| name | Maurice Ravel |
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| birth name | Joseph Maurice Ravel |
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| birth date | March 07, 1875 |
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| birth place | Ciboure, France |
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| death date | December 28, 1937 |
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| death place | Paris, France |
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| resting place | Levallois-Perret |
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| nationality | French |
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| occupation | Composer |
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| partner | None |
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| relatives | Marie Delouart, Joseph Ravel
}} |
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Joseph-Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875December 28, 1937) was a
French composer known especially for his
melodies, orchestral and instrumental
textures and effects. Much of his
piano music,
chamber music,
vocal music and
orchestral music has entered the standard concert repertoire.
Ravel's piano compositions, such as ''Jeux d'eau'', ''Miroirs'', ''Le tombeau de Couperin'' and ''Gaspard de la nuit'', demand considerable virtuosity from the performer, and his orchestral music, including ''Daphnis et Chloé'' and his arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's ''Pictures at an Exhibition'', uses a variety of sound and instrumentation.
Ravel is perhaps known best for his orchestral work ''Boléro'' (1928), which he considered trivial and once described as "a piece for orchestra without music".
According to SACEM, Ravel's estate earns more royalties than that of any other French composer. According to the law of most countries (including all members of the World Trade Organization), Ravel's works have been in the public domain since January 1, 2008, in most countries.
Biography
Early life
Ravel was born in the
Basque town of
Ciboure, France, near
Biarritz, close to the border with Spain, in 1875. His mother, Marie Delouart, was of
Basque descent and grew up in
Madrid, Spain, while his father, Joseph Ravel, was a Swiss inventor and
industrialist from French
Haute-Savoie. Both were Catholics and they provided a happy and stimulating household for their children. Some of Joseph's inventions were quite important, including an early
internal-combustion engine and a notorious
circus machine, the "Whirlwind of Death", an automotive
loop-the-loop that was quite a success until a fatal accident at the
Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1903. Joseph delighted in taking his sons to factories to see the latest mechanical devices, and he also had a keen interest in music and culture. Ravel substantiated his father's early influence by stating later, “As a child, I was sensitive to music—to every kind of music.”
Ravel was very fond of his mother, and her Basque-Spanish heritage was a strong influence on his life and music. Among his earliest memories are folk songs she sang to him. The family moved to Paris three months after the birth of Maurice, and there his younger brother Édouard was born. Édouard became his father’s favorite and also became an engineer.
Though obviously talented at the piano, Ravel demonstrated a preference for composing. He was particularly impressed by the new Russian works conducted by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Exposition Universelle in 1889. The foreign music at the exhibition also had a great influence on Ravel’s contemporaries Erik Satie, Emmanuel Chabrier, and most significantly Claude Debussy. That year Ravel also met Ricardo Viñes, who would become one of his best friends, one of the foremost interpreters of his piano music, and an important link between Ravel and Spanish music. The students shared an appreciation for Richard Wagner, the Russian school, and the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and Stéphane Mallarmé.
The Conservatoire and early career
Ravel’s parents encouraged his musical pursuits and sent him to the
Conservatoire de Paris, first as a preparatory student and eventually as a piano major. His teachers included
Émile Descombes. He received a first prize in the piano student competition in 1891. Overall, however, he was not successful academically even as his musicianship matured dramatically. Considered “very gifted”, Ravel was also called “somewhat heedless” in his studies. He dressed like a
dandy and was meticulous about his appearance and demeanor. Short in stature, light in frame, and bony in features, Ravel had the "appearance of a well-dressed jockey". His large head seemed suitably matched to his great intellect. He was well-read and later accumulated a library of over 1,000 volumes.
After failing to meet the requirement of earning a competitive medal in three consecutive years, Ravel was expelled in 1895. He turned down a music professorship in Tunisia then returned to the Conservatoire in 1898 and started his studies with Gabriel Fauré, determined to focus on composing rather than piano playing. He studied composition with Fauré until he was dismissed from the class in 1900 for having won neither the fugue nor the composition prize. He remained an auditor with Fauré until he left the Conservatoire in 1903. Ravel found his teacher’s personality and methods sympathetic and they remained friends and colleagues. He also undertook private studies with André Gedalge, whom he later stated was responsible for "the most valuable elements of my technique." Ravel studied the ability of each instrument carefully in order to determine the possible effects, and was sensitive to their color and timbre. This may account for his success as an orchestrator and as a transcriber of his own piano works and those of other composers, such as Mussorgsky, Debussy and Schumann.
