Everything about Maurice Ravel totally explained
Joseph-Maurice Ravel (
March 7,
1875 –
December 28,
1937) was a
Basque French composer and
pianist of
Impressionist and
Expressionist music, known especially for the subtlety, richness and poignancy of his melodies. His
piano music,
chamber music,
vocal music and
orchestral music have become staples of the concert
repertoire.
Ravel's piano compositions, such as
Jeux d'eau,
Miroirs 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 tonal color and variety of sound and
instrumentation very effectively.
To the general public, Ravel is probably best known for his
orchestral work,
Boléro, 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 musician. According to international copyright law, Ravel's works are
public domain since
January 1 2008 in most countries, even though it has been stated that they won't enter the public domain until 2015.
Biography
Early life
Ravel was born in
Ciboure,
France, near
Biarritz. His mother, Marie Delouart, was
French, while his father, Joseph Ravel, was a
Swiss inventor and
industrialist. Some of the father'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 hit in the early 1900s. After the family moved to Paris, Ravel's younger brother Édouard was born.
At age seven, young Maurice began piano lessons and, five or six years later, began composing. His parents encouraged his musical pursuits and sent him to the
Conservatoire de Paris, first as a preparatory student and eventually as a piano major. During the first few years of the 1900s, Ravel joined with a number of innovative young artists who were referred to as the "
Apaches" (hooligans).
He studied composition at the Conservatoire under
Gabriel Fauré for a remarkable fourteen years. During his years at the Conservatoire, Ravel tried numerous times to win the prestigious
Prix de Rome, but to no avail. After a scandal involving his loss of the prize in 1905 (to Victor Gallois — Ravel had been considered the favorite to win), Ravel left the Conservatoire. The incident —named the "Ravel Affair" by the Parisian press — also led to the resignation of the Conservatoire's director,
Théodore Dubois.
Work with Diaghilev
Ravel later worked with impresario
Sergei Diaghilev who staged
Ma Mère l'Oye and
Daphnis et Chloé. The latter was commissioned by Diaghilev with the lead danced by the great
Vaslav Nijinsky. In 1920, the French government awarded him the
Légion d'honneur, but Ravel refused. Soon, he retired to the French countryside where he continued to write music, albeit less prolifically.
Diaghilev commissioned Ravel to write
La Valse (1920), originally named
Wien (Vienna), and Ravel was hurt by the fact that Diaghilev never used the composition. When the two men met again in 1925, Ravel refused to shake Diaghilev's hand, and Diaghilev challenged Ravel to a
duel (friends talked Diaghilev out of it). The men never met again.
In 1928, Ravel made a concert tour in America. In
New York City, he received a moving standing ovation which he remarked was unlike any of his underwhelming premieres in Paris. He traveled as far west as
San Francisco, where he conducted a concert of his orchestral music. That same year,
Oxford University awarded him an honorary doctorate. He also met
George Gershwin and the two became friends. Ravel's admiration of American
jazz led him to include some jazz elements in a few of his later compositions, especially the two piano concertos.
Ravel isn't known to have had any intimate relationships. Many of his friends have suggested that Ravel was known to frequent the
bordellos of
Paris, but the issue of his sexuality remains largely a mystery. Rumors have surfaced from time to time that Ravel was homosexual, possibly because of his association with Diaghilev. No factual (or reliably anecdotal) evidence has ever been found to substantiate this rumor. Ravel made a remark at one time suggesting that because he was such a perfectionist composer, so devoted to his work, that he could never have a lasting intimate relationship with anyone.
Although he considered his small stature and light weight an advantage to becoming an aviator, during the
First World War Ravel wasn't allowed to enlist as a pilot because of his age and weak health. Instead, upon his enlistment, he became a truck driver. He named his truck "Adelaide". Most references to what he drove in the war indicate it was an artillery truck or generic truck. No
primary source mentions him driving an ambulance.
His few students included
Maurice Delage,
Manuel Rosenthal,
Ralph Vaughan Williams, and
Vlado Perlemuter.
Ravel made one of his few recordings when he conducted his
Boléro with the
Lamoureux Orchestra in 1930. He also made a number of recordings of his piano music. Ravel reportedly conducted a group of Parisian musicians following the world premiere of his second piano concerto, the
Concerto in G, with
Marguerite Long, who had been the soloist in the premiere. EMI later reissued the 1932 recording on LP and CD. Although Ravel was listed as the conductor on the original 78-rpm discs, this is now disputed and it's possible he merely supervised the recording.
