Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel est un compositeur français né en 1875, d’une mère d’origine espagnole et d’un père français. [232] In 1913 there was a gramophone recording of Jeux d'eau played by Mark Hambourg, and by the early 1920s there were discs featuring the Pavane pour une infante défunte and Ondine, and movements from the String Quartet, Le tombeau de Couperin and Ma mère l'Oye. Ravel was one of the first musicians – Debussy was another – who recognised Satie's originality and talent. One described the piece as "a jolting debut: a clumsy plagiarism of the Russian School" and called Ravel a "mediocrely gifted debutant ... who will perhaps become something if not someone in about ten years, if he works hard". After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. [41], From the start of his career, Ravel appeared calmly indifferent to blame or praise. Maurice Ravel’s Miroirs mark the beginning of a new period in his life and compositional style. His only other operatic venture had been his brilliantly satirical L’Heure espagnole (first performed 1911). From the 1920s, despite limited technique as a pianist or conductor, he took part in recordings of several of his works; others were made under his supervision. [235] A 1932 recording of the G major Piano Concerto was advertised as "Conducted by the composer",[236] although he had in fact supervised the sessions while a more proficient conductor took the baton. ). [149] Audiences were enthusiastic and the critics were complimentary. Maurice Ravel 1875–1937, FRENCH Ravel’s life was devoted to the pursuit of musical perfection. His family background was an artistic and cultivated one, and the young Maurice received every encouragement from his father when his talent for music became apparent at an early age. [209] The critics Edward Sackville-West and Desmond Shawe-Taylor comment that in the slow movement, "one of the most beautiful tunes Ravel ever invented", the composer "can truly be said to join hands with Mozart". The third movement is a beautiful nocturne, an exotic dream of longing that, once again, brings Debussy's quartet to mind. [244] The British newspaper The Guardian reported in 2001 that no money from royalties had been forthcoming for the maintenance of the Ravel museum at Montfort-l'Amaury, which was in a poor state of repair. い得。当日お急ぎ便対象商品は、当日お届け可能です。アマゾン配送商品は、通常配送無料（一部除く）。 The latter work gave Ravel an opportunity of doing ingenious and amusing things with the animals and inanimate objects that come to life in this tale of bewitchment and magic in which a naughty child is involved. It was to be a large-scale, full-length work for the Paris Opéra, but Ravel's final illness prevented him from writing it. [42] The only opinion of his music that he truly valued was his own, perfectionist and severely self-critical. [n 17] The new society's inaugural concert took place on 20 April 1910; the seven items on the programme included premieres of Fauré's song cycle La chanson d'Ève, Debussy's piano suite D'un cahier d'esquisses, Zoltán Kodály's Six pièces pour piano and the original piano duet version of Ravel's Ma mère l'Oye. Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was one of the leading composers of impressionist music although, like Debussy, he rejected that term.Ravel’s best … [39][n 8] Another critic, Pierre Lalo, thought that Ravel showed talent, but was too indebted to Debussy and should instead emulate Beethoven. An operation to relieve the obstruction of a blood vessel that supplies the brain was unsuccessful. He is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. [198] Among the poets on whose lyrics he drew were Marot, Léon-Paul Fargue, Leconte de Lisle and Verlaine. That year also saw the creation of Boléro in its original form as a ballet, with Ida Rubinstein in the principal role. It is a source of joy and pride for your old professor. Ravel, together with his close friend and confidante Misia Edwards and the opera star Lucienne Bréval, contributed to a modest regular income for the deserted Lilly Debussy, a fact that Nichols suggests may have rankled with her husband. [27] His later teacher Gabriel Fauré understood this, but it was not generally acceptable to the conservative faculty of the Conservatoire of the 1890s. His 1923 ballet score Les noces is composed for voices and twenty-one instruments. [44] He dressed like a dandy and was meticulous about his appearance and demeanour. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Ravel was fascinated by the dynamism of American life, its huge cities, skyscrapers, and its advanced technology, and was impressed by its jazz, Negro spirituals, and the excellence of American orchestras. Yet, so very personal and individual was his adaptation and manipulation of the traditional musical idiom that it would be true to say he forged for himself a language of his own that bears the stamp of his personality as unmistakably as any work of Bach or Chopin. [55][n 11] Orenstein comments that Debussy was more spontaneous and casual in his composing while Ravel was more attentive to form and craftsmanship. [64] In 1900 Ravel was eliminated in the first round; in 1901 he won the second prize for the competition. She and Ravel had planned the story as a ballet, but at the composer's suggestion Colette turned it into an opera libretto. [90] Kelly considers it a sign of Ravel's new influence that the society featured Satie's music in a concert in January 1911. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. I think I have always personally followed a direction opposed to that of [his] symbolism. [228] The Violin and Cello Sonata is a departure from the rich textures and harmonies of the pre-war Piano Trio: the composer said that it marked a turning point in his career, with thinness of texture pushed to the extreme and harmonic charm renounced in favour of pure melody. [140] Other influences on him in this period were jazz and atonality. Whatever sauce you put around the melody is a matter of taste. Perhaps the real tragedy of his condition was that his musical imagination remained as active as ever. The performers included Fauré, Florent Schmitt, Ernest Bloch, Pierre Monteux and, in the Debussy work, Ravel. He died on 28 December, at the age of 62. As a songwriter Ravel achieved great distinction with his imaginative Histoires naturelles, Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, and Chansons madécasses. [74] The performable body of works numbers about sixty; slightly more than half are instrumental. Joseph Maurice Ravel (French: [ʒɔzɛf mɔʁis ʁavɛl]; 7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. Son Boléro