His first significant work, ''Habanera'' for two pianos, was later transcribed into the well-known third movement of his ''Rapsodie espagnole'', which he dedicated to Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot, another of his professors at the Conservatoire. His first published work was ''Menuet antique'', dedicated to and premiered by Viñes. In 1899, Ravel conducted his first orchestral piece, ''Shéhérazade'', and was greeted by a raucous mixture of boos and applause. Critics termed the piece "a jolting debut: a clumsy plagiarism of the Russian School" and called Ravel a “mediocrely gifted debutante ... who will perhaps become something if not someone in about ten years, if he works hard.”
As the most gifted composer of his class and as a leader, with Debussy, of avant-garde French music, Ravel would continue to have a difficult time with the critics for some time to come.
Around 1900, Ravel joined with a number of innovative young artists, poets, critics, and musicians who were referred to as the ''Apaches'' (hooligans), a name coined by Viñes to represent his band of "artistic outcasts". The group met regularly until the beginning of World War I and the members often inspired each other with intellectual argument and performances of their works before the group. For a time, the influential group included Igor Stravinsky and Manuel de Falla. One of the first works Ravel performed for the Apaches was ''Jeux d'eau'', his first piano masterpiece and clearly a pathfinding impressionistic work. Viñes performed the public premiere of this piece and Ravel's other early masterpiece ''Pavane pour une infante défunte'' in 1902.
During his years at the Conservatoire, Ravel tried numerous times to win the prestigious Prix de Rome, but to no avail; he was probably considered too radical by the conservatives, including Director Théodore Dubois. One of Ravel's submitted pieces, the String Quartet in F, probably modeled on Debussy’s Quartet (1893), is now a standard work of chamber music, though at the time it was criticized and found lacking academically. In 1905, Ravel's final year of eligibility for the Prix de Rome, Ravel did not even pass the preliminary test, despite being favored to win one of the two first prizes available. Instead, all six selected finalists were students of Charles Lenepveu, a member of the jury and heir apparent of Dubois as director of the Conservatoire. The scandal – named the "Ravel Affair" by the Parisian press – engaged the entire artistic community, pitting conservatives against the avant-garde, and eventually caused the resignation of Dubois and his replacement by Fauré instead of Lenepveu, a vindication of sorts for Ravel. Alfred Edwards, editor of Le Matin, who had taken particular interest in the incident, took Ravel on a seven-week canal trip on his yacht ''Aimée'' through the Low Countries in June and July 1905, the first time Ravel traveled abroad. Though deprived of the opportunity to study in Rome, the decade after the scandal proved to be Ravel's most productive, and included his "Spanish period".
Ravel and Debussy
Ravel met Debussy in the 1890s. Debussy was older than Ravel by some twelve years and his pioneering ''
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune'' was influential among the younger musicians including Ravel, who were impressed by the new language of impressionism. In 1900, Ravel was invited to Debussy’s home and they played each other’s works. Viñes became the preferred piano performer for both composers and a go-between. The two composers attended many of the same musical events and were performed at the same concerts. Ravel and the Apaches were strong supporters of Debussy’s controversial public debut of his unconventional opera ''
Pelléas et Mélisande'', which garnered Debussy both fame and scorn. Even though they worked independently of one another, because they employed differing means to similar ends, and because superficial similarities and even some more substantive ones are evident, the public and the critics associated them more than the facts warranted.
Ravel wrote that Debussy’s “genius was obviously one of great individuality, creating its own laws, constantly in evolution, expressing itself freely, yet always faithful to French tradition. For Debussy, the musician and the man, I have had profound admiration, but by nature I am different from Debussy.” Ravel further stated, “I think I have always personally followed a direction opposed to that of the symbolism of Debussy.” As Ravel said, “It is probably better after all for us to be on frigid terms for illogical reasons.”
Early major works
The next of Ravel’s piano compositions to become famous was ''
Miroirs'' (Mirrors, 1905), five piano pieces which marked a “
harmonic evolution” and which one commentator described as “intensely descriptive and pictorial. They banish all sentiment in expression but offer to the listener a number of refined sensory elements which can be appreciated according to his imagination.” Next was his ''Histoires naturelles'' (Nature Stories), five humorous songs evoking the presence of five animals. Two years later, Ravel completed his ''
Rapsodie espagnole'', his first major "Spanish" piece, written first for piano four hands and then scored for orchestra. Though it employs folk-like melodies, no actual folk songs are quoted. It premiered in 1908 to generally good reviews, with one critic stating that it was "one of the most interesting novelties of the season", while Pierre Lalo (as usual) reacted negatively, calling it "laborious and pedantic". Next followed Ravel's music for the opera ''
L'heure espagnole'' (The Spanish Hour), full of humor and rich in color, employing a wide variety of instruments and their characteristic qualities, including the
trombone,
sarrusophone,
tuba,
celesta,
xylophone, and
bells. The libretto was by
Franc-Nohain, after his own comedy of the same name.
