Saturday, November 4, 2023 | Composer of the Week

Maurice Ravel  (“mah-REECE   ruh-VELL”)

• Born in France, 1875
• Died in 1937 at age 62
• Impressionism Period

Compositions Include:

• Bolero, originally composed as a ballet for orchestra, first performed at the Paris Opera in 1928
• Mother Goose Suite, originally composed for one piano, four hands; Ravel later notated it for orchestra
• Le tombeau de Couperin – a suite of six dances in Baroque forms, each one dedi­cated to a victim of World War I (WWI)
• Daphnis and Chloe – a ballet 
• Jeux d’eau – for piano solo 
• Piano Concerto for the left hand, composed for pianist Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right hand while fighting in WWI 
• Piano Concertos in D and G major 
• Sonatina – for piano solo

Other Details:

• entered Paris Conservatory at age 14
• Mother was Spanish, father was French 
• Ravel and his broth­er Edouard served in the military during WWI
• Orchestrated Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, originally for piano solo
• Took composition lessons from French composer Gabriel Fauré
• Did not see himself as an Impressionistic composer, and thought that term only applied to visual artists