Maurice Ravel, a discreet man who loved children and animals, was born in Ciboure on March 7, 1875. He was known for his love for perfect things. His infallible profession stimulated his imagination, as he was both rigorous and original. An incomparable orchestrator, he was also the most popular of the great French musicians of the 20th century. This article explores his life, his musical journey, and his enduring legacy.
Early Life and Influences
Born in Ciboure, in a small house on the port facing Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Maurice Ravel was the son of a Savoyard father and a Basque mother. A few months after his birth, the family moved to Paris, where he spent a happy childhood. Three years later, his brother Édouard was born, to whom he remained very attached throughout his life. His parents, open-minded people, encouraged him to develop his musical talents.
During his studies, he already wrote in a personal style, which he asserted in his compositions and which made him talked about in the world of music: Ballade de la reine morte d’aimer, Sérénade grotesque, his Menuet antique, Entre cloches or even Pavane pour une infante défunte.
Education and Early Career
Ravel entered the Paris Conservatory in 1889 and became friends with the pianist Ricardo Viñes, to whom he dedicated his Menuet antique and Oiseaux tristes. They joined the group of Apaches, formed by "rogue" poets and musicians, and defended Pelléas et Mélisande at the creation of Debussy's opera.
His first works did not cause a sensation, and the overture Shéhérazade even elicited some whistles, but the composer quickly found his language made of refinement and virtuosity. While readily acknowledging his genius, Ravel nevertheless added that by working as much as he did, one would arrive at the same result. Unlike Debussy, who was a modern, Ravel remained a classic.
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The Prix de Rome Affair
Maurice Ravel presented himself at the Prix de Rome and failed five times, with the exception of a second prize in 1901. The fifth time, his candidacy was refused: "Monsieur Ravel may well consider us as firemen, he will not take us for fools with impunity." This is when the Ravel Affair broke out, which made him famous overnight. Gabriel Fauré, who had become director of the Conservatory, took the side of his former student. Debussy was annoyed by this newcomer to whom he was now being compared. He described him as "a charming fakir who makes flowers grow around a chair."
Musical Style and Opinions
If Debussy had a hard tooth for most of his colleagues, Ravel admired true talent and was rarely wrong. On Erik Satie: "An innovator, a pioneer, even an extremist rather than an author of substantial masterpieces." On Sibelius: "A composer with strong colors and feelings." As for himself, from work to work, Ravel became more and more sophisticated and more and more original: Quatuor, Sonatine, Rhapsodie espagnole, Ma Mère l’Oye, Gaspard de la Nuit.
During the first ten years of the 20th century, Ravel composed enormously and met with success: Jeux d’eau, Quatuor à cordes en fa majeur, Rhapsodie espagnole, Ma mère l’Oye or even Gaspard de la nuit.
World War I and Later Years
When the Great War broke out, Ravel wanted to take part in the fighting, but he was exempted because of his too small size (48 kg for 1.61 m). He insisted so much that he was sent as a sanitary truck driver to Verdun in 1916. Suffering from dysentery, he was operated on and then demobilized the following year.
Maurice Ravel refused to join the National League for the Defense of French Music. In matters of art, Ravel was patriotic but not chauvinistic. After the war and the disappearance of his mother, Ravel had difficulty composing. He nevertheless paid tribute to his friends who fell on the field of honor by dedicating one of the pieces of his Tombeau de Couperin to each of them. He also depicted the collapse of a world that disappeared with the world conflict in La Valse. Since the death of Debussy in 1918, Maurice Ravel was the most famous French composer in the world.
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In 1920, he refused the Legion of Honor. The occasion for Erik Satie to launch an assassination sting: "Maurice Ravel refuses the Legion of Honor, but all his music accepts it." In 1921, Ravel bought a small house, the Belvédère, in Montfort-l’Amaury and settled there. It is now a museum that can be visited. Recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators of all time, he sumptuously dressed Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
Tours and Final Compositions
At the height of his popularity, Ravel made a tour of the United States in 1928, during which he was received as a head of state. In the last years of his life, Ravel made a turn and indulged in an "extreme stripping." Thus, he composed the Boléro "empty of all music" for his friend Ida Rubinstein. On an immutable rhythm, he imagined a long instrumental crescendo that announced repetitive music. In 1932, his Concerto for the Left Hand, written for the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein, and his Concerto in G, created by Marguerite Long under his direction, caused a sensation.
1932 was the year of his last achievements: the Concerto pour la main gauche, the Concerto en sol and a tour in Europe.
Declining Health and Death
But the following year, following a taxi accident, he was affected by a degenerative brain disease. He could no longer write or play. For a long time, Maurice Ravel was the most prolific composer of SACEM with the song "My Way" / "Comme d’habitude."
In December 1937, Maurice Ravel died in Paris after a trepanation.
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Legacy
At Ravel's death, it was his brother Édouard who inherited his property and was his successor. He had the idea of bequeathing everything to a Nobel Prize for music but changed his mind and appointed his nurse universal legatee. At the death of the latter, it was her husband, Alexandre Taverne, who inherited the jackpot. A trial of Ravel's great-nephews tried to invalidate the inheritance in vain. A financial director of SACEM resigned to become Taverne's legal advisor. He encouraged him to create an off-shore company. For years, the manna of Ravel's rights made as much dream as the treasure of Atlantis.
Anecdotes
- Basque Origins: Ravel was born in Ciboure, in the Basque Country, to a Swiss father and a mother of Spanish origin.
- Not a Model Student: Although his teachers recognized his talent, he did not win any prizes or distinctions during his first years of study at the Paris Conservatory.
- Refusal of the Legion of Honor: In 1920, Maurice Ravel learned that he was to receive the Legion of Honor, a high French decoration that he hastened to refuse.
- Eternal Bachelor: Ravel had very good friends, but no known romantic relationships.
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