Histoires naturelles

Histoires naturelles ("Natural Histories") is a song cycle by Maurice Ravel, composed in 1906. It sets five poems by Jules Renard to music for voice and piano. Ravel's pupil Manuel Rosenthal created a version for voice and orchestra. The cycle is dedicated to the mezzo-soprano Jane Bathori, who gave the first performance, accompanied by the composer, on 12 January 1907.
Content.
The five songs are:
Of the poems Ravel said, "the direct, clear language and the profound, hidden poetry of Jules Renard's works tempted me for a long time." Renard recorded in his diary:
Reception.
The premiere caused controversy, creating a divide between those who regarded the music as an affront and those who appreciated its populist style. In formal French poetry recitation and singing, it is usual to pronounce schwas ('mute e's) in situations in which they would normally be dropped. In "Histoires naturelles", Ravel directed the singer to drop many but not all of these schwas, offending some listeners. Others have appreciated the composer's informal approach while suspecting it of "de haut en bas" jokiness. Even Ravel's former teacher and supporter Gabriel Fauré was not happy with the work, though his disapproval was more of the verses than of his protégé's music. According to Graham Johnson, Fauré's reaction may also have been due to the fact that many of the audience left at the interval and that the second half of this concert included the first performances of Fauré's first piano quintet, fourth Impromptu and eighth Barcarolle. The Ravel scholar Roger Nichols considers the cycle "an important step in Ravel's evolution, as significant of those of "Jeux d'eau" and "Miroirs"". Johnson also quotes Vuillermoz's recollections of Ravel's own vocal mannerism of letting his voice fall a fourth or fifth at the end of a phrase – which occurs in many places in both "Histoires naturelles" and his contemporary opera "L'heure espagnole". Some musicologists have seen the cycle as a descendant of the genre initiated by Chabrier in his four 'farmyard' songs of 1890.