920s ended up masking the earlier opinions surrounding the work. Has the earlier meaning of Tzigane become less important than its role as a piece for generations of violinists to demonstrate their virtuosity?

After a lot of searching I found a newspaper announcement of Tzigane’s premiere –  on April 26th, 1924, in a concert solely comprised of Ravel’s works.¹ The concert was in London and featured violinist Jelly D’Aranyi. Ravel heard D’Aranyi playing his Sonata for violin and cello a couple years before, and became fascinated with her ability, eventually writing and dedicating Tzigane to her. ² He met with D’Aranyi a few months after he saw her perform and asked the Hungarian violinist to play gypsy melodies for him until 5 in the morning.³ But what was the meaning of the piece beyond this inspiration? Ravel said of Tzigane:

“I don’t attempt to evoke Hungary, which I do not know. My Tzigane is not to Budapest what, among my other works, La Valse is to Vienna or La Rapsodie Espagnole to Spain – it is merely a piece for the violin.”⁴

So perhaps there is some truth to the idea of this piece as a mere vehicle for violin virtuosity. Some critics did view Tzigane as a parody of Hungarian violin music, otherwise framing the piece as Ravel’s “attempt to get away from the limited sphere of his previous compositions, to infuse into his work a little of that warm blood that it needs.” ⁵ Regardless of its initial reception there is evidence of continuous interest in this piece.

I was left wondering about why Ravel chose Hungary as a musical subject when he claimed to not know the country or culture. Does he write some pieces, such as La Rapsodie Espagnole, with intentions to defy stereotypes or the imposition of French nationalism? Or is Ravel just fascinated with the exotic? I plan to continue to research the way French national identity affected Ravel. I am particularly interested in the way he was elevated as a composer after Debussy’s death, and in his isolation from Les Six and other French composers of the time.⁶ It seems unlikely that a composer would continuously choose ‘exotic’ musical elements, like the gypsy melodies of Tzigane, without being influenced by the nationalist and political ideas of the time.