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{rah-vel'}
Maurice Ravel, b. Mar. 7, 1875, was one of France's great
composers and an important master of early-20th-century music.
He began piano studies at the age of 7, and in 1889 he entered
the Paris Conservatory, studied composition, and became identified
with the musical avant-garde. He interrupted his career to
serve in the French army in World War I. After the war, he
retired from Paris to a villa at Montfort-l'Amaury, where
he devoted himself to composing. Recognized as France's leading
contemporary composer following the death of Debussy in 1918,
Ravel made visits abroad, touring England and, in 1928, the
United States. In his later years he suffered from a neurological
disorder and a serious auto accident in 1932 seemed to initiate
a continuous deterioration of his condition. Brain surgery
failed, and Ravel died on Dec. 28, 1937.
Often named with Debussy as an impressionist, Ravel was essentially
a classicist in the French tradition of clarity, polish, and
disciplined craftsmanship. His imaginative piano music--such
as the Sonatine (1905), Miroirs (1905), the stunning Gaspard
de la nuit (1908), and Le Tombeau de Couperin (1917)--was
particularly influential. His subtly crafted chamber works
include his String Quartet (1902), the Introduction and Allegro
for harp and ensemble (1905-06), the Trio for Piano and Strings
(1914), the Sonata for Violin and Cello (1920-22), and the
jazz-influenced Violin Sonata (1923-27). Jazz was also assimilated
in his Piano Concerto in G (1930-31), composed simultaneously
with his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. Brilliant as a
composer of songs, he showed great flair for the stage in
his two operas, the witty L'Heure espagnole (The Spanish Hour,
1911) and the phantasmagoric L'Enfant et les sortileges (The
Child and the Spells, 1925). His ballet for Diaghilev, Daphnis
et Chloe (1909-12), was followed by Ma Mere l'Oye (1915),
La Valse (1919-20), and the popular Bolero (1928). These compositions,
like his famous transcription (1922) of Mussorgsky's Pictures
at an Exhibition and Ravel's other orchestral works, such
as Pavane for a Dead Infant (1898), Alborada del gracioso
(1905), Rapsodie espagnole (1907), and Valses nobles et sentimentales
(1911), many of which originated as piano pieces, display
both Ravel's wizardry as an orchestrator and his capacity
to rethink the same music idiomatically in different media.
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