reste le morceau français le plus joué dans le monde. "[62] Nichols suggests an additional reason for the rift. "[219] This balance caused a breach between the composer and Viñes, who said that if he observed the nuances and speeds Ravel stipulated in Gaspard de la nuit, "Le gibet" would "bore the audience to death". Maurice Ravel was born in 1875 into a world that was rapidly changing. Ravel produced an orchestral version eleven years later. [88] Ravel, together with several other former pupils of Fauré, set up a new, modernist organisation, the Société Musicale Indépendente, with Fauré as its president. Ravel was touched by this spontaneous gesture and observed, "You know, this doesn't happen to me in Paris. His touring schedule increased considerably in the 1920s, with concerts in Britain, Sweden, Denmark, the US, Canada, Spain, Austria and Italy. [35] He wrote some substantial works while studying with Fauré, including the overture Shéhérazade and a violin sonata, but he won no prizes, and therefore was expelled again in 1900. Ses parents l’éveilleront très tôt à la musique. [110] After several unsuccessful attempts to enlist, Ravel finally joined the Thirteenth Artillery Regiment as a lorry driver in March 1915, when he was forty. Ravel, twelve years his junior, had known Debussy slightly since the 1890s, and their friendship, though never close, continued for more than ten years. [151], The last composition Ravel completed in the 1920s, Boléro, became his most famous. "[156], At the beginning of the 1930s Ravel was working on two piano concertos. [196], A substantial proportion of Ravel's output was vocal. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies or church music. He commented that the critics' recent enthusiasm was of no more importance than their earlier judgment, when they called him "the most perfect example of insensitivity and lack of emotion". [193] The score presents an impression of simplicity, disguising intricate links between themes, with, in Murray's phrase, "extraordinary and bewitching sounds from the orchestra pit throughout". [82] Rosenthal records and discounts contemporary speculation that Ravel, a lifelong bachelor, may have been homosexual. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Ravel said that the violin and piano are "essentially incompatible" instruments, and that his Sonata reveals their incompatibility. [211], Ravel made orchestral versions of piano works by Schumann, Chabrier, Debussy and Mussorgsky's piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. [111] Stravinsky expressed admiration for his friend's courage: "at his age and with his name he could have had an easier place, or done nothing". [72], By the latter part of the 1900s Ravel had established a pattern of writing works for piano and subsequently arranging them for full orchestra. [138] Ravel did not like the work (his opinion caused a cooling in Stravinsky's friendship with him)[139] but he was in sympathy with the fashion for "dépouillement" – the "stripping away" of pre-war extravagance to reveal the essentials. Literally "Games of water", sometimes translated as "Fountains", Ravel admitted in 1926 that he had submitted at least one piece deliberately parodying the required conventional form: the cantata, The musicologist David Lamaze has suggested that Ravel felt a long-lasting romantic attraction to Misia, and posits that her name is incorporated in Ravel's music in the recurring pattern of the notes E, B, A – "Mi, Si, La" in French, This remark was modified by Hollywood writers for the film, Ravel, known for his gourmet tastes, developed an unexpected enthusiasm for English cooking, particularly. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. [127] Through the Société Musicale Indépendente, he was able to encourage them and composers from other countries. Ravel's brother Edouard accepted this advice; as Henson comments, the patient was in no state to express a considered view. He completed the Piano Concerto in D major for the Left Hand first. 611–612; and Goddard, p. 292, Orenstein (1981), p. 32; and Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, p. 613, Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, pp. As of 2018[update] the maison-musée de Maurice Ravel remains open for guided tours. [207], In some of his scores from the 1920s, including Daphnis et Chloé, Ravel frequently divides his upper strings, having them play in six to eight parts while the woodwind are required to play with extreme agility. He never made clear his reason for refusing it. My father, much better educated in this art than most amateurs are, knew how to develop my taste and to stimulate my enthusiasm at an early age. [65] In 1902 and 1903 he won nothing: according to the musicologist Paul Landormy, the judges suspected Ravel of making fun of them by submitting cantatas so academic as to seem like parodies. He is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. American cuisine was apparently another matter. [114] Ravel declined to join, telling the committee of the league in 1916, "It would be dangerous for French composers to ignore systematically the productions of their foreign colleagues, and thus form themselves into a sort of national coterie: our musical art, which is so rich at the present time, would soon degenerate, becoming isolated in banal formulas. [73] He was in general a slow and painstaking worker, and reworking his earlier piano compositions enabled him to increase the number of pieces published and performed. [186], Ravel completed two operas, and worked on three others. 300–301, Orenstein (1991), pp. Updates? [33] Ravel's standing at the Conservatoire was nevertheless undermined by the hostility of the Director, Théodore Dubois, who deplored the young man's musically and politically progressive outlook. [179] His themes are frequently modal instead of using the familiar major or minor scales. [70], Among those taking a close interest in the controversy was Alfred Edwards, owner and editor of Le Matin, for which Lalo wrote. "[115] The league responded by banning Ravel's music from its concerts. 8–9 (Saint-Saëns), Orenstein (1991), p. 33; and James, p. 20, Nichols (2011), pp. [194], Although one-act operas are generally staged less often than full-length ones,[195] Ravel's are produced regularly in France and abroad. Many of his works exist in two versions: first, a piano score and later an orchestration. [25] Nevertheless, these years were a time of considerable advance in his development as a composer. As the musicologist Stephen Zank puts it, "Ravel's emotional equilibrium, so hard won in the previous decade, had been seriously compromised.