Maurice Ravel

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Lore & Background

Ravel was born in the Basque town of Ciboure, France, near Biarritz, 18 kilometres from the Spanish border. His father, Pierre-Joseph Ravel, was an educated and successful engineer, inventor and manufacturer; his mother, Marie, née Delouart, was Basque but had grown up in Madrid. The family moved to Paris three months later. Ravel attended the Paris Conservatoire; he was expelled in 1895 having won no more prizes, readmitted in 1897 studying composition with Fauré and counterpoint with André Gedalge, but was expelled again in 1900. His earliest surviving works include Sérénade grotesque for piano and 'Ballade de la Reine morte d'aimer' (both 1893). In 1899 he composed his first widely known piece, Pavane pour une infante défunte, though it made little impact initially. He was a slow and painstaking worker, composing fewer pieces than many contemporaries: pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies or church music. Many of his works exist in two versions: first a piano score and later an orchestration. Some piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and complex orchestral works like Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance.

Reader's Guide

Ravel's significance lies in his distinctive musical style, combining clarity with elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and jazz. His best-known work, Boléro (1928), uses repetition in place of development. He was renowned for his orchestration, notably his 1922 arrangement of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, the best known of his orchestral arrangements of other composers' piano music. Ravel was among the first composers to recognise the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public; 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. His legacy includes pieces that remain central to the repertoire, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908) and Daphnis et Chloé (1912).

Did You Know?

• Ravel was baptised in the Ciboure parish church six days after he was born.
• His father invented an early internal combustion engine and a circus machine called the 'Whirlwind of Death', an automotive loop-the-loop that was a major attraction until a fatal accident in 1903.
• At the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, Ravel was much struck by new Russian works conducted by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the exotic sound of the Javanese gamelan.
• Ravel's earliest known compositions, from around age seven, include variations on a chorale by Schumann and variations on a theme by Grieg, surviving only in fragmentary form.
• Ravel was one of the first musicians to recognise Erik Satie's originality and talent, counting Satie's experiments 'of inestimable value'.

Common Misconceptions (Editorial)

Some people assume Ravel was a core member of the Impressionist movement similar to Debussy, but both composers rejected the term. Others believe Boléro was a traditional symphonic work with musical development, but Ravel actually used repetition instead of development in that piece. It is also sometimes thought that Ravel was a fast and prolific composer, but he was a slow and painstaking worker who produced fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries.

Why It Matters (Editorial)

Ravel endures because he combined rigorous craftsmanship with radical experimentation, from the hypnotic repetition of Boléro to the dazzling difficulty of Gaspard de la nuit. His work bridges Romanticism, modernism, and jazz, proving that tradition and innovation can coexist. Even when the establishment rejected him, he continued to shape the sound of 20th-century music, leaving a legacy that still challenges and delights performers and audiences alike.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer." — Maurice Ravel "Maurice Ravel and unattributed. "Finding Tunes in Factories", Evening Standard, London, 24 February 1932." — Maurice Ravel "Also printed in: Orenstein, Arbie, ed. (1990). A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews, p.490-91. New York: Columbia University Press." — Maurice Ravel "Mais est-ce qu'il ne vient jamais à l'idée de ces gens-là que je peux être 'artificiel' par nature?" — Maurice Ravel