Maurice Ravel

From Philosopedia

Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 - 28 December 1937)

Joseph-Maurice Ravel, the French pianist and composer who was one of the major composers of the 20th century, was born near Biarritz in the French Basque region's town of Ciboure. Marie Delouart, his mother, was French Basque. His father, Joseph Ravel, was a Swiss inventor and industrialist.

In 1889, he entered the Paris Conservatory, studying with Bériot and Fauré. He remained for 16 years, and by 1895 he had developed a personal style of composition, one however that utilized unconventional harmonies and offended some academic ears in spite of the classical basis of his work. He competed for the Prix de Rome in 1901, 1902, 1903, and 1905. At the last attempt he was eliminated in the preliminary test. The ensuing outcry led to the resignation of the director of the conservatory.

Although some critics claim Ravel was influenced by composer Claude Debussy, Ravel himself claimed he was much more influenced by Mozart and Couperin, whose compositions are more structured and classical in form. Ravel and Debussy were, however, clearly the defining composers of the impressionist movement. Ravel was also highly influenced by music from around the world including American Jazz, Asian music, and traditional folk songs from across Europe.

In 1907, after the premiere of Histoires Naturelles, a controversy erupted. Pierre Lalo criticised the work as plagiarism of Debussy; however criticism was quickly silenced after the Rhapsodie espagnole was received with such high critical acclaim.

Ravel would go on to work with ballet choreographer Sergei Diaghilev, who staged Ma Mère l'Oye and Daphnis et Chloé. The latter was commissioned by Diaghilev with the lead danced by Vaslav Nijinsky.

Ravel would, however, continue his long-standing feud with the French musical establishment: In 1920, the French government awarded him with the Légion d'honneur, but Ravel refused. Soon, he retired to the French countryside where he continued to write music albeit less prolifically.

In 1928, Ravel for the first time began a piano tour in America. In New York City, he received a moving standing ovation which he remarked was unlike any of his underwhelming premieres in Paris. That same year, Oxford University awarded him with an honorary doctorate.

After service in the 1914 - 1918 war, Ravel attempted to capture the savage feelings of the end of an era in his La Valse. Fragile health in the last 17 years of his life reduced the number, but not the quality, of his compositions. In his later years, he held no official posts and had very few pupils, although one of them (for 3 months) was Vaughan Williams.

Gershwin, who liked to play Maurice Ravel's work, is said to have visited Ravel in France and, introducing himself, inquired, "Mr. Ravel, is it possible that you would give me piano lessons?" Ravel, who knew Gershwin's works, is said to have responded to the effect, "Mr. Gershwin, do come in. Is it possible you would give me some piano lessons?"

Ravel is conveniently classified with Debussy, but their dissimilarities are more striking and significant. Critics stated that he had more respect for classical forms than Debussy and was nearer to the ethos of Saint-Saëns than to that of Massenet.

Religion

Ravel, who left the Roman Catholic Church, was a self-declared atheist, although he was also a spiritualist like many skeptics of his generation. He disliked the overtly religious themes of other composers, preferring instead to look to classical mythology for inspiration.

According to Dan Barker, Ravel was one of many major musicians who were atheists:

Although born of Catholic parents and baptized as an infant,” wrote editor Arbie Orenstein in Ravel: Man and Musician (Dover, 1991), “Ravel was not a practicing Catholic and did not accept the last rites of the Church. He apparently was an agnostic, relying upon his inner conscience and moral sensitivity.” Since he gave generously to charity and hated all forms of racism, his parish priest once told him, “Monsieur Ravel, you are the most Christian of my parishioners,” even though Ravel called himself an atheist.

In a 1920 letter to his friend Ida Godebska, Ravel wrote: “I spoke with Pierette Haour, an atheist like myself, about what you had written concerning the benefits of religion,” although another friend (Alexis Roland-Manuel) seemed surprised at Ravel’s self description and claimed that he was “certainly not an atheist, but rather a confirmed agnostic.” In either case, he was a freethinker who did not believe in a god.

Ravel’s works contain a notable absence of religious references and forms. He was most commonly inspired by nature, fairy tales, folk songs, and classical and oriental legends. He planned an opera about Joan of Arc (never completed), but was not interested in its religious significance: “I am thinking about Joan of Arc. The famous novel of Delteil inspired me, and the plan of the music is almost completed. . . . nature and humanity, closely dependent, offer innumerable possibilities of musical interpretation.” Ravel is probably best known to the general public for the seductive Bolero, which he considered a trivial work and which he once described as “a piece for orchestra without music.”

The Modernist's Personal Life

In Maurice Ravel, A Life (NY: Welcome Rain Publisheers, 2000), Benjamin Ivry describes Ravel as "a very secretive gay man." While Ravel's parents were alive, he did not talk about such matters and, writes Ivry, "and after their deaths, he stuck to his old habit of secrecy."

"In 1900, he joined an all-male social group called the 'Apaches.' Ravel would sometimes entertain the group by dressing up as a ballerina, complete with tutu and falsies, and dancing on pointe, his beard contrasting with his tiny, wiry form, much like the body of a real ballerina," Ivry writes, adding, "According to friends, Ravel was fascinated by the young gay men at Le Boeuf sur le Toit, who danced with one another, although he never danced himself." Critics point out that Ivry offers speculations, never convincing evidence.

What is known is that in the 1920's, the composer settled in a Paris suburb where he wrote music, read, listened to records and collected pornography. The immediate success of Bolero in 1928 drew him back into the world. He also wrote Concerto for the Left Hand after his pianist friend Paul Wittgenstein lost his right arm, but he had few close friends

Corinne E. Blackmer and Patricia Juliana Smith, in The Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage (Henry Holt and Company, 1995), wrote

• Gay modernist composers, such as Maurice Ravel and Virgil Thomson eschewed traditional heterosexual plots and developed non-exploitative and non-sensational modes that explore the psychological, metaphysical, and social parameters of individuality and community, and are simultaneously whimsical and meditative in tone. Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges (The Child and the Enchantments, 1925), with libretto by Colette, is a profound consideration of the relationships among mother identification, destructiveness, creativity, and ethical responsibility, set in a magical child's world in which injured animals and objects become speaking subjects.

Final Days

According to Alan Riding, a journalist for The New York Times,

• In 1932 Ravel was injured in an auto accident, and after that his health began to fail. His Don Quichotte à Dulcinée songs, written that year for the Russian bass Fyodor Chaliapin, were to be his last works. Soon his memory faltered, he had difficulty writing letters and eventually could barely speak. Finally he was taken to an eminent neurologist who concluded that "Ravel's brain showed wear and tear after long abuse of his health, including too much smoking, drinking and staying up all night." Brain surgery took place on Dec. 19, 1937, but Ravel died nine days later.

Ravel's body was interred in the western part of Paris at the cemetery of Levallois-Perret without religious ceremony.