Illness and death
In 1932 Ravel sustained a blow to the head in a taxi accident. The injury was considered minor, but soon thereafter he began to complain of
aphasia-like symptoms similar to
Pick's disease. He had begun work on music for a film version of
Don Quixote (1933) featuring the Russian bass
Feodor Chaliapin and directed by
G. W. Pabst. When Ravel became unable to compose, and couldn't write down the musical ideas he heard in his mind, Pabst hired
Jacques Ibert. On
8 April 2008, the
New York Times published an article saying Ravel may have been in the early stages of
frontotemporal dementia in 1928, and this might account for the repetitive nature of
Boléro. This is in line 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.
In late 1937 Ravel consented to experimental brain surgery. One hemisphere of his brain was re-inflated with
serous fluid. He awoke from the surgery, called for his brother Edouard, lapsed into a
coma and died shortly afterwards. He is buried in Levallois-Perret, a
suburb of northwest Paris.
Musical style
Ravel considered himself in many ways a
classicist. He relied on traditional forms and structures as ways of presenting his new and innovative
harmonies. 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.
Though Ravel's music has tonal centers, it was innovative for the time period. In keeping with the French school pioneered by
Chabrier,
Satie, and
Debussy (to name a few), Ravel's melodies are almost exclusively
modal. Instead of using major or minor for his predominant harmonic language, he preferred modes with major or minor flavors – for example the
Mixolydian, with its lowered leading tone, instead of major, and the
Aeolian instead of harmonic minor. As a result, there are virtually no
leading tones in his output. Melodically, he tended to favor two modes: the
Dorian and the
Phrygian. He was in no way dependent on the modes exclusively; he used extended harmonies and intricate modulations outside the realm of traditional modal practices. Ravel was fond of chords of the ninth and eleventh, and the acidity of his harmonies is largely the result of a fondness for unresolved
appoggiaturas (listen to the
Valses nobles et sentimentales). His piano music, some of which is noted for its technical challenges (for example
Gaspard de la nuit), was an extension of Lisztian virtuosity. Even his most difficult pieces, however, are marked by elegance and refinement. He was inspired by various dances, his favorite being the
minuet. Other forms from which Ravel drew material include the
forlane,
rigaudon,
waltz,
czardas,
habanera,
passacaglia, and the
boléro.
Ravel has almost always been considered one of the two great French
impressionist composers, the other being Debussy. In reality Ravel is much more than an Impressionist (it is worth noting that both Ravel and Debussy rejected this description of their styles). For example, he made extensive use of rollicking jazz tunes in his
Piano Concerto in G, even employing a whiplash for special effects in the first and second movements. Ravel also imitates
Pablo de Sarasate's late-
Romantic virtuoso style in
Tzigane. In his
A la maniere de...Borodine (
In the manner of...Borodine), 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
Emmanuel Chabrier. Even in writing in the style of others, Ravel's own voice as a composer remained distinct.
Ravel had very meticulously crafted manuscripts. Unfortunately, early printed editions of his works were prone to errors. Painstakingly, he worked with his publisher, Durand, in correcting them. In a letter, Ravel wrote that when proofing
L'enfant et les sortilèges, after many other editors had proofread the opera, he could still find ten errors per page. Each piece was carefully crafted, although Ravel wished that, like the historical composers he admired, he could write a great quantity of works.
Igor Stravinsky once referred to Ravel as the "Swiss Watchmaker", a reference to the intricacy and precision of Ravel's works.
A great example of the detail of Ravel's works can be found in "Une Barque Sur L'Ocean," one of his piano pieces from the set Miroirs; in the piece one finds harmonies representing waves in different quantities that are meticulously numbered. For example, one arpeggio in the left hand will appear three times the first time, and two times the next. Each time, the quantity of arpeggios is thought out and deliberate, with the general trend of reducing the number of arpeggios in subsequent repeats, perhaps with a consciousness that the listener will more quickly recognize the pattern the second time it appears.
Musical Influence
Active in a period of great artistic innovations and diversification, Ravel benefited from many 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 highly original, neither absolutely
modernist nor
impressionist. Like Debussy, Ravel categorically refused this description which he believed was reserved exclusively for painting.
