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Daphnis et Chloé
 
 
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Daphnis et Chloé is a ballet
Ballet

Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, the origins of which date lay in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form....
 with music by Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel

Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer and pianist of Impressionist music known especially for the subtlety, richness, and poignancy of his melodies, orchestral and instrumental Texture and effects....
. Ravel described it as a "symphonie choréographique" (choreographic symphony). The scenario was adapted by Michel Fokine
Michel Fokine

Michel Fokine was a groundbreaking Russian choreography and dance.He was born in Saint Petersburg, as son of a prosperous, middle-class merchant and at the age of 9, he was accepted into the Saint Petersburg Vaganova Ballet Academy....
 from an eponymous romance
Daphnis and Chloe

Daphnis and Chloe is the only known work of the 2nd century AD Greece novelist and romance r Longus....
 by the Greek
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 writer Longus
Longus

Longus, sometimes Longos , was a Greece novelist and romance r, and author of Daphnis and Chloe. Very little is known of his life, and it is assumed that he lived on the isle of Lesbos during the 2nd century AD...
 thought to date from around the 3rd century AD. Scott Goddard published a contemporary commentary that discussed the changes to the story that Fokine made to prepare a workable ballet scenario.






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Daphnis et Chloé is a ballet
Ballet

Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, the origins of which date lay in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form....
 with music by Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel

Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer and pianist of Impressionist music known especially for the subtlety, richness, and poignancy of his melodies, orchestral and instrumental Texture and effects....
. Ravel described it as a "symphonie choréographique" (choreographic symphony). The scenario was adapted by Michel Fokine
Michel Fokine

Michel Fokine was a groundbreaking Russian choreography and dance.He was born in Saint Petersburg, as son of a prosperous, middle-class merchant and at the age of 9, he was accepted into the Saint Petersburg Vaganova Ballet Academy....
 from an eponymous romance
Daphnis and Chloe

Daphnis and Chloe is the only known work of the 2nd century AD Greece novelist and romance r Longus....
 by the Greek
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 writer Longus
Longus

Longus, sometimes Longos , was a Greece novelist and romance r, and author of Daphnis and Chloe. Very little is known of his life, and it is assumed that he lived on the isle of Lesbos during the 2nd century AD...
 thought to date from around the 3rd century AD. Scott Goddard published a contemporary commentary that discussed the changes to the story that Fokine made to prepare a workable ballet scenario. The story concerns the love between the goatherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloé. The ballet is in one act and three scenes.

Ravel began work on the score in 1909 after a commission from Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Diaghilev

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev , also referred to as Serge, was a Russian people art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes from which many famous dancers and choreographers would later arise....
. It was premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet
Théâtre du Châtelet

The Th??tre du Ch?telet is a theatre and opera house in Paris, France. One of two theatres built on the site of a ch?telet, a small castle or fortress, it was designed by Gabriel Davioud at the request of Baron Haussmann between 1860 and 1862....
 in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 by his Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes

The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company which performed under the directorship of Sergei Diaghilev between 1909 and 1929. Some of their places of residence included the Th??tre Mogador and the Th??tre du Ch?telet, though they worked in many countries, including England, the U.S.A., and Spain....
 on June 8, 1912. The orchestra was conducted
Conducting

Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors....
 by Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux

Pierre Monteux was an orchestra conducting. Born in Paris, France, rue de la Grange Bateli?re. Monteux later became an American citizen....
, the choreography
Choreography

Choreography , is the art of making structures in which movement occurs. The term dance composition may also refer to the navigation or connection of these movement structures....
 was by Michel Fokine
Michel Fokine

Michel Fokine was a groundbreaking Russian choreography and dance.He was born in Saint Petersburg, as son of a prosperous, middle-class merchant and at the age of 9, he was accepted into the Saint Petersburg Vaganova Ballet Academy....
, and Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky

Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent. Nijinsky was one of the most gifted male dancers in history, and he grew to be celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations....
 danced the part of Daphnis. Léon Bakst
Léon Bakst

L?on Samoilovitch Bakst was a Russian Painting and scene- and costume designer who revolutionized the arts he worked in. Born as Lev Rosenberg, he was also known as Leon Nikolayevich Bakst ....
 designed the original sets.

