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Renowned for his abilities in orchestration, Ravel made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' piano music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known.
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- Boléro
- Daphnis et Chloé
- Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte
- La Valse
- Rapsodie Espagnole
- Gaspard de La Nuit
- Piano Concerto in G Major
- Miroirs
- Le Tombeau de Couperin
- Jeux d’eau
Boléro is Ravel’s most famous composition and one of the most frequently performed works of the 20th century. The piece has been featured in many films, including 10starring Dudley Moore and Bo Derek, and British ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean skated to a specially commissioned version at their gold-medal winning performance at the ...
Between 1909 and 1912 Ravel composed Daphnis Et Chloé, widely considered his masterpiece, for ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev and Les Ballets Russes. The ballet includes some of the composer’s most passionate music and features extraordinarily lush harmonies typical of the impressionist movement. Stravinsky described Daphnis Et Chloéas, “not only...
Ravel composed the original piano version of Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte, one of his best works, in 1899 while he was studying composition at the Paris Conservatoire with Gabriel Fauré. He also created an orchestral arrangement in 1910. Ravel described the piece as, “an evocation of a pavane that a little princess might, in former times, have d...
Ravel’s love for the Viennese waltz is evident in La Valse which originated as a tribute to Johann Strauss II. La Valseis both nostalgic and sinister as the initial elegant waltzes distort and reach an explosive conclusion. Ravel described the score as “a choreographic poem …a sort of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz …the mad whirl of some fantasti...
Rapsodie Espagnole, an orchestral rhapsody, is the first work Ravel composed specifically for orchestra. The work draws on the composer’s Spanish heritage and is one of several of his works set in or reflecting Spain. Ravel’s extraordinary ability to compose seemingly authentic Spanish music received admiration from Spanish composer Manuel de Falla...
Ravel’s Gaspard De La Nuitis a virtuoso piano work inspired by a similarly titled book of poems by Aloysius Bertrand filled with nightmarish, hallucinatory fantasies. The three movements are mesmerizing realizations of Bertrand’s poetry: cascading water (‘Ondine’), the gentle swaying of a hangman’s noose (‘Le Gibet’), and manic gyrations of a ghost...
The outer movements of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major are heavily influenced by jazz, which Ravel had heard during his North American tour in 1928 where he met George Gershwin. Ravel noted, “The most captivating part of jazz is its rich and diverting rhythm …Jazz is a very rich and vital source of inspiration for modern composers and I am astoni...
Miroirsis a five-movement suite for solo piano ranging from the sun-drenched virtuosity of ‘Alborada Del Gracioso’ to the intimate evocations of sad birds and tolling bells in ‘Oiseaux Tristes’ and ‘La Vallée Des Cloches’. Each movement was dedicated to a fellow member of the French avant-garde artist group Les Apaches (‘The Hooligans’).
Ravel’s Le Tombeau De Couperin, composed between 1914 and 1917, pays homage to the French Baroque composer François Couperin and the rich tradition of 18th-century French keyboard suites. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of a friend of the composer who had died fighting in World War 1. The original six-movement suite was written for solo pi...
Jeux d’Eau is a piece for solo piano influenced by the technically brilliant pianistic style of Franz Liszt, one of Ravel’s heroes. The title is often translated as ‘Fountains’, ‘Play of Water’ or literally ‘Water Games’. The sounds made by water – those of fountains, waterfalls, and streams – inspired Ravel and were a popular subject in musical im...
Feb 26, 2024 · Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was a French composer of classical music best known for his innovative piano pieces and orchestral works like Bolero and Daphnis et Chloé. Sometimes called an 'impressionist' composer, much was made of a practically non-existent rivalry with Claude Debussy (1862-1918).
- Mark Cartwright
Jul 2, 2024 · Maurice Ravel, French composer of Swiss-Basque descent, noted for his musical craftsmanship and perfection of form and style in such works as Bolero (1928), Pavane pour une infante defunte (1899; Pavane for a Dead Princess), and Rapsodie espagnole (1907).
Apr 2, 2014 · Maurice Ravel was a 19th and early 20th century French composer of classical music. His best known works are 'Bolero' and 'Daphnis et Chloé.'
Ravel was one of the most complex of all composers. He was anti-Wagnerian, Impressionist and neo-Classicist all at once. His Basque heritage gave him a special affinity with Spanish colours and rhythms; his acute ability to re-engage sensations and memories from childhood resulted in music of playful innocence and ravishing purity; and his ...
Creator of magical new soundscapes. Why is he important? Put French neo-classicism on the map, and super-refined orchestral techniques. What are his most famous works? Ma Mère L’oye; Daphnis Et Chloé; Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte; Le Tombeau De Couperin; Boléro; Piano Concerto in G. Ravel’s music was a natural extension of his inner being.
