Dedicated to Gabriel Faure, Ravel prefaces this piece of "liquid poetry" with a line by Henri de Regnier: "The river god laughs at the water as it tickles him." Ravel indicated that he wanted the work "played in the way you play Liszt," and the technique required to play it hearkens to Franz Liszt, but the sonorities and transparency are definitely impressionistic. Polytonality, rippling arpeggios, tremolos, trills, double notes, major seconds, sevenths, ninths and other high-numbered chords are featured.