Ravel further extended his mastery of impressionistic piano music with ''Gaspard de la nuit'', based on a collection by the same name by Aloysius Bertrand, with some influence from the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, particularly in the second part. Viñes, as usual, performed the premiere but his performance displeased Ravel, and their relationship became strained from then on. For future premieres, Ravel replaced Viñes with Marguerite Long. Also unhappy with the conservative musical establishment which was discouraging performance of new music, around this time Ravel, Fauré, and some of his pupils formed the Société musicale indépendante (SMI). In 1910, the society presented the premiere of Ravel’s ''Ma mère l'oye'' (Mother Goose) in its original piano duet version. With this work, Ravel followed in the tradition of Schumann, Mussorgsky, and Debussy, who also created memorable works of childhood themes. In 1912, Ravel's ''Ma mère l'oye'' was performed as a ballet (with added music) after being first transcribed from piano to orchestra. Looking to expand his contacts and career, Ravel made his first foreign tours to England and Scotland during 1909 and 1911.
''Daphnis et Chloé''
Ravel began work with impresario
Sergei Diaghilev during 1909 for the ballet ''
Daphnis et Chloé'' commissioned by Diaghilev with the lead danced by the famous ballet dancer and choreographer
Vaslav Nijinsky. Diaghilev had taken Paris by storm the previous year in his Parisian opera debut, ''
Boris Godunov''. In frustration, Diaghilev nearly cancelled the project. The ballet had an unenthusiastic reception and lasted only two performances, only to be revived to acclaim a year later.
Igor Stravinsky called ''Daphnis et Chloé'' "one of the most beautiful products of all French music" and author Burnett James claims that it is "Ravel's most impressive single achievement, as it is his most opulent and confident orchestral score". The work is notable for its rhythmic diversity, lyricism, and evocations of nature. The score utilizes a large orchestra and two
choruses, one onstage and one offstage. So exhausting was the effort to score the ballet that Ravel's health deteriorated, with a diagnosis of
neurasthenia soon forcing him to rest for several months. During 1914, just as World War I began, Ravel composed his
Piano Trio (for piano, violin, and cello) with its Basque themes. The piece, difficult to play well, is considered a masterpiece among trio works.
War years
Although he considered his small stature and light weight an advantage to becoming an aviator, and he tried every means of securing service as a
flyer, during the First World War Ravel was not allowed to enlist as a pilot because of his age and weak health. Instead, he became a truck driver stationed at the
Verdun front. At one point Ravel's unit engaged a German unit that included a young
Adolf Hitler. With his mother’s death in 1917, his fondest relationship ended and he fell into a “horrible despair”, adding to his ill health and the general gloom over the suffering endured by the people of his country during the war. However, during the war years, Ravel did manage some compositions, including one of his most popular works, ''
Le tombeau de Couperin'', a commemoration of the musical ideals of
François Couperin, the early 18th-century composer, which premiered in 1919. Each movement is dedicated to a friend of Ravel's who died in the war, with the final movement dedicated to the deceased husband of Ravel’s favorite pianist Marguerite Long.
1920s
Around 1920, Diaghilev commissioned Ravel to write ''
La valse'' (The Waltz), originally named ''Wien'' (Vienna), which was to be used for a projected ballet. The piece, conceived many years earlier, became a
waltz with a
macabre undertone, famous for its “fantastic and fatal whirling”. However, it was rejected by Diaghilev as “not a ballet. It’s a portrait of ballet”. Ravel, hurt by the comment, ended the relationship. Subsequently, it became a popular concert work and when the two men met again in 1925, Ravel refused to shake Diaghilev's hand. Diaghilev challenged Ravel to a
duel, but friends persuaded Diaghilev to recant. The two never met again.
