Boléro (1928)
Commissioned as a ballet by Ida Rubinstein; one relentless crescendo over a repeated rhythm
Recording: Maurice Ravel · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Music
Maurice Ravel
1875–1937 · French
Impressionism / Neoclassicism
Maurice Ravel was a French composer, often bracketed with Debussy as an Impressionist, though he disliked the label. A supreme orchestrator and a meticulous craftsman, he wrote glittering piano music, ballets and concertos, and famously orchestrated Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
How to spot them
- ▸Boléro: a snare drum repeats one Spanish rhythm throughout while two melodies pass from instrument to instrument in a single, enormous crescendo
- ▸Shimmering, precisely coloured orchestration — harp glissandi, muted strings, glinting woodwind — and a fondness for Spanish and Basque dance rhythms
- ▸Elegant, slightly antique dance forms (pavane, minuet, rigaudon) with luscious extended harmonies
- ▸Jazz and blues touches in the Piano Concerto in G, which opens with a whip crack
Key works — listen
Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899 (orchestrated 1910))
"Pavane for a Dead Princess", a slow, stately piano piece later orchestrated with a horn solo
Recording: Maurice Ravel (1875-1937, composer) Thérèse Dussaut (pianist) · CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Daphnis et Chloé (1912)
Ballet for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes with wordless chorus; famous for its sunrise
Piano Concerto in G major (1929–31)
Jazz-inflected concerto premiered by Marguerite Long in 1932
Pictures at an Exhibition (orchestration) (1922)
His orchestration of Mussorgsky's piano suite, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky
Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914–17)
Baroque-style suite; each movement is dedicated to friends killed in the First World War
Quick-fire facts
- •He was born in Ciboure, in the French Basque Country, near the Spanish border
- •He failed repeatedly to win the Prix de Rome; his 1905 elimination caused a scandal known as the "Ravel affair"
- •Torvill and Dean skated to Boléro to win Olympic gold at Sarajevo in 1984
- •He wrote the Piano Concerto for the Left Hand for Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in the First World War
- •He served as a driver during the First World War
- •He refused the Légion d'honneur in 1920
- •Stravinsky called him "the most perfect of Swiss watchmakers" for his precision
- •His opera L'enfant et les sortilèges (1925) has a libretto by Colette
Drill it — 9 cards
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Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Maurice Ravel
- Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press) — Ravel, Maurice