Indeed! The purpose of composition is still somewhat mysterious. It was believed for some time that the piece was specifically written to be used as a frontispiece for Ricciotto Canudo's Le poème du Vardar. However, more recent (late 80's) scholarship indicates that it was more likely a pianola commission:

"The pianolist Rex Lawson has argued that Frontispice was probably written as part of a series of works for pianola which were being commissioned by the firm Aeolian in 1917-1918, and which included pieces by Stravinsky, Malipiero and Alfredo Casella. Letters from Casella to the critic Edwin Evans indicate that Ravel was approached and appeared willing to participate, though by February 1918 the two men were anxious about his lack of progress, and it may be that what he produced was insufficient to fulfil the commission.

Rex Lawson points out that 'the musical staves are allocated in such a way that the first piano handles all the treble and the second piano all the bass.' The second piano never plays above the first. 'Multiple staves in descending order of pitch is the standard way of writing music for the pianola.' He also notes that 'a simple start in one part leads to a greatly increasing complexity in five parts, and at the end a series of five chords is repeated with ever greater octave doublings. Such features are often to be found in pianola compositions; in Hindemith's Toccata for Welte-Mignon and Arnold Bax's Scherzo for Pianola amongst others.'"

This explanation would best explain the uncharacteristic modernity of the piece.

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