In 1920, the French government awarded Ravel the Légion d'honneur, but he refused it. The next year, he retired to the French countryside where he continued to write music, albeit even less prolifically, but in more tranquil surroundings. He returned regularly to Paris for performances and socializing, and increased his foreign concert tours. Ravel maintained his influential participation with the SMI which continued its active role of promoting new music, particularly of British and American composers such as Arnold Bax, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Aaron Copland, and Virgil Thomson. With Debussy’s death, Ravel became perceived popularly as the main composer of French classical music. As Fauré stated in a letter to Ravel in October 1922, “I am happier than you can imagine about the solid position which you occupy and which you have acquired so brilliantly and so rapidly. It is a source of joy and pride for your old professor.” In 1922, Ravel completed his ''Sonata for Violin and Cello''. Dedicated to Debussy’s memory, the work features the thinner texture popular with the younger postwar composers. Ravel was fully aware of this, and was mostly effective in preventing a serious breach between his generation of musicians and the younger group. These trends posed challenges for Ravel, always a slow and deliberate composer, who desired to keep his music relevant but still revered the past. This may have played a part in his declining output and longer composing time during the 1920s. Around this time, he also completed ''Chansons madécasses'', the summit of his vocal art.
In 1927, Ravel’s String Quartet received its first complete recording. By this time Ravel, like Edward Elgar, had become convinced of the importance of recording his works, especially with his input and direction. He made recordings nearly every year from then until his death. That same year, he completed and premiered his Sonata for Violin and Piano, his last chamber work, with its second movement (titled “Blues”) gaining much attention.
Ravel also served as a juror with Florence Meyer Blumenthal in awarding the Prix Blumenthal, a grant given between 1919 and 1954 to young French painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians.
American tour
After two months of planning, in 1928 Ravel made a four-month concert tour in North America, for a promised minimum of $10,000 The noted critic Olin Downes wrote, “Mr. Ravel has pursued his way as an artist quietly and very well. He has disdained superficial or meretricious effects. He has been his own most unsparing critic.” Ravel conducted most of the leading orchestras in the U.S. from coast to coast and visited twenty-five cities.
He also met the American composer George Gershwin in New York and went with him to hear jazz in Harlem, probably hearing some of the famous jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington. There is a story that when Gershwin met Ravel, he mentioned that he would like to study with the French composer. According to Gershwin, the Frenchman retorted, "Why do you want to become a second-rate Ravel when you are already a first-rate Gershwin?"
The second part of the story has Ravel asking Gershwin how much money he made. Upon hearing Gershwin's reply, Ravel suggested that maybe ''he'' should study with Gershwin. This tale may well be apocryphal: Gershwin seems also to have told a near-identical story about a conversation with Arnold Schoenberg, and some have claimed it was with Igor Stravinsky. (See George Gershwin.) In any event, this had to have been before Ravel wrote ''Boléro'', which became financially very successful for him.
Ravel then visited New Orleans and imbibed the jazz scene there as well. His admiration of jazz, increased by his American visit, caused him to include some jazz elements in a few of his later compositions, especially the two piano concertos. The great success of his American tour made Ravel famous internationally.
Final years
After returning to France, Ravel composed his most famous and controversial orchestral work ''
Boléro'', originally called ''Fandango''. Ravel called it “an experiment in a very special and limited direction”. He stated his idea for the piece, “I am going to try to repeat it a number of times on different orchestral levels but without any development.” He conceived of it as an accompaniment to a ballet and not as an orchestral piece as, in his own opinion, “it has no music in it”, and was somewhat taken aback by its popular success. Ravel made one of the few recordings of his own music when he conducted his ''Boléro'' with the
Lamoureux Orchestra in 1930.
Remarkably, Ravel composed both of his piano concertos simultaneously. He completed the Concerto for the Left Hand first. The work was commissioned by Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm during World War I. Ravel was inspired by the technical challenges of the project. As Ravel stated, “In a work of this kind, it is essential to give the impression of a texture no thinner than that of a part written for both hands.” At the premiere of the work, Ravel, not proficient enough to perform the work with only his left hand, played two-handed and Wittgenstein was reportedly underwhelmed by it. But later Wittgenstein stated, “Only much later, after I’d studied the concerto for months, did I become fascinated by it and realized what a great work it was.” In 1933, Wittgenstein played the work in concert for the first time to instant acclaim. Critic Henry Prunières wrote, “From the opening measures, we are plunged into a world in which Ravel has but rarely introduced us.” Ravel dedicated the work to his favorite pianist, Marguerite Long, who played it and popularized it across Europe in over twenty cities, and they recorded it together in 1932. EMI later reissued the 1932 recording on LP and CD. Although Ravel was listed as the conductor on the original 78-rpm discs, it is possible he merely supervised the recording.
