Perhaps most typical of Ravel’s songs, and admirably representative of his earlier technique, are the five descriptive songs grouped under the title _Histoires naturelles_. The animals here described with inimitable humor are respectively the peacock, the cricket, the swan, the king-fisher, and the guinea fowl. It is evident that these offer a wide variety of effect. In each case Ravel has seized the opportunity in masterly fashion. The accompaniment to ‘The Peacock’ fairly shimmers with gorgeous coloring. ‘The Cricket’ is strident and mechanical, ‘The Swan’ slow and sensuous, and so on. Perhaps the student may not find such subjects proper for song treatment. But if descriptive music is admitted at all in song writing, one must admit the fine and supple technique displayed in these extraordinarily successful songs. The group entitled ‘Scheherezade’ is no less masterful in its description of scenery and moods. The first, called ‘Asia,’ is unbelievably rich in this respect. Finally we may mention the three poems from Mallarmé, published in 1914. These are the most elaborate and difficult, the most remote from conventional expression of anything Ravel has done. They are more solid and stimulating in their musicianship than anything he had done before. The irregular melodic line of _Placet futile_ is luxuriant in the extreme. All three show a gain toward freedom in the management of the voice, a gain which means a great increase in absolute musical value for the voice part. He seems here even to be creating a new sort of melody, one which has few elements of formal regularity but is rich in sensuous loveliness. The accompaniments for these songs are elaborate in the extreme. What the ultimate artistic value of them will be can not be told until they have been generously tried out by experienced singers. But they certainly give the musician pause. They, along with certain recent orchestral works, prove that Ravel is a man of immense energy, of an artistic genius that cannot be curbed, altogether one of the important men in modern music. FOOTNOTES: [32] See Musical Examples (Vol. XIII). CHAPTER XV MODERN LYRICISTS OUTSIDE OF GERMANY AND FRANCE The new Russian school: Balakireff, etc.; Moussorgsky and others--The Scandinavians and Finns--Recent English song-writers. I