Maurice Ravel
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Biography
Maurice Ravel was a French composer who studied at the end of the Romantic period, worked through the Impressionist period and into the Modern period. He was born in Paris in 1875, and died in quiet, rural retirement in 1937.
He studied music at the Paris Conservatory, where his tutor, and a significant influence on his style, was Faure.
His composition was also influenced by the styles of Chabrier and Satie.
Ravel showed much promise as a young composer, and was nominated (by Faure) for a number of awards. To the surprise of many of his contemporaries, he was overlooked for these awards, and, bitterly disappointed, he left the Conservatory.
During the First World War (1914 - 1918) he was unfit for service,
and volunteered to work as an orderly in a military hospital.
After the war, his health, which had never been robust, deteriorated. He moved to the village of Tourador,
continuing to compose until shortly before his death, though for the last 10 years
of his life he produced only a few works.
Major Compositions
These are listed in chronological order. It is not a complete list - just highlights.
- 1899 Pavan for a dead princess (piano)
- 1904 Mirrors (piano)
- 1905 Sonatina (piano)
- 1908 Gaspard of the night (piano)
- 1909 "L'heure espagnole" (opera)
- 1909 Minuet on the name of Haydn (piano)
- 1910 Pavan for a dead princess (orchestral)
- 1911 Mother Goose (piano, then orchestral)
- 1917 The Tomb of Couperin (piano)
- 1919 The Tomb of Couperin (orchestral)
- 1925 The child and the furniture (opera)
- 1928 Bolero (orchestral)
- 1932 Don Quixote and Dulcinea (vocal)
Technique and Style
Ravel is a contemporary of Debussy, and, although classified with him as
using the "Impressionist" style, Ravel's composition is more classical,
with disciplined harmonies and part work. He did not, for example, adopt
the whole tone scale or pentatonic for any of his major works. His music,
however, is certainly not typically classical or romantic.
He heard the use of "new" intervals - 9ths, 11ths and 13ths - in jazz,
but used them very differently in his compositions, splitting them between parts,
and applying a technique called the "long pedal", in which the pianist is instructed to keep the dampers (the "loud pedal") raised for extended periods. The result of this is that the strings can resonate at harmonics of the notes being played. This technique, pioneered successfully by Beethoven in his later works, had fallen into disuse because, if applied without great skill, it sounds "muddy". Ravel showed that it can highlight relationships between notes played at different times.
He made extensive use of the technique of first composing a work at the piano,
later orchestrating it. As a result, many of his works exist both as piano
pieces and orchestral scores. Later in his life, he also produced orchestral arrangements of the works of other composers, including
- Debussy (Sarabande, Tarantelle)
- Chabrier (Picture pieces)
- Musorgsky (Pictures at an exhibition)
Some Interesting Pieces
Even a small study of the pieces can tell you a lot about the musician.
The suite of orchestral pieces called The Tomb of Couperin contains many classical elements,
and is rightly understood to be a sincere homage to the classical French composer
(1688 - 1733), and to that school and style of music. The later orchestral version is
written like that, and that's the interpretation that most people pick up.
If you play the original (piano) version exactly as written, you discover that all
the pieces have an overlay of intense sadness. On the original manuscript, each piece is dedicated
to a soldier, and it turns out that each one was nursed by Ravel; each one later died of
wounds received in battle. As well as a homage to things past, Ravel was mourning the
passing of that civilisation, for he felt at the time that the war would be lost,
and France would be overrun.
The Mother Goose suite was written for two pianos. Although it sounds "full" each piano part is not very difficult technically.
It was intended to be performed by children - as it was at its premiere.
The Minuet on the name of Haydn assigns letters of the alphabet to the notes on the piano
(as expected, but extended beyond one octave), and weaves a three-part minuet using those notes as the theme.
At some points in the piece, the name can be detected running backwards.
To achieve this, and still sound musical, shows the highest technical skill.
Although it is a piece that has been "done to death" in recent years, Bolero must be mentioned. If this is the only piece by Ravel that you know, do not let it put you off trying some others. It is by far the most overtly dramatic piece that he wrote. It was written for an avant-garde dance troupe, and was designed to make the dancers work against it (the opposite of conventional dance music). Ravel described it as "anti-music". At the end of the first performance, someone in the audience shouted "This is madness!". Ravel shouted back "Yes! Someone understands!".
