Empress of the Pagodas

The Mother Goose Suite was originally written by Ravel as a piano duet for a friend's children and later orchestrated in his magical style. Empress of the Pagodas is the third of five "pieces enfantines" (children's pieces). The pentatonic character lends itself well to the string orchestra. Tremolandos, subtle dynamics, and parallelism abound to capture the spirit of impressionistic music.