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Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937)
His full name is Joseph-Maurice Ravel.
Ravel was born on March
7, 1875 in Ciboure,
France and died on December 28, 1937,
Paris.
Ravel was considered as one of the outstanding French composer
and orchestrator. He wrote for piano,
voice, opera, ballet, chamber ensembles and orchestra.
At the age of 14, he completed his piano studies at Paris
Conservatoire, there he became a student of fellow French composer, Gabriel
Faure.
He considered himself as a classicist where music was based in
tradional forms and structures while presenting his new harmonies.
Ravel completed
writing his piano piece, Jeux d’eau,
in 1901.
His best-known music includes Pavane pour une infante defunte – Pavane for a Dead Princess (1899),
the String Quartet (1903), Sonatine for piano (1905), and his great
ballet Daphnis et Chloe’ (1912) commissioned
by impresario Sergey Diaghilev.
Other works : opera L’Enfant et les sortileges (1925), the
suite Le Tombeau de Couperin (1917),
the orchestral works La Valse (1920), and Bolero
(1928).
He became a professor and director at the American
School of Music in Fountainebleau.
He died at the age of 62 after a brain ailment operation
which he had been suffering for years.
