Maurice Ravel’s orchestral suite Le Tombeau de Couperin was premiered in Paris on this day in 1920. It had started out as a suite of solo piano pieces, intended as a tribute to great French Baroque composer François Couperin — or, as Ravel wrote, “not so much to Couperin himself, as to 18th-century French music in general.”

Although the French word “tombeau” translates literally as “tomb,” it also signifies a musical piece paying tribute to a past master, in the English sense of “in memoriam.” In that spirit, Ravel dedicated each movement of his suite to friends of his killed during World War I.

Although the “tombeau” as a musical form has been associated almost exclusively with French composers, one contemporary American composer has used the form as well, albeit with more wickedly satirical intent. Michael Daugherty’s Tombeau de Liberace jokingly references the pianist and showman, a kitschy icon of 20th century American pop culture.

Michael Daugherty said, “Starting from the vernacular idiom, I have composed Le Tombeau de Liberace as a meditation on the American sublime: a lexicon of forbidden music. It is a piano concertino in four movements, each creating a distinct Liberace atmosphere.”

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): Le Tombeau de Couperin; St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; Hugh Wolff, conductor; Teldec 74006