Welcome Bach to Komposers for Kossacks!
We had a little hiatus in our programming mostly due to yours truly lacking the funds for iTunes purchases. So at the request of Mrs. Droogie, I ran out of music with which to inspire these diaries!
However, I've been getting back into some "new" old music and I'm ready to write about the lives, work and exploits of some of history's greatest music-makers.
Today, we study Maurice Ravel...
Composer: Maurice Ravel
Born: March 7, 1875
Died: December 28, 1937
Nationality: French
Style: Impressionist
Occupations: Composer, conductor, pianist
Influences: Bach, Mozart, Mussorgsky, Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn and Schubert
Contemporaries: Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky
I chose Ravel to feature today because I have utterly fallen in love with the complexity and beauty of his work, but I was also pleased in researching this diary to learn of his fascinating life and times.
Born in Ciboure, France near the border with Spain, Maurice Ravel's father Joseph was a Swiss inventor who invented an early internal combustion engine and a motorized carnival ride called the "Whirlwind of Death." His mother was Basque, and sang folk songs to him as a child. Ravel remarked that from an early age he was always sensitive to a wide variety of music.
His family soon moved to Paris, and Ravel gave his first piano recital at age 14. While he was a competent player of keyboard instruments, Ravel preferred to compose. He had a lifelong love of Russian music, such as those conducted by Rimsky-Korsakov at the Exposition Universelle in 1889 — which was also attended by Annie Oakley, Edvard Munch, Thomas Edison, Claude Debussy and van Gogh and Gauguin.
Ravel's parents sent him to the Conservatorie de Paris where he became a piano major and matured in his craft. His father introduced him to Erik Satie, whose unorthodox methods in music inspired Ravel.
Here is "Tres Rhyhtme" from Ravel's String Quartet in F Major, one of Ravel's early works and my favorite of his that I've heard so far.
According to biographers, Ravel was a short, skinny man and a natty dresser. He loved a smoke, good meals, fine wine and a good conversation, but was not really much of a bohemian.
At the Conservatorie, Ravel preferred to focus his efforts on learning composing rather than on piano technique. He orchestrated and transcribed both his own works, as well as those of Mussorgsky, Debussy and Schumann.
Around this time, Ravel composed pieces that would become part of his Rhapsodie Espagnole. Here is the fourth movement from that composition, known as "Feria":
Ravel conducted his first orchestral piece in 1899, called "Sheherazade." The response was mixed. Audiences both cheered and booed. Critics called him a plagiarist of Russian music and called his style "jolting." I agree with the "jolting" characterization, but perhaps for a different reason.
Ravel was considered pretty avant-garde in his day, and had a tough time getting much respect from critics. At the Conservatoire, Ravel made attempts to win the Prix de Rome, but was likely seen as too radical for the conservative judges. Ravel left the Conservatoire after failing to win the award for the final time in an incident the press called "The Ravel Affair." The controversy pitted champions of the avant-garde against the more conservative-minded.
Ravel found acceptance and likeminded company within a circle of young artists, critics, poets, musicians and other "artistic outcasts" who called themselves the "Apaches." The group met together until the Great War broke out, and played off of each other's talents.
It was for this group that Ravel debuted one of Impressionism's greatest piano masterpieces, "Jeux d'eau." Have a listen...
Ravel continued to write piano pieces and other works, completing his "Rhapsodie Espagnole" in 1908, still dividing critics who came to its debut. He began his first foreign tours in 1909, traveling to England and Scotland.
Here is the third movement of "Mirrors," which Ravel composed for the piano around this time.
Ravel completed his longest work, the ballet "Daphnis et Chloe" at this point, a work which critics appreciated greatly -- his debut opera Boris Godunov having electrified Paris the previous season.
Here is "Daybreak" from "Daphnis et Chloe":
During World War I, Ravel tried enthusiastically to enter the service as a pilot, but was rejected because of his age, his frail frame and his weak health. He instead became a truck driver whose unit engaged a German unit that included a young Hitler.
Around 1918, the war was over, and Ravel's valued friend and contemporary Debussy was dead. However a new musical style was in ascendancy, and Ravel was ready to make his mark.
Sergei Diaghilev commissioned Ravel's ballet "La Valse," rejecting it when it was completed. It became a popular work, but Ravel and Diaghilev ended their friendship over the slight. Diaghilev later challenged Ravel to a duel after Ravel refused to shake his hand, but friends talked them out of it and the two men never spoke again.
Ravel retired to the French countryside, returning to Paris periodically for performances and socializing. He continued to write at a less hurried pace and worked to promote new music, including the work of American composers Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson.
With the death of Debussy, Ravel was now at the forefront of French Impressionist music. Around 1922, Ravel wrote his "Sonata for Violin and Cello," which he dedicated to his deceased friend Debussy. Here is the composition's second movement:
After the end of WWI, American jazz was running wild through Europe, bringing with it a return to simplicity. Once in the avant-garde, Ravel's style was becoming more passe. Still, he supported the new cutting edge, meeting George Gershwin and hearing American jazz in New York during a musical tour of America.
According to one story, when Gershwin met Ravel, he said he would have liked to study with Ravel. The Frenchman remarked, "Why would you want to become a second-rate Ravel when you are already a first-rate Gershwin?"
Ravel's "Piano Concerto in G Major" was influenced by American jazz. Here is that composition's second movement, "Adagio Assai":
Ravel continued to experiment back in France. At this point he composed what may be his most well-known work today, "Bolero." Ravel was surprised at the piece's success, and criticized his own work brutally, saying it had no form, no development and almost no moderation.
Italian maestro Toscanini sped up the piece near the end during a performance, saying this was the only way to save the work. Ravel retorted that he wanted his work to be played rather than interpreted. Toscanini said, "When I play it at your tempo, it's not effective." To which Ravel reportedly said, "Then don't play it."
In 1932, Ravel took a blow to the head in a taxi accident that caused a variety of neurological symptoms. Modern neurologists have speculated that some of his later works, including his "Piano Concerto for the Left Hand" could be marked by the effects of this blow to the head and the impact on Ravel's nervous system.
After an experimental brain surgery in late 1937, Ravel lapsed into a coma and died.
Well, a long and colorful life and work makes for a long and colorful diary, hopefully. I'll leave you today with one of Ravel's pieces that is often used to demonstrate the virtuoso skill of violinists — "Tzigane."
Enjoy!