The intro to Jeux d'eau contains the undulating phrases constant throughout the piece.

Jeux d’eau is a piece for solo piano by the French Impressionistic composer, Maurice Ravel. The title often translates to “Fountains”, “Water Games”, and “Playing water” (See Jeux d'eau, water features in gardens.) The piece, a virtuosic tone-poem, is inspired by Franz Liszt (Jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este), and also as Ravel explained: Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 241 pixel Image in higher resolution (1004 × 303 pixel, file size: 36 KB, MIME type: image/png) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Jeux deau... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 241 pixel Image in higher resolution (1004 × 303 pixel, file size: 36 KB, MIME type: image/png) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Jeux deau... A short grand piano, with the top up. ... See also Impressionist (entertainment): A girl with a watering can by Renoir, 1876 Impressionism was a 19th century art movement, which began as a private association of Paris-based artists who exhibited publicly in 1874. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Maurice Ravel in 1912. ... Jeux deau (Italian giochi daqua) 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. ... Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc; the surname is pronounced as the English word list, that is ) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer of the Romantic period. ... Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) are three suites by Franz Liszt for solo piano. ...

Jeux d’eau, appearing in 1901, is at the origin of the pianistic novelities which one would notice in my work. This piece, inspired by the noise of water and by the musical sounds which make one hear the sprays water, the cascades, and the brooks, is based on to motives in the manner of the movement of a sonata—without, however, subjecting itself to the classical tonal plan. 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

This work is considered one of the first examples of "musical impressionism" among Ravel's compositions. At the time of writing this work, Ravel was a student under Gabriel Fauré to whom it is dedicated. Ricardo Viñes was the first to publicly perform the work in 1902, although it had been privately performed for the Apaches previously. Written on the manuscript by Ravel, and often included on published editions, is "Dieu fluvial riant de l'eau qui le chatouille... / Henri de Régnier" which in English editions is translated to "River god laughing as the water tickles him..."; this quote is from Régnier's Cité des eaux as a note that the piece is to be played lightly. To one performer who played the piece too slowly, Ravel said her waterfalls sounded sad. Gabriel Urbain Fauré (May 12, 1845 – November 4, 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist, and teacher. ... Ricardo Viñes (5 February 1876 – 29 April 1943) was a Spanish pianist famous because of debuting many works by Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy. ... 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Apaches (Les Apaches or Societe des Apaches) was a group of French musicians, writers and artists which formed around 1900. ... Henri de Régnier (1864–1936) was a French symbolist poet considered the foremost of France during the early 20th century. ...