Ravel's pieces from this period have a new freeness, but also a somber quality. Ravel's music changed after the War, in my opinion because of the two influences of the horrors of the war and the new jazz music coming from America. He had to stop after two years, again because of his health. But because of his small size and frail health he got stuck driving ambulances. When the First World War started, Maurice Ravel was eager to join the air force and defend his beloved France. It was almost as if, for him, his smallness were a connection with a lost childhood. He lived in a small-ish house, and surrounded himself with objects from childhood. He was also a physically very small, which he was highly aware of. Once he delayed a concert over an hour because he didn't want to appear onstage without his proper dress shoes! He dressed very elegantly (like a "dandy"). "My only mistress is my music," he used to say. He lived in (or close to) Paris his whole life, and never married. Ravel was a very private and distant man, who didn't really have that many eventful things happen to him.
"How much music there is in all of this!", he wrote to a friend after, "and I certainly intend to use it." He used this inspiration for scenes in an opera, which he never really finished. He was overwhelmed by all the industrial noises, and then became drenched in a fierce thunderstorm. Example: on a trip down the Rhine in 1905, he stopped at a massive iron foundry. Some of his travels even inspired his music. He went all over Europe (and even to the United States) to perform premieres, and to generally travel around and see things. Later in his life Ravel's reputation and popularity grew. Each had their own little group of supporters, and there were disagreements about who influenced whom. But over time they developed a complex rivalry.Īudiences couldn't really tell their styles of music apart, which annoyed both of them. Ravel and Debussy got on well at first, visiting each other and performing each others' pieces. He was friends with the other famous French impressionist composer Claude Debussy. He got kicked out of his composition class because he never won any prizes! Tough school.īut he stayed in Paris, and joined a group of avant-garde artists who called themselves the "Hooligans". He gave his first recital at age fourteen, and later studied piano at the Paris Conservatory.Īt the Conservatory he did well on piano, but was lazy with the rest of his studies.
#Maurice ravel compositions plus
Reconnu comme un maître de l’orchestration et un artisan perfectionniste, cet homme à la personnalité complexe ne s'est jamais départi d'une sensibilité et d'une expressivité qui, selon Le Robert, lui firent évoquer dans son œuvre à la fois « les jeux les plus subtils de l’intelligence » et « les épanchements les plus secrets du cœur ».Little Maurice Ravel was a talented pianist. Parmi celles-ci le ballet symphonique Daphnis et Chloé (1909-12), le Boléro (1928), les deux concertos pour piano et orchestre pour la main gauche (1929-31) et en sol majeur (1930-31) et l’orchestration des Tableaux d'une exposition de Moussorgski (1922) sont celles qui ont le plus contribué à sa renommée internationale. La grande majorité de ses œuvres a intégré le répertoire de concert. Son œuvre, modeste en nombre d'opus (quatre-vingt-six œuvres originales, vingt-cinq œuvres orchestrées ou transcrites), est le fruit d'un héritage complexe s'étendant de Couperin et Rameau jusqu'aux couleurs et rythmes du jazz et d'influences multiples do nt celle, récurrente, de l'Espagne.Ĭaractérisée par une grande diversité de genres, la production musicale de Ravel respecte dans son ensemble la tradition classique et s'étale sur une période créatrice de plus de quarante années qui la rendent contemporaine de celles de Fauré, Debussy et Poulenc, mais aussi de Stravinski, Prokofiev, Bartók ou Gershwin.
Maurice Ravel, de son nom de baptême Joseph Maurice Ravel, est un compositeur français né à Ciboure le 7 mars 1875 et mort à Paris le 28 décembre 1937.Īvec son aîné Claude Debussy, Ravel fut la figure la plus influente de la musique française de son époque et le principal représentant du courant dit impressionniste au début du xxe siècle.
0 kommentar(er)
