Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

When I first heard Ravel’s music since my childhood, I had been completely captured by the his magic. Through both conventional Romanticism and early Modernism, Ravel articulates diverse harmonic colors and emotional depth through his compositions. The French Impressionistic character of his music reminds me of the vanishing and dreamy qualities of the marimba and vibraphone.

Valses nobles et sentimentales was written as piano solo and was later adapted for orchestra. This piece was Ravel‘s dedication to Franz Schubert and the Viennese waltz. In this duo, I explore the equality of role of both marimba and vibraphone; they are constantly trading melodic voices and accompaniment. Some of the movements would highlight more on one instrument according to the tempo and color of the movement. I first started arranging this piece during my master degree, and had performed four movements from it with my professor Chris Deviney at Temple University. I later finished arranging all the movements, and performed the complete waltzes with Samuel Chan at New England Conservatory.

It give me so much joy to be able to play my favorite composer’s music on my own instrument!