Ravel, ever modest, was bemused by the critics' sudden favor of him since his American tour: “Didn’t I represent to the critics for a long time the most perfect example of insensitivity and lack of emotion?... And the successes they have given me in the past few years are just as unimportant.” However, afterwards he began to experience aphasia-like symptoms and was frequently absent-minded. He had begun work on music for a film, ''Adventures of Don Quixote'' (1933) from Miguel de Cervantes's celebrated novel, featuring the Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin and directed by G. W. Pabst. When Ravel became unable to compose, and could not write down the musical ideas he heard in his mind, Pabst hired Jacques Ibert. However, three songs for baritone and orchestra that Ravel composed for the film were later published under the title ''Don Quichotte a Dulcinée'', and have been performed and recorded.
This accords with an earlier article, published in a journal of neurology, that closely examines Ravel's clinical history and argues that his works ''Boléro'' and Piano Concerto for the Left Hand both indicate the impacts of neurological disease. This is contradicted somewhat, however, by the earlier cited comments by Ravel about how he created the deliberately repetitious theme for ''Boléro''.
In late 1937, Ravel consented to experimental brain surgery, evidently with some hesitation. On December 17, he entered a hospital in Paris, following the advice of the well-known neurosurgeon Clovis Vincent. Vincent assumed there was brain tumor, and on December 19 operated on Ravel. No tumor was found, but there was some shrinkage of the left hemisphere of his brain, which was re-inflated with serous fluid. When Ravel awoke from the anaesthesia, he asked for his brother, but quickly sank into a deep coma, from which he never awoke. He died on December 28, at the age of 62, in Paris.
Ravel's death was probably a result of the brain surgery, with the underlying cause arguably being a brain injury caused by the automobile accident in 1932, and not from a brain tumor as some believe. This confusion may arise because his friend George Gershwin had died from a brain tumor only five months earlier.
On December 30, 1937, Ravel was buried next to his parents in a granite tomb at the cemetery at Levallois-Perret, a suburb of northwest Paris.
Personal life
Ravel is not known to have had any intimate relationships, and his personal life, and especially his
sexuality, remains a mystery. Ravel made a remark at one time suggesting that because he was such a perfectionist composer, so devoted to his work, he could never have a lasting intimate relationship with anyone. However, according to close friend and student
Manuel Rosenthal, he asked violinist Hélène Jourdan-Mourhange to marry him, although she dismissed him, saying 'No, Maurice, I'm extremely fond of you, as you know, but only as a friend, and I couldn't possibly consider marrying you.' He is quoted as saying "The only love affair I have ever had was with music". Some of his friends suggested that Ravel frequented the
bordellos of Paris, but no factual evidence has ever been found to substantiate this rumor.
A recent hypothesis presented by David Lamaze, a composition teacher at the Conservatoire de Rennes in France, is that he hid in his music representations of the nickname and the name of Misia Godebska, transcribed into two groups of notes, Godebska = G D E B A and Misia = Mi + Si + A = E B A. He was invited onto her boat during a 1905 cruise on the Rhine after his failure at the Prix de Rome, for which her husband, Alfred Edwards, organized a scandal in the newspapers. This same man owned the Casino de Paris where the Ravel family had a number staged, ''Tourbillon de la mort'' (A Car Somersault). The family of her half-brother, Cipa Godebski, is said to have been like a second family for Ravel. In 1907 on Misia's boat ''L'Aimée'', Ravel completed ''L'heure espagnole'' and the ''Rapsodie espagnole,'' and at the premiere of ''Daphnis et Chloé'', Ravel arrived late and did not go to his box but to Misia's, where he offered her a Japanese doll. In her memoirs, Misia hid all these facts.
In his ''Maurice Ravel: A Life'', published in 2000, biographer Benjamin Ivry presents evidence - not universally considered definitive - in support of his thesis that the mystery of Ravel's lack of known intimate relationships is explained by the (asserted) fact that he was a "very secretive" gay man. Ivry also attempts to demonstrate that Ravel's (asserted) repressed homosexuality played a significant role in his musical compositions. In his review of Ivry's biography for ''Library Journal'' Larry Lipkis is persuaded by Ivry's research that, "There seems to be little question that Ravel was an affected, intensely secretive dandy with gay inclinations," but also expresses the view that Ivry's work is less persuasive in definitively linking Ravel's sexuality to characteristics of his musical oeuvre.