Nonetheless, Ravel was very open to influences and was a remarkable synthesist of disparate styles. Certain aspects of his music can be considered to fall into the lineage of 18th century
French classicism beginning with
Couperin and
Rameau as in
Le tombeau de Couperin. The uniquely 19th century French sensibilities of
Fauré and
Chabrier are reflected in
Sérénade grotesque,
Pavane pour une infante défunte, and
Menuet antique, while pieces such as
Jeux d’eau, and the String Quartet owe something to the innovations of
Satie and
Debussy. The virtuosity and poetry of
Gaspard de la nuit and
Concerto pour la main gauche hint at
Liszt and
Chopin. His admiration and interest in American
jazz is echoed in
L’Enfant et les sortilèges,
Sonate pour violon and the
Piano Concerto in G, while the Russian school of music inspired homage in
In the style of Borodin and the orchestration of
Pictures at an Exhibition. He variously cited Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Schubert and Schönberg as inspirations for various pieces.
Ravel wrote, in 1928, that composers should be aware of both individual and national consciousness. That year, Ravel had toured the
United States and
Canada by train performing
piano recitals in the great concert halls of twenty-five cities. In their reluctance to take
jazz and
blues as a nationalistic style of
music, he stated American composers' "greatest
fear is to find themselves confronted by mysterious urges to break academic rules rather than belie individual
consciousness. Thereupon these musicians, good bourgeois as they are, compose their music according to the classical rules of the European epoch."
There is a story that when American composer
George Gershwin met Ravel, he mentioned that he'd have liked to study with the
French composer, if that were possible. (Generally, Ravel didn't take students.) According to Gershwin, the Frenchman retorted, "Why do you want to become a second-rate Ravel when you're 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, some have claimed it was with
Igor Stravinsky; see the Wikipedia article for
George Gershwin.) In any event, this had to have been before Ravel wrote
Boléro which became financially very successful for him.
He intended to write an earlier concerto,
Zazpiak Bat, but it was never finished. The title reflects his Basque heritage: meaning 'The Seven Are One', it refers to the seven Basque regions, and was a motto often used in connection with the idea of a Basque nation. Surviving notes and fragments also confirm that this naturally was to be heavily influenced by Basque music. Instead, Ravel abandoned the piece, using its nationalistic themes and rhythms in some of his other pieces.
Ravel commented that
André Gédalge, his professor of
counterpoint, was very important in the development of his skill as a composer. As an orchestrator, Ravel studied the ability of each instrument carefully in order to determine the possible effects. This may account for the success of his orchestral transcriptions, both of his own piano works and those of other composers, such as
Mussorgsky,
Debussy and
Schumann.
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 (1903)
- Shéhérazade (orchestral song cycle, 1903) Setting poems by his friend Tristan Klingsor
- Sonatina (piano, 1903-1905)
- Introduction and allegro (pedal harp, flute, clarinet, string quartet, 1905)
- Miroirs ("Reflections"): Noctuelles ("Night moths"), Oiseaux tristes ("Sad birds"), Alborada del Gracioso ("Dawn song of the jester"), Une barque sur l'océan ("A boat on the ocean"), La vallée des cloches ("Valley of the bells") (piano 1905)
- III. Une barque sur l'océan (orchestra 1906)
- IV. Alborada del gracioso (orchestra 1918)
- Histoires naturelles ("Tales from nature") (song cycle for voice and piano, text by Jules Renard, 1906)
- 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, ballet 1911)
- 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 in A minor (1914)
- Le Tombeau de Couperin ("Tombeau for Couperin"): I. Prelude, II. Fugue, III. Forlane, IV. Rigaudon, V. Minuet, VI. Toccata (piano 1914–1917), (I, III, IV and V, orchestra 1919)
- Sonata for Violin and Cello
- Sonata for Violin and Piano
- La Valse (choreographic poem, 1906–1914 and 1919–1920)
- 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)
- 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 (1929–1930) Composed for pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in WWI. Wittgenstein was the brother of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.
- Piano Concerto in G (1929–1931)
- Don Quichotte à Dulcinée ("Serenade of Don Quixote to Dulcinea") (voice and piano, 1932–1933)
Media
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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Maurice Ravel'.
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