Eternity in Each Moment

Abstract

This paper suggests that Ravel’s “Le Gibet” fromGaspard de la nuit(1909) features temporal and formal innovations that anticipate those found in Debussy’sJeux(1913) and Stravinsky’sSymphonies of Wind Instruments(1920). The analysis combines voice-leading techniques with Stockhausen’s notion of “moment form” (further developed by Jonathan Kramer), revealing multiply directed temporal strategies that assert points of stasis, nonlinearity, continuity, and discontinuity. In the poem by Aloysius Bertrand that inspired Ravel’s music, the poetic devices typical of French Romanticism contrast with Ravel’s distinctly modern approach to musical temporality, which explores both durational and spatial models of time.