RAVEL | Pavane pour une infante défunte, mm. 28–34

Piano fingerings for Pavane pour une infante défunte by Maurice Ravel

SPECIAL COLLECTION | Dorothy Brandwein’s Ravel Fingerings

Published on 4/5/2022 with the author’s permission

First appeared in Dorothy Woster Brandwein, "Divisi Fingering in Selected Passages from Ravel's Solo Piano Works" (DMA diss., University of Missouri–Kansas City, 1981), 49, 56, 68.

49: “Difficulties arising from the scoring of wide-spaced chords written on the treble staff in two similar passages from the ‘Pavane pour une infante défunte’ can impede the flow of the cantabile melody. If the rolled and blocked chords in the left hand include just one more note written on the upper staff, the right hand is then free to play the melody using the consecutive fingering marked in the example.”
55: “In addition, divisi fingering allows the rapid flourish of notes written in small notation to lie conveniently beneath the hands [m. 34]. Without divisi fingering, the extra arm or wrist motion required to play the notes could be detrimental to the fluidity and speed which the passage require.”
68, fn2: "When using this divisi fingering, the pianist must carefully listen for and bring out the proper voice-leading within the harmonic progression."

Solo Piano, Special CollectionMichael ClarkApril 29, 2017Maurice Ravel, Pavane pour une infante défunte, Dorothy Brandwein, avoid stretch, uncross, avoid crowding, reduce position shifts, improve legato, improve voicingComment