Maurice Ravel Composer Date of Birth: 07.03.1875 Country: France

Biography of Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel was a French composer, conductor, and one of the reformers of 20th-century music. He was born on March 7, 1875, in Ciboure near Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Ravel showed musical abilities at a very young age and began studying piano with A. Ghiza in 1882 and harmony with C. René in 1887. After two years in the preparatory class at the Paris Conservatory, he entered the piano class of C. de Bériot in 1891. He studied theoretical disciplines with Pessard and Dubois, and composition with G. Fauré in 1898. During his years as a student, Ravel only produced a few insignificant works, including "Menuet Antique" (1895), and it was only in 1899 that he presented his now widely known piano composition, "Pavane pour une infante défunte."

Ravel became friends with the Spanish pianist R. Vines while studying at the conservatory, and Vines became the first performer of Ravel's compositions. After an unsuccessful attempt to win the Prix de Rome in 1901, Ravel created the piano cycle "Jeux d'eau," which played a revolutionary role in the development of the French piano school. Ravel made further unsuccessful attempts to win the Prix de Rome in 1902 and 1903, but during this time, he composed the beautiful "String Quartet in F Major." The failure with the Prix de Rome caused much speculation in Paris, with rumors suggesting a falling out between Ravel and Fauré. From then on, and until the end of his life, Ravel led a relatively uneventful life as a "cabinet" composer. The exception was the years of World War I when he served as a driver in a medical brigade, and in 1927-1928, when he went on tour in the United States.

Ravel's most significant compositions include the Sonata for Piano (1905); the operas "L'heure espagnole" (1907) and "L'enfant et les sortilèges" (1917); the ballet "Daphnis et Chloé" (1909), which was accompanied by another masterpiece, the large piano cycle "Gaspard de la nuit" (1908); the "Valses nobles et sentimentales" (1911), initially written for piano but later orchestrated; the chamber piece "Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé" (1913); the "Piano Trio" (1914); the choreographic poem "La valse" (1917); the suite "Le tombeau de Couperin" (1917), initially written for piano and later orchestrated by the composer; the vocal cycle "Chansons madécasses" (1926); the orchestral "Bolero" (1928); and two piano concertos (one of them for the left hand, 1931).

In 1933, Ravel was involved in a car accident which resulted in a brain tumor that caused him to lose recognition of his own music by 1936. He passed away in Paris on December 27, 1937. Ravel's name is often mentioned alongside Claude Debussy's (1862-1918), although their aesthetic approaches are fundamentally different. Ravel's harmonies are built on the principle of thirds and do not have the "misty" quality found in Debussy's music. Ravel was more interested in the timbral possibilities of instruments rather than the color created by harmony. However, a sense of impressionism can be felt in his work "Rapsodie espagnole" (1907).

Ravel was a virtuoso in orchestration, as seen in his works such as "Daphnis et Chloé," the "Valses," and his orchestration of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" (1922). Paradoxically, such a master as Ravel only wrote one symphonic concert piece, which is the "Rapsodie espagnole"; all his other scores, except for two piano concertos, were designed for the theater. The famous "Bolero," which surpassed the septet in terms of repeating a melodic phrase, perfectly embodies the task of staging a dance. Ravel himself called "Bolero" an "orchestral composition without music." Ravel also made excellent use of the resources of the piano. One of his most popular piano compositions is the "Sonatine." His two piano concertos demonstrate different approaches to the same genre. The concerto for the left hand is a grand, luxurious, magnificent work, while the concerto for two hands is a daring challenge from beginning to end. Ravel referred to it as a "divertissement in the style of Mozart" and took Saint-Saëns' elegant piano writing as an example. These compositions were created simultaneously. The concerto for the left hand, commissioned and first performed in 1931 by the one-armed pianist P. Wittgenstein, is one of the works that refute the notion that Ravel was only a master of small forms.

Ravel always paid extreme attention to the details of his compositions. For example, in the opera "L'heure espagnole," he meticulously indicated metronome markings even for the striking of the clocks. This remarkable work, one of the most charming in the world operatic repertoire, is an original solution to the problem of a "conversational" opera.

Ravel's piano compositions are the most famous among his works. He himself orchestrated "Alborada del gracioso" (1905) and "Le tombeau de Couperin," but the piano versions of these pieces are no less notable than the orchestral ones. It is hard to believe that the premiere of the original piano version of the "Valses nobles et sentimentales" was met with hostility, while a few years later, the orchestral version faced no objections.

Ravel was a very unique individual. In his mind, music and mechanics were intricately connected. He collected mechanical toys, and their precision fascinated him. The failures associated with the Prix de Rome left a mark on his entire life, and when Ravel was offered the Legion of Honor, he refused the award, considering it an insult. However, he accepted the honorary degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Oxford as a sign of respect.