'Ma Mére l'Oye' (Mother Goose) was written (first the 'Pavane' in 1908, then the other movements 1910, orchestration 1911) for the children of Ida and Cyprien Godebski, among Ravel's closest friends at the time. This work takes its themes from classic French retellings of traditional tales, and constitutes an intensely moving 'adult' version of the well-known children's stories.