Empress of the Pagodas (Ravel)

by Christopher Retschulte

Medium Concert Percussion

11 Players

Instrumentation: 

• Chimes
• Crotales (lower octave)
• Glockenspiel
• Xylophone
• Vibraphones
• 2 Marimbas — (1) low A, (1) 5-octave
• 4 Timpani
• Drums — concert bass drum (dampened with towel)
• Cymbals and gongs — tam-tam
• Accessories — slapstick, tambourine (dark preferred), 6” triangle, 9” triangle, temple/granite blocks (5), mark tree, sleigh bells

Empress of the Pagodas by Christopher Retschulte is a medium-level arrangement for 11 players, drawn from the third movement of Maurice Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. Inspired by the original work’s blend of fairy-tale imagery and Eastern-inflected color, this version dutifully translates Ravel’s vivid orchestral palette into an idiomatic percussion setting.

The arrangement preserves the playful character of the original while keeping the instrumentation practical for many high school or university ensembles. Shared keyboard lines and thoughtfully distributed accessory writing help to create a musically rich, narrative-leaning work that balances accessibility with artistry—a welcome opportunity to explore Ravel’s sound in a new way.

This piece ships as a fully bound score. Individual parts come exclusively in PDF format.