Ravel: Trois Chansons (3 Songs)(inc.3 Lovely Birds of Paradise) -wind quartet

Ravel: Trois Chansons (Three Songs) (includes Three Lovely Birds of Paradise) arr.wind quartet
 
Original written for 4 part choir, these 3 pieces suit the wind quartet.
Something different: very atmospheric music.
Note: Movt.III.Ronde: I have set the tempo at 120: a more comfortable ( and less rushed) tempo for wind players. The original is 132.
 
These songs for unaccompanied chorus were written between December 1914 (Trois beaux oiseaux) and February 1915 (Nicolette and Ronde), while Ravel was waiting to be enlisted in the army.
The songs were published in 1916, but did not receive their first performance until October 1917 with a chorus assembled by Jane Bathori and her husband.
 
The three songs are set out in the order in which the composer asked them to be published:
1. Nicolette (dedicated to the poet and fellow-Apache Tristan Klingsor)
 
2. Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis (dedicated to Paul Painlevé, mathematician and briefly prime minister in 1917 and 1925)
 
3. Ronde (dedicated to Mme Paul Clemenceau, sister-in-law of the past and future prime minister Georges Clemenceau)