Legacy
Many of Ravel's works are protected by copyright and due to various posthumous extensions will remain so until 2032 in the EU and US. The composer died childless and left everything to his brother Edouard who turned Ravel's house into a museum. Edouard was severely injured in a car accident in 1954 and required near constant care. In 1957, Edouard announced his intention to deed 80% of the composer's posthumous royalties to the city of Paris and endow a
Nobel Prize in music.
Instead, Edouard consigned the rights to his nurse, Jeanne Taverne, and her husband Alexandre, a chauffer. When Edouard Ravel died in 1960, the Ravel estate fell subject to extensive litigation for ten years, reaching France's highest appellate court. Jeanne Taverne died before the litigation ended. During this period, Jean-Jacques Lemoine, the legal director of SACEM (the organization that collects and distributes royalties in France), froze distribution of Ravel's account.
When the litigation concluded, Lemoine resigned from SACEM and set up a shell company, Arima, with Alexandre Taverne for collecting Ravel's royalties. The company is based in Gibraltar and the British Virgin Islands in order to avoid French taxes. The two also sued Ravel's publisher, then nearing retirement, to re-write the original contracts, consigning a greater percentage of the royalties to Arima than Durand's publisher. Since that time, the shell company has collected at least £30m and none of Ravel's estate has gone to the Ravel family or to further the cause of French music.
Musicality
Musical sources
Active during a period of great artistic innovations and diversification, Ravel benefited from many sources and influences, though his music defies any facile classification. As
Vladimir Jankélévitch notes in his biography, "no influence can claim to have conquered him entirely […]. Ravel remains ungraspable behind all these masks which the snobbery of the century has attempted to impose."
Ravel's musical language was ultimately very original, neither absolutely modernist nor impressionist. Like Debussy, Ravel categorically refused this description of “impressionist” which he believed was reserved exclusively for painting.
Ravel was a remarkable synthesist of disparate styles. His music matured early into his innovative and distinct style. As a student, he studied the scores of composers of the past methodically: as he stated, "in order to know one's own craft, one must study the craft of others." Though he liked the new French music, during his youth Ravel still felt fond of the older French styles of Franck and the Romanticism of Beethoven and Wagner. Following the teachings of Gédalge, Ravel placed high importance on melody, once stating to Vaughan Williams, that there is "an implied melodic outline in all vital music."
He was inspired by various dances, his favorite being the minuet, composing the ''Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn'' in 1908, to commemorate the centenary of the death of Joseph Haydn. Other forms from which Ravel drew material include the forlane, rigaudon, waltz, czardas, habanera, passacaglia, and the boléro.
He believed that composers should be aware of both individual and national consciousness. For him, Basque music was influential. He intended to write an earlier concerto, ''Zazpiak Bat'', but it was never finished. The title is a result of his Basque heritage: meaning 'The Seven Are One' (see ''Zazpiak Bat''), it refers to the seven Basque regions, and was a motto often used in association with the idea of a Basque nation. Instead, Ravel abandoned the piece, using its nationalistic themes and rhythms in some of his other pieces. Ravel also used other folk themes including Hebraic, Greek, and Hungarian.
Ravel has almost always been considered one of the two great French impressionist composers, the other being Debussy. In reality Ravel was much more than an Impressionist (and in fact he resented being labelled as such). For example, he made extensive use of rollicking jazz tunes in his Piano Concerto in G Major in the first and third movements. Ravel also imitates Paganini's and Liszt's virtuoso gypsy themes and technique in ''Tzigane''. In his ''À la manière de...Borodine'' (''In the manner of...Borodin''), Ravel plays with the ability to both mimic and remain original. In a more complex situation, ''A la maniere de...Emmanuel Chabrier/Paraphrase sur un air de Gounod ("Faust IIème acte")'', Ravel takes on a theme from Gounod's ''Faust'' and arranges it in the style of Chabrier. He also composed short pieces in the manner of Haydn and his teacher Fauré. Even in writing in the style of others, Ravel's own voice as a composer remained distinct.
Ravel considered himself in many ways a classicist. He often relied on traditional forms, such as the ternary form, as well as traditional structures as ways of presenting his new melodic and rhythmic content, and his innovative harmonies. Ravel stated, "If I were called upon to do so, I would ask to be allowed to identify myself with the simple pronouncements made by Mozart ... He confined himself to saying that there is nothing that music cannot undertake to do, or dare, or portray, provided it continues to charm and always remain music." He often masked the sections of his structure with transitions that disguised the beginnings of the motif. This is apparent in his ''Valses nobles et sentimentales'' – inspired by Franz Schubert's collections, ''Valses nobles'' and ''Valses sentimentales'' – where the seven movements begin and end without pause, and in his chamber music where many movements are in sonata-allegro form, hiding the change from developmental sections to recapitulation.