The work is written for a large orchestra consisting of piccolo
Piccolo

The piccolo is a small flute. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger component, the flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written....
, 2 flute
Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge....
s (2nd flute also doubling piccolo), alto flute
Alto flute

The alto flute is a type of Western concert flute, a musical instrument in the woodwind family. It is the next extension downward of the Western concert flute after the fl?te d'amour....
, 2 oboe
Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy"....
s, English horn, E-flat clarinet
E-flat clarinet

The E-flat clarinet is a member of the clarinet family. It is usually classed as a soprano clarinet, although some authors describe it as a "sopranino" or even "piccolo" clarinet....
, 2 clarinet
Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
s, bass clarinet
Bass clarinet

The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common Soprano clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet....
, 3 bassoon
Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the Bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher....
s, contrabassoon
Contrabassoon

The contrabassoon is a larger version of the bassoon sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences....
, 4 horns
Horn (instrument)

The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. It is descended from the natural horn and is informally known as the French horn....
, 4 trumpet
Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
s, 3 trombone
Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass instrument family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player?s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate....
s, tuba
Tuba

The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped Mouthpiece ....
, timpani
Timpani

Timpani are musical instruments in the percussion instrument family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a drumhead stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass....
, tam-tam, wind machine
Wind machine

The wind machine is a specialist musical instrument used to produce the sound of wind. One type uses an electric fan with wooden slats added to produce the required sound....
, triangle
Triangle

A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or wikt:vertex and three sides or edges which are line segments....
, bass drum
Bass drum

A bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch . There are three general classifications of bass drums: the concert bass drum, the kick' drum, and the pitched bass drum....
, field drum, castanets, tambourine
Tambourine

The tambourine or Marine is a musical instrument of the Percussion instrument family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils"....
, celesta
Celesta

The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard instrument. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box ....
, crotales
Crotales

Crotales , sometimes called antique cymbals, are percussion instruments consisting of small, Tuned percussion bronze or brass disks. Each is about 4 inches in diameter with a flat top surface and a nipple on the base....
, glockenspiel
Glockenspiel

File:Glockenspiel-malletech.jpgFile:GlockenspielSousaphone.jpgThe glockenspiel is a musical instrument in the percussion instrument family....
, 2 harps
Harps

Harps is the plural of harp, a stringed musical instrument.Harps can also refer to:*Harps GAA, an Irish sports club* High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, a spectrograph used for research in astronomy....
, wordless choir
Choir

A choir, chorale, or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral Music, in turn, is the music written specifically for a choir to perform....
 and strings in eight parts. When Diaghilev took the ballet to London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 in 1914, he omitted the chorus, which prompted Ravel to send an angry letter to The Times
The Times

The Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register.The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of News International....
 newspaper (see editions of June 9, 10 and 17).

At almost an hour long, Daphnis et Chloé is Ravel's longest work. In spite of the ballet's time length, a small number of musical motifs gives musical unity to the score. The music, some of the composer's most passionate, is widely regarded as some of Ravel's best, with extraordinarily lush harmonies typical of the impressionist
Impressionist music

The impressionist movement in music was a movement in European classical music, mainly in France, that began in the late nineteenth century and continued into the middle of the twentieth century....
 movement in music. Even during the composer's lifetime, contemporary commentators described this ballet as his masterpiece for orchestra. He extracted music from the ballet to make two orchestral suites, without the chorus. The second of the orchestral suites, which includes much of the last part of the ballet and concludes with the "Danse generale", is particularly popular. When the complete work is itself performed live, it is more often in concerts than in staged productions.