Trois Beaux Oiseaux du Paradis (score & parts) - WW5

Trois Beaux Oiseaux du Paradis
Three Beautiful Birds of Paradise
for woodwind quintet
by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) - French composer

Transcribed by D. Wilson Ochoa. This piece was originally a choral work, the second of three chansons Ravel set to music based on a poem from World War I. The music closely follows the story:

A young girl is visited by three birds (from paradise) and she inquired of them for news about her love, who is a soldier fighting on the battlefields on World War I. The haunting oboe melody that keeps returning is the call of the young girl. The first two birds (flute at #1, and the clarinet and bassoon after #2) tell her of the heroic deeds of her love, but the third bird (horn at #4) brings news of his death in battle. The young girl is heartbroken.