Maurice Ravel

Pavane pour une infante défunte

Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) is a well-known piece written for solo piano by Maurice Ravel in 1899 when he was studying composition at the Conservatoire de Paris under Gabriel Fauré. In 1910, Ravel also published an orchestrated version of this work. The 'pavane' was a slow processional dance that enjoyed great popularity in the courts of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ravel described 'his' pavane as 'an evocation of a pavane that a little princess (infant) might, in former times, have danced at the Spanish court'.