I. Presto 
II. Adagio 
III. Finale: Molto vivace 

Haydn’s (1732–1809) role in the development of the symphony and string quartet is secure in the minds of many people, but they are still apt to forget just how important the genre of the piano sonata was to this composer. Haydn wrote about 60 of them, spread across a span of over 40 years, from the 1750s to the 1790s. “For Haydn, as for Beethoven,” wrote musicologist Paul Henry Lang, “the piano sonata was throughout his career the proving ground where he could experiment, then apply what he had learned to quartet and symphony. It is remarkable how steadfastly and purposefully this modest man…developed his talents.” 

The E-minor Sonata dates from the early 1780s (it was published in 1783). Haydn scholar H.C. Robbins Landon points out that during the period from the mid-1770s to mid-1780s, Haydn produced few works of notable quality, but that this sonata is an exception. While hardly a masterpiece, it is continuously engaging and is just the right length for its musical content. The first movement is built not so much from melodic material as from pithy motifs. Development of these motifs—more rhythmic fragments than anything else—provides virtually the entire interest in the movement. It is laid out in traditional sonata form (exposition [repeated], development, recapitulation, coda), but most listeners will be less concerned with these delineations than with the way Haydn maintains interest with such a paucity of material. The opening four notes in the left hand (an ascending arpeggio) pervade the movement either in its melodic shape or in its rhythmic pattern (the three descending notes that follow immediately in the right hand constitute another motif). Another feature of this movement is the frequency of unexpected, abrupt stops, as if Haydn were challenging the listener to ask “Why on earth? What’s the point?” There is obviously humour to be found even in works in the minor tonality. 

The slow movement too lends itself less to theoretical analysis (an abridged sonata form) than to the manner in which Haydn subjects slender melodic material to almost constant ornamentation: trills, twists, turns, flourishes, arpeggios, scales, roulades, etc. The final movement follows without pause (another irregularity)—a simple rondo in ABABA form, with the “A” passages in E minor and the “B”s in E major. The end comes without warning, as if Haydn had decided on impulse “OK, time to quit!” 

This little two-minute piece is one of Ravel’s (1875–1937) least-known piano works, despite its curious origin. In 1909, the Revue musicale mensuelle de la Société Internationale de Musique commissioned six composers to write a short piece based on the name Haydn to mark the centenary of his death: Ravel, Paul Dukas, Charles-Marie Widor, Vincent d’Indy, Claude Debussy, and Reynaldo Hahn. Ravel used the five letters of Haydn’s name as a musical motif in which H represents B-natural, A and D represent their respective pitches, Y is also D, and N is G-natural; hence, B-A-D-D-G. This serves as a kind of musical scaffolding to create an elegant, reposed minuet that in spirit harks back to the Classical period while reflecting the composer’s own musical aesthetic. The uppermost line of the opening gesture presents the HAYDN motif for the first time; thereafter it recurs periodically, occasionally in inversion (mirror image) or retrograde (backwards). 

I. Noctuelles (Night Moths) 
II. Oiseaux tristes (Sad Birds) 
III. Une barque sur l’océan (A Boat on the Ocean) 
IV. Alborada del gracioso (The Jester’s Aubade) 
V. La vallée des cloches (The Valley of the Bells) 

In 1904–1905, Ravel composed a set of five piano pieces collectively entitled Miroirs. Each was dedicated to a different friend or colleague in the French avant-garde artist group known as Les Apaches, a loose association of artistic types who met to discuss literature, the arts, history, or anything else that stirred their interest. The famous Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes gave the first complete public performance on January 6, 1906 in Erard Hall in Paris. Each of the Miroirs is in simple three-part form (ABA), and each might well be heard as a reflection (or mirror image) of its title. Ravel recorded two of them (Oiseaux tristes and La vallée des cloches) on Duo-Art piano rolls and orchestrated two of them (Une barque sur l’océan and Alborada del gracioso). 

Noctuelles (Night Moths) – The title is taken from the subject of a poem by Léon-Paul Fargue, to whom the piece is dedicated. Ravel effectively conjures up the world of moths with the constantly changing, kaleidoscopic whirl of delicate, fluttery effects in the piano writing.

Oiseaux tristes went to pianist Ricardo Viñes. Ravel wrote that “in this work, I evoke birds engrossed in the torpor of a dark forest during the peak hours of summer heat.” The title is a figment of the imagination, as “sad birds” do not sing.

Une barque sur l’océan – One can without difficulty imagine a visual accompaniment to the music based on a literal translation of the title (A Boat on the Ocean)—a vessel of some kind traversing a vast body of water, but equally valid is a listening experience that allows the listener only to “hear” the play of colour, light, and shade. Une barque is dedicated to the painter and set designer Paul Sordes, at whose home Les Apaches met regularly. 

Alborada del gracioso is one of Ravel’s most brilliant evocations of Spain. The seven-minute work (longest of the Miroirs) is laid out in three connected sections. The brilliant outer parts are characterized by vibrant rhythms set to simulated strumming of a guitar and the clack of castanets. The more meditative central section evokes more the clownish aspect of the work’s title.

La vallée des cloches – As with the previous components of Miroirs, the music is suggestive of the title, or perhaps vice versa. Here, Ravel evokes the sounds of bells.