Poe and Ravel: mécanisme intérieur

Helyard, Erin

doi:https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2017.6

Helyard, Erin

Contemporary French Civilization (2017), 42, (1), 97–111.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2017.6
Language: English
Pages: 15

Abstract

Time and time again, when asked in interviews about the greatest influences on his compositions, Maurice Ravel would answer that “[q]uant à la technique, mon maître, c’est certainement Edgar Poe.” For the student of Poe, his “Philosophy of Composition,” which purports to analyze The Raven, is central to an understanding of his aesthetic theory and Ravel would have come across both works in French in the celebrated 1857 edition of Charles Baudelaire. For the student of Maurice Ravel, his deliberately repeated statement that Poe’s analysis of The Raven was so important to his compositional method thus appears as a deliberate invitation on the part of the composer, tempting all who wish to understand Ravel into perusing Baudelaire’s rendering of the essay for secrets of his craft. But is Ravel leading us astray? This article better contextualizes the reception the American poet received in France and attempts to understand Ravel’s commentary in reference to his compositional method and contemporary notions of dandyism. Is Ravel’s indebtedness to Poe’s “The Philosophy of Composition” a cultural by-product of an overwhelmingly fashionable author, an empty or quasi-empty cipher contrived by Ravel to mischievously deceive us, or is there a real and substantial resonance between Ravel’s and Poe’s “mecanisme intérieur,” to use Baudelaire’s description of Poe’s method?

Maintes et maintes fois, lorsque questionné en entrevue à propos des figures qui avaient eu la plus grande influence sur ses compositions, Maurice Ravel répondait : “[q]uant à la technique, mon maître, c’est certainement Edgar Poe.” Pour celui qui étudia l’œuvre de Poe, la lecture de “La genèse d’un poème”, qui présente une analyse du Corbeau, fut centrale à sa compréhension des théories esthétiques de l’auteur. Les deux œuvres ont pu être appréhendées par Ravel à travers la célèbre traduction en français de Charles Baudelaire de 1857. Pour celui qui étudie l’oeuvre de Maurice Ravel, les affirmations répétées de l’importance de l’analyse du poème Le Corbeau dans ses méthodes de composition apparaissent donc comme une invitation délibérée du compositeur à lire la version de Baudelaire des textes de Poe pour y découvrir les secrets de son travail. Mais Ravel cherchait-il plutôt à confondre? Le présent essai met en contexte la réception de l’oeuvre du poète américain en France et tente de comprendre les commentaires de Ravel en lien avec sa méthode de composition ainsi que la notion contemporaine de dandysme. La redevabilité de Ravel envers La genèse d’un poème est-elle un dérivé culturel de l’oeuvre d’un auteur alors immensément à la mode, un cryptogramme vide ou presque vide conçu malicieusement par Ravel afin de décevoir, ou y a-t-il des résonances réelles et substantielles entre le ‘’mécanismes intérieurs’’ de Ravel et de Poe, pour reprendre la formule de Baudelaire?

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Helyard, Erin

Contemporary French Civilization