Maurice Ravel – Jeux d’eau, 1901.
Performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
Jeux d’eau, literally “water games,” is a piece dedicated to Gabriel Fauré, Ravel’s teacher at the time. The piece is meant to reflect the sounds water makes as it cascades, splashes, and bubbles through brooks. Ravel included the quote “Dieu fluvial riant de l’eau qui le chatouille…” on the manuscript, from Régnier’s Cité des eaux, a volume of poems. Roughly, that translates to “River god laughing as the water tickles him…”