From his own experience, Ravel was cognizant of the effect of new music on the ears of the public and he insightfully wrote:
On the initial performance of a new musical composition, the first impression of the public is generally one of reaction to the more superficial elements of its music, that is to say, to its external manifestations rather than to its inner content…often it is not until years after, when the means of expression have finally surrendered all their secrets, that the real inner emotion of the music becomes apparent to the listener.
Methods
His own composing method was craftsman-like and perfectionistic.
Igor Stravinsky once referred to Ravel as "the most perfect of Swiss watchmakers", a reference to the intricacy and precision of Ravel's works. Ravel, who sometimes spent years refining a piece, said, “My objective, therefore, is technical perfection. I can strive unceasingly to this end, since I am certain of never being able to attain it. The important thing is to get nearer to it all the time.”
More specifically he stated:
”In my own compositions I judge a long period of conscious gestation necessary. During this interval I come progressively, and with growing precision, to see the form and the evolution that the final work will take in its tonality. Thus I can be occupied for several years without writing a single note of the work, after which composition goes relatively quickly. But one must spend much time in eliminating all that could be regarded as superfluous in order to realize as completely as possible the definitive clarity so much desired. The moment arrives when new conceptions must be formulated for the final composition, but they cannot be artificially forced for they come only of their own accord, often deriving their original from some far-off perception and only manifesting themselves after long years.” For example, ''Gaspard de la nuit'' can be viewed as an extension of Liszt’s virtuosity and advanced harmonics. Even Ravel’s most difficult pieces, however, are marked by elegance and refinement. Walter Gieseking found some of Ravel’s piano works to be among the most difficult pieces for the instrument but always based on “musically perfectly logical concepts”; not just technically demanding but also requiring the right expression. In writing for the other sections, he often preferred to score ''in tutti'' to produce a full, clear resonance. To add surprise and added color, the melody might start with one instrument and be continued with another.
Because of his perfectionism and methods, Ravel’s musical output over four decades is quite small. Most of his works were thought out over considerable lengths of time, then notated quickly, and refined painstakingly. When a piece would not progress, he would abandon a piece until inspired anew. There are only about sixty compositions in all, of which slightly more than half are instrumental. Ravel’s body of work includes pieces for piano, chamber works, two piano concerti, ballet music, opera, and song cycles.
Ravel crafted his manuscripts meticulously, and relentlessly polished and corrected them. He destroyed hundreds of sketches and even re-copied entire autographs to correct one mistake. Early printed editions of his works were prone to errors so he worked painstakingly with his publisher, Durand, to correct them. One London critic stated "His baton is not the magician's wand of a virtuoso conductor. He just stood there beating time and keeping watch." As to how his music was to be played, Ravel was always clear and direct with his instructions.
Though never a paid critic as Debussy had been, Ravel had strong opinions on historical and contemporary music and musicians, which influenced his younger contemporaries. In creating his own music, he tended to avoid the more monumental composers as models, finding relatively little kinship with or inspiration from Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz or Franck. However, as an outspoken commentator on the Romantic giants, he found much of Beethoven "exasperating", Wagner's influence "pernicious" and Berlioz's harmony "clumsy". He had considerable admiration for other 19th-century masters such as Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, and Schubert. Despite what he considered its technical deficiencies, Ravel was a strong advocate of Russian music and praised its spontaneity, orchestral color, and exoticism.
