Description
Originally the sheet music composed as En forme de Habanera, a Vocalise etude en forme de Habanera for bass voice and piano in 1907. A song without words, Ravel took as his model the slow, sultry Spanish dance called the Habanera -- like most French composers of the period, Ravel was fascinated by the music of Spain -- and used it as the basis of a blindingly difficult virtuoso exercise for the bass voice. Ravel later transcribed the work for various instruments including the saxophone.