Maurice Ravel (20TH-CENTURY COMPOSERS)
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- Synopsis
- From the Pavane pour une Infante défunte to Boléro, much of the music of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) is among the most accessible of any written during the last hundred years. The man, however, was notoriously difficult to get to know, partly because of his inherent reserve and partly because he concealed aspects of his character even from his closest friends. The author aims to trace the development of the composer's personality not only through events in his life and in the society around him but also through his music, which is more revealing in this respect than is generally believed. Ravel tended to reveal most of himself at times of crisis, such as the outbreak of World War I, and the death of his adored mother in 1917. 'Adversity', the chapter devoted to those years, is a central feature in a book which begins by evaluating the importance of Ravel's mixed Basque and Swiss heredity and then pursues the first part of his life through his childhood in Bohemian Montmartre, his controversial activities as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, and the establishment of his career as a composer fascinatingly interlinked with that of his older contemporary Claude Debussy. A moving description of his war service as a truck driver is followed by an account of the slow recovery from the failure in his health and morale after his mother's death, the period of conflict and reconciliation with the post-war movement represented by Erik Satie and Les Six, and a last decade of international celebrity coinciding with the gradual onset of the illness which silenced him four years before his death.
- Copyright:
- 1996
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Excellent
- Book Size:
- 240 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9780714832708
- Publisher:
- Phaidon Press Limited
- Date of Addition:
- 05/21/19
- Copyrighted By:
- Phaidon Press Limited
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Music
- Submitted By:
- Terry Gorman
- Proofread By:
- Terry Gorman
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.