Mapping Ravel’s “La vallée des cloches”

Abstract

This article makes a case for constructing a map of Maurice Ravel’s “La vallée des cloches” (The valley of the bells) by showing how the process of mapping the piece can provide valuable insights from a variety of perspectives, such as: 1) offering insights into how the piece’s many bell sounds are individuated from each other and interact with one another in creating intricate formal and temporal frameworks; 2) emphasizing prominent aspects of Ravel’s aesthetics such as mechanistic impulses, spatial and metaphorical thinking, literary influences, and nostalgic fascination with the past; 3) situating the piece within the context of significant changes in France at the turn of the twentieth century marked by the declining prominence of bells in defining the auditory landscape, the symbolism bells carried with them, and the role bells played in marking temporal rhythms for French society; and 4) showing how many aspects of the piece highlighted throughout the mapping process align in suggestive ways with significant performance considerations.