This essay aims to document some of the differences between the three arrangements of Ravel’s work La Valse.
Ravel’s La Valse is a piece of music originally written for orchestra. The composer himself created two different arrangements for the piano: one for solo piano and another for piano four hands. These two arrangements offer different perspectives on the original composition; each of them highlights different aspects of the music.
Analysing through the listening and performances watched, in the solo piano, the composer seems to omit some aspects from the orchestra score, like some parts of the percussion and parts of the brass writing. In order to compensate for these missing features, Ravel seems to use piano voicing and techniques like pedalling and half sustain. Regarding the four hands arrangement, the composer appears to be able to preserve more of the colouristic variety of the orchestra score. This appears to be done by dividing two hands to handle the melodic and harmonic material and the other two hands to provide rhythmic and textural support. In that way, Ravel conveys many of the orchestral elements in the piano arrangement. Regarding the relation between the two arrangments, I feel that the musical content is mostly the same in terms of structure, melodies, harmonies and rhythm. Although the four hands arrangement seems to include additional nuances or voicing in order to fill the four hands. I think is also worth mentioning that in the four hands, Ravel must have had to think about the coordination of the two pianists to synchronise their movements in terms of dynamics and balance. The two reductions appear to be successful because both not only capture the fundamental essence of the work, however, also maintain an accurate picture of the melodies, harmonies, dynamics and frame of the work and at the same time both are interesting and creative.
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Orchestration and Arrangement 