Notable compositions
''Menuet antique'' (piano, 1895, orchestrated in 1929)
''Shéhérazade (ouverture de féerie)'' (1897)
''Pavane pour une infante défunte'' ("Pavane for a dead infanta") (piano 1899, orchestra 1910)
''Jeux d'eau'' (piano, 1901)
String Quartet in F major (1902–3)
''Shéhérazade'' (orchestral song cycle, 1903) Setting poems by his friend Tristan Klingsor
''Sonatine'' (piano, 1903–1905)
''Introduction and Allegro'' (pedal harp, flute, clarinet, string quartet, 1905)
''Miroirs'' ("Reflections") (piano, 1905):
* ''Noctuelles'' ("Night moths")
* ''Oiseaux tristes'' ("Sad birds")
* ''Une barque sur l'océan'' ("A boat on the ocean"; orchestrated 1906)
* ''Alborada del Gracioso'' ("Dawn song of the jester"; orchestrated 1918)
* ''La vallée des cloches'' ("Valley of the bells")
''Histoires naturelles'' ("Tales from nature") (song cycle for voice and piano, text by Jules Renard, 1906)
''Pièce en forme de Habanera'' (bass voice and piano, 1907)
''Rapsodie espagnole'' ("Spanish Rhapsody") (orchestra, 1907)
''L'heure espagnole'' ("The Spanish Hour") (opera, 1907–1909)
''Gaspard de la nuit'' ("Demons of the night") (piano, 1908)
''Ma Mère l'Oye'' ("Mother Goose") (piano duet 1908–1910, orchestrated 1911, expanded into ballet 1912)
''Daphnis et Chloé'' ("Daphnis and Chloé") (ballet, 1909–1912)
''Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé'', (voice, piano, flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet and string quartet, 1913)
''Valses nobles et sentimentales'' ("Noble and Sentimental Waltzes") (piano 1911, orchestra 1912)
Piano Trio A minor (1914)
''Le Tombeau de Couperin'' ("Tombeau for Couperin"; piano 1914–1917; movements I, III, IV and V orchestrated 1919)
* I. Prelude
* II. Fugue
* III. Forlane
* IV. Rigaudon
* V. Minuet
* VI. Toccata
''La Valse'' (choreographic poem, 1906–1914 and 1919–1920)
Sonata for Violin and Cello in C Major (1920–1922)
''Chansons Madécasses'' ("Songs of Madagascar") (voice, flute, cello and piano, text by Evariste Parny, 1926)
''L'enfant et les sortilèges'' ("The Child and the Spells", lyric fantasy, 1920–1925, libretto by Colette 1917)
''Tzigane'' (violin and piano, 1924)
Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major (1923–1927)
''Fanfare'' (1927; for the children's ballet ''L'Éventail de Jeanne'', to which ten French composers each contributed a dance)
''Boléro'' (ballet, 1928)
Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major (1929–1930; composed for Paul Wittgenstein)
Piano Concerto in G (1929–1931)
''Don Quichotte à Dulcinée'' ("Serenade of Don Quixote to Dulcinea"; voice and piano, 1932–1933)
Media depictions
Canadian filmmaker Larry Weinstein has produced two documentaries about Ravel, ''Ravel'' (1987) and ''Ravel's Brain'' (2001). The second of these two films dramatizes the musician's illness and death.
Maurice Ravel is played as a "bit role" by actor Oscar Loraine in the 1945 Gershwin film biography ''Rhapsody in Blue''.
See also
Compositions by Maurice Ravel
Expressionism
Impressionist music
Ravel scale
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
Free Scores
www.kreusch-sheet-music.net – Free Scores by Ravel
Miscellaneous
Maurice Ravel Frontispice at www.maurice-ravel.net
Epitonic.com: Maurice Ravel featuring a track from ''Miroirs'' and ''Gaspard De La Nuit''
The mystery of the missing Bolero millions – an artist's rights saga! – and a tale of greed?
Many quotations about Ravel's personality
Maurice Ravel "Vocalise Etude en form de Habanera" sung by Varda Kotler.
Recordings
Piano Rolls (The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation)
Maurice Ravel on Wikilivres
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![Emlen Physick house, Cape May, NJ (1879), now Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC). French Street Station, Wilmington, DE (1908). [edit] Philadelphia buildings Northern Savings Fund Society Building, 1871-72.[10] Thomas Hockley house, 1875. Parish House, St. Luke's Church, Philadelphia, c. 1875. Gatehouses, Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, 1875-76.[11] Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1876. Centennial National Bank, 1876 (now Paul Peck Alumni Center, Drexel University). Kensington Nation](http://web.archive.org./web/20120518203717/http://cdn6.wn.com/pd/b2/a0/7e93b94d0313e4cbb9e356b9911c_medium.jpg "Emlen Physick house, Cape May, NJ (1879), now Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC). French Street Station, Wilmington, DE (1908). [edit] Philadelphia buildings Northern Savings Fund Society Building, 1871-72.[10] Thomas Hockley house, 1875. Parish House, St. Luke's Church, Philadelphia, c. 1875. Gatehouses, Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, 1875-76.[11] Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1876. Centennial National Bank, 1876 (now Paul Peck Alumni Center, Drexel University). Kensington Nation")
