Tzigane

Tzigane is a rhapsodic composition by the French composer Maurice Ravel featuring a virtuosic violin part. The original instrumentation was for violin and piano (with optional luthéal attachment). The first performance took place in London on 26 April 1924 with the dedicatee, Jelly d'Arányi, on the violin and Henri Gil-Marchex at the piano. In his biographical sketch of 1928 Ravel termed it a rapsodie de concert, as "a virtuoso piece in the style of a Hungarian rhapsody". It consists of "a string of successive variations juxtaposed without development".

==Background== In the early 1920s, Ravel had been planning a piece for violin and piano for his closest female friend, Hélène Jourdan-Morhange. Around the same time Ravel became acquainted with Hungarian violinist d'Arányi when she played his Sonata for Violin and Cello with Hans Kindler in London at a private soirée, and afterwards regaled the composer with a selection of folk-tunes from her country until 5 in the morning. In the ensuing two years Jourdan-Morhange retired from playing due to a chronic illness. Ravel put aside the sonata he had intended for Jourdan-Morhange and was inspired to write a virtuoso piece that "could not be anything but Hungarian". During composition, Ravel consulted with both Jourdan-Morhange and d'Arányi on the violin figuration, studied the Paganini Caprices, and studied Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies that were supplied to him by Lucien Garban. It is dedicated to Jelly d'Arányi.