Maurice Ravel

From Young Composers

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Maurice Ravel

Joseph-Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937) was a French composer and pianist of the impressionistic period, not unlike Claude Debussy. Son of a Swiss engineer and Basque wife, the family moved to Paris where Ravel would remain for the rest of his life. Like Debussy, Ravel entered the Paris Conservatoire as a young pianist, where he would later study composition under Fauré. An interest Renaissance literature let him to write pieces such as the Minuet antique (1895) and Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899) for piano, the latter becoming one of his most popular works. Ravel's outstanding originality disconverted the Conservatoir's staid establishment, and so he failed to win the Prix de Rombe five times, even with the ravishing song-cycle, Shéhérazade (1903), upsetting the public and leading to the forced resignation of the Conservatoire's director.

By this time, Ravel was now a member of the artistic cirlcee of poets, musicians, critics, and painters known as "Les Apaches".