Jeux d'eau

Jeux d'Eau (Italian giochi d'acqua) or "water games", is an umbrella term in the history of gardens for the "water features" that were introduced into mid-16th century Mannerist Italian gardens. Pools and fountains had been a feature from Roman times, but hydraulic engineers first took full advantage of characteristic sloping sites of villas in the hills surrounding Lazio, where there was copious available water. Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola's catene d'aqua (water chains) and water stairs, fountains, cascades, jets, pools and canals at Villa Farnese at Caprarola and Villa Lante at Bagnaia led the way. At Villa Lante a rill of water flows down the center of a stone picnic table.

French 16th-century gardens in the Ile-de-France were generally in flat terrain that did not lend itself to elaborate jeux d'eau. Fountains, bassins (pools in raised basins) and canals were more typical of French water features. For the jeux d'eau at Versailles, a watermill-driven pumping station (the machine de Marly, at the time being the most powerful machine in Europe) and elaborate aqueducts had to be constructed to bring water from many kilometers away.

Jeux d'eau (Ravel)

Jeux d’eau (pronounced: [ʒø do]) is a piece for solo piano by Maurice Ravel. The title is often translated as "Fountains," "Playing water" or literally "Water Games" (see Jeux d'eau, water features in gardens). At the time of writing Jeux d'eau, Ravel was a student of Gabriel Fauré, to whom the piece is dedicated. Pianist Ricardo Viñes was the first to publicly perform the work in 1902, although it had been privately performed for Les Apaches previously.

The piece was inspired by Franz Liszt's piece Les jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este (from the 3ème année of his Années de pèlerinage), and Ravel explained its origins in this way:

Written on the manuscript by Ravel, and often included on published editions, is the text "Dieu fluvial riant de l'eau qui le chatouille..." a quote from Henri de Régnier's Cité des eaux, which in English editions is sometimes translated to "River god laughing as the water tickles him...".

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