Maurice Ravel was not only known for being sophisticated and original, but also for possessing many of the characteristics of a child. Childless and unwed, he would move to the children's nursery to play on the floor with toys when bored at adult parties. In his own world of sensibility and imagination, Ravel was fascinated by the mysticism of childhood.

While busy transcribing a few of Debussy's works and composing his own Daphnis and Chloé, Ravel attempted to capture the freshness of perception and innocence of children in the five movements of Ma mere l'oye (Mother Goose). With adoration, Ravel composed the four-hand piano suite, between 1908 and 1910, for his two very young friends Mimie and Jean, children of his friends Cyprian and Ida Godebski. Based upon fairy tales Ravel used to tell the children, by authors such as Perrault, d'Aulony, and de Beaumont, the suite was first performed by Jeanne Leleu and Genevieve Durony (both were under the age of ten), as part of the inaugural concert of the Société Musicale Indépéndante at the Salle Gaveau, in Paris, on April 20, 1910. At the same time, Fauré's Chanson d'Eve and Debussy's D'un cahier d'esquisses (played by Ravel) also received their first performances. The work was so well-received that after Ravel's publisher Durand saw the work's orchestral promise and Jacques Rouché saw the choreographic potential, Ravel was commissioned to orchestrate the suite into a ballet under the same title. By adding a prelude, an extra scene, and an interlude, this piano piece became one of Ravel's most playful works for the orchestra.

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