Introduction
and Allegro.

A close reading of the "Catalogue of Works by Maurice Ravel" published in March 1911¹ by the Durand publishing house — which had become the composer's principal publisher since November 1905² — reveals a curious element. Under the heading "Orchestral Music", on page 6 of the pamphlet, we find — alongside the Symphonic Fragments from Daphnis et Chloé, the Five Children's Pieces from Ma Mère l'Oye and the Rapsodie espagnole — the Introduction et Allegro, for which it is specified that the "Solo Harp", the "Orchestral Score", the "Orchestral parts" and "Each additional part" are for sale. This entry in the orchestral catalogue is repeated in an expanded edition of the same commercial document in July 1914³, and remained present much later — as in the 1931 edition of the monographic catalogue.

This expansion of the original "chamber" septet towards an orchestral vector reminds us of a time when — to ensure wide dissemination — a work could undergo, without moral or aesthetic offence, multiple arrangements and transcriptions of every kind (sometimes among the most exotic and of dubious taste). What Ravel modestly termed a "publisher's wish" in a letter of 26 February 1911, replying to the conductor D. E. Inghelbrecht⁴, in which he then wrote: "For the harp piece, it is not, strictly speaking, an orchestral piece. 7 instruments in all. But this could be arranged. The quartet could be doubled, tripled. And, keeping a few soli sections, it would sound even better than in the original."⁵

Although this Introduction et Allegro, composed in June 1905⁶ and certainly revised as regards the harp part until its publication in July 1906⁷, was given at its first performance on 22 February 1907⁸ in its original chamber format, the score quickly became familiar in orchestral matinées. We indeed find traces of Parisian public performances "for harp and orchestra" — for example, again under the fingers of the creator Micheline Kahn: on 7 April 1913 with the Orchestre des Concerts Hasselmans⁹; on 30 January 1915, Salle Gaveau, during a "Matinée Yvette Guilbert", "for harp with orchestral accompaniment"¹⁰; on 27 February 1927, with the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire under the direction of P. Gaubert, "Harp and small orchestra"¹¹.

Or going beyond the Parisian sphere: on 25 February 1933 in Saint-Étienne "for harp and orchestra"¹²; on 15 September 1938 in Biarritz, "for harp, string orchestra, flute and clarinet"¹³. Not to mention the numerous performances under Inghelbrecht's direction on the Radio airwaves: on 5 June 1937¹⁴ or again on 4 March 1938¹⁵ "for harp and orchestra". On the other side of the Atlantic, it was another pupil of A. Hasselmans — C. Salzedo¹⁶ — who gave the American première with orchestra in December 1916 under the direction of W. Damrosch¹⁷, for an arrangement which was to become, under the impetus of this leader of the American school of harp, the standard on that continent. Some concert announcements, causing confusion between the original version and its orchestral development, are not without piquancy: for example, the "Festival Ravel" in Milan in October 1922, which presented the Introduction et Allegro "for reduced orchestra in Quintet"¹⁸.

It should be noted, alongside the controlled original use of a string section, that the idea of a conductor's baton in front of the septet of instrumentalists was quickly adopted because of the difficulty of the work — punctuated for its execution by short and long harp cadenzas, or by significant metronomic variations between the different sections¹⁹. Maurice Ravel was very regularly called upon to conduct, under his supervision or "under his direction", a performance of his work — in concert but also for the phonograph²⁰.

Following confirmation of the composer's approval for the use of a string section, it was appropriate to investigate whether there remained — from the hand of the composer or his publisher — another "historical" score in this format. The finding is laconic. To our knowledge, apart from Ravel's letter to Inghelbrecht, no musical writing other than the 1905-1906 manuscripts of the septet, or the Durand seven-part engraving of 1906, has survived. Each arrangement for string section with "a few soli", according to Ravel's precision, was carried out directly on the Orchestral Scores of conductors. This we have been able to verify by reading copies which mention, in manuscript form, the number of strings required — an 8-8-6-4 forces without double basses requested by Igor Markevitch, or with a double bass part whose interventions are notated on the cello staff for Pierre Boulez, who acquired his score in February 1946²¹.

The library of the Orchestre Lamoureux preserves a "historical" material — undated — for strings which includes 6 parts of Violins 1, 5 of Violins 2, 4 Violas and 3 Cellos. The Digital Archives of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra provide access to a manuscript double bass part which unfortunately bears no date. Within the framework of this 2023 revised edition, we include in the available material a double bass part Ad libitum — which, like the soli/tutti sequences, remains a simple proposal that may be accepted or modified by each performer²².

This reflection on that other arrangement of the Introduction et Allegro also allowed us to examine the original musical text and its initial engraving — which did not fail to raise many questions about editorial choices, without mentioning inevitable engraving errors or other copying issues by the composer's own hand. The study of the three available manuscripts²³ preserved at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin (USA) has been able to shed further light on the difficulties encountered by Ravel in writing in a highly elaborate manner for the harp — a fact inherent to many renowned composers — by attempting to escape from a two-handed writing that was too pianistic, in order to use all the wide technical possibilities of the harp, which was undergoing, in the early twentieth century, an organological expansion of its technical and expressive possibilities on an unprecedented scale.

The autograph manuscript in black ink of the orchestral score — undated and unsigned, which served for the engraving at Durand, flanked by pencil marks in editorial codes — displays on its cover page, in the composer's own hand in pencil, an astonishing: "M. Hasselmans, 123 av. Wagram". The address of an eminent practitioner which suggests a consultation, to receive precious advice or corrections given during a proofreading by the Belgian-French master of the harp, then aged sixty²⁴, during the drafting of the work.

With the soloist harp part — written in ink by the composer, which contains trials of pedal indications²⁵, very numerous revisions and other erasures (with a final page, of about forty bars, entirely crossed out with rage by a thick blue pencil) — is associated another harp part, far more complete in its notations specific to the solo instrument, and which very clearly served for the 1906 engraving²⁶. But, an editorial case of considerable importance, this latter — undated, with several paste-ins and corrective pencil marks — is absolutely not in Ravel's hand, without it being possible to determine who wrote this score²⁷, entirely set up for performance, and which also differs significantly from the one printed by Durand in view of the concert première. A fascinating occurrence for a work of revision on a text — for it is not the usual single soloist part, but four different versions²⁸, in the form of successive stages, that has enabled us to admire all the effort of conception and realisation of a work which remains an unquestionable reference in the harp literature.