M Ravel biography

Maurice Ravel. When you hear his last name, you immediately remember his famous Bolero. Ravel himself predicted that most orchestras would simply refuse to play him. But he was mistaken. His mother, Marie Deluar, was a Baskonka, and his father, Jose Ravel, a Swiss engineer. It is possible that it was precisely the parents who influenced the music of Ravel - from his mother he received a love of dance, the folk French and Spanish song later he said that his earliest memories are songs of his mother, and from his father - the accuracy and harmony of the composition, the verification of the rhythm, a clear place for every note.

The family appreciated music, and Maurice's giftedness became noticeable early. Already at the age of six, he began to study the piano game, to which the lessons of musical harmony, counterpoint and composition were added over time. In the year he entered the Paris Conservatory. Another event of this year, according to Ravel’s memoirs, became an important milestone in his life - the concerts of Russian music at the Paris World Exhibition, which was conducted by N.

The most noticeable works of Ravel of the first decade of the 20th century - piano “Pavana to the death of the infanta” Pavan - this is a Spanish court dance, performed slowly and solemnly, “The game of water”, “Reflections”. These are light, colorful pictures of nature, poetic genre scenes that he writes using complex politeic combinations, displacement of accents.

Rael writes the ballet “Daphnis and Chloe” for “Russian Seasons”, which in the choreography of M. Fokin is on London and Parisian scenes. The First World War interrupted Ravel's work. He signed up as a volunteer and served more than three years as a driver in the automobile division. The first large work written by him after demobilization was the suite of the “tomb of Cooper” Francois Cuperin - the French composer and organist of the XVIII century, which he dedicated to his dead friends.

The music of Rael of the 10ths became polyphonic, the poetic paintings were replaced by dramatic contrasts between melodic themes. The brightest works are “waltz” and 2 piano concerts. When Paul Wittgenstein, a famous pianist, having lost his right hand in the war, turned to the composers with a request to create music for him, Rael writes for him a symphony “concert for the left hand”.

The "waltz" of Ravel is unusual. Two contrasting topics are intertwined in it - serene, spinning melody of a waltz, and gloomy, frightening chords, like thunderstorm clouds running around the sky.

And, of course, Bolero. Ravel wrote this ballet by order of the Russian dancer Ida Rubinstein. Ravel himself described him like this: “This is dance music, which should be performed at an even, moderate pace; It is built on a stubborn repetition of the same melody and harmony, the monotonous rhythm of which is all the time beaten by the drum. The only element of diversity in it is all the growing orchestral bapto.

” And he added: "It is unlikely that he will be performed at Sunday concerts." Belro is based on variations on the theme of a melody that looks like an old Spanish folk dance of Bolero, but at a shorter pace. The premiere of Ballet Ballet took place in the year in the Paris Grand Opera and was a great success. Since then, to some surprise of Ravel himself, Bolero does not leave world music scenes.

There are many choreographic interpretations. Symphony orchestral productions are no less popular. It is called "hypnotic", "bewitching." It would seem that the score was studied thoroughly, the “mechanism” of the impact is absolutely understandable, you can know the melody by heart, but over and over again, the chord behind the chord, the “bolero” picks up its listener and leads step by step from the first quiet sounds of flute, to the final bursts of magnificent climax.