Ravel, Maurice (mōrēs` rävĕl`), 1875–1937, French composer, b. in the Pyrenees. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1889, where he was later a student of Fauré. Ravel became a leading exponent of impressionism impressionism, in music, a French movement in the late 19th and early 20th cent. It was begun by Debussy in reaction to the dramatic and dynamic emotionalism of romantic music, especially that of Wagner.
..... Click the link for more information. . Along with Debussy, with whom he had an affinity of style, he led French music away from Wagnerian romanticism. He composed highly original, fluid music within the outlines of classical forms. Ravel excelled at piano composition and orchestration, often scoring his own piano pieces and works by other composers. Among his piano compositions are Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899), Jeux d'eau (1901), Gaspard de la nuit (1908), Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911), Le Tombeau de Couperin (1917), and Concerto in D Major, for left hand (1931). His orchestral works include Rhapsodie Espagnole (1908) and Bolero (1928); he is also known for his orchestration of Modest Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (1922). Other works are the song cycle Shéhérazade (1903), two operas, the chamber piece Tzigane, and ballets such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912), Ma Mère l'Oye (1912), and La Valse (1920).

Bibliography

See biographies by M. Goss (1940), V. I. Seroff (1953), H. H. Stuckenschmidt (tr. 1968), A. Orenstein (1975), and B. Ivry (2000); study by R. Nichols (1977).

Ravel, (Joseph-) Maurice

(born March 7, 1875, Ciboure, France—died Dec. 28, 1937, Paris) French composer. At age 14 he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire. Completing his piano studies, he returned to study composition with Gabriel Fauré, writing the important piano piece Jeux d'eau (completed 1901) and a string quartet. In the next decade he produced some of his best-known music, including Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899), the String Quartet (1903), and the Sonatine for piano (1905). His great ballet Daphnis et Chloé (1912) was commissioned by the impresario Sergey Diaghilev. Other works include the opera L'Enfant et les sortileges (1925), the suite Le Tombeau de Couperin (1917), and the orchestral works La Valse (1920) and Boléro (1928). Careful and precise, Ravel possessed great gifts as an orchestrator, and his works are universally admired for their superb craftsmanship; he has remained the most widely popular of all French composers.