A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews

by Maurice Ravel (Editor), Arbie Orenstein

Maurice Ravel played a decisive role in the history of modern French music. This reader captures the essence of this enigmatic man through his own words, both written and spoken. This compilation of articles by Ravel (who was a brilliant critic) features reviews, interviews, and some 350 letters from Cocteau, Colette, de Falla, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, and others.

Genres: Music

704 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1989

About the author

French composer known especially for his melodies, masterful orchestration, richly evocative harmonies and inventive instrumental textures and effects. Along with Claude Debussy, he was one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music. Much of his piano music, chamber music, vocal music and orchestral music is part of the standard concert repertoire.

Ravel's piano compositions, such as Jeux d'eau, Miroirs, Le tombeau de Couperin and Gaspard de la nuit, demand considerable virtuosity from the performer, and his mastery of orchestration is particularly evident in such works as Rapsodie espagnole, Daphnis et Chloé and his arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Ravel is best known for his orchestral work Boléro (1928), which he once described as "a piece for orchestra without music".

Reviews

[Flavia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super helpful for my thesis, specially Part I. Also took some nice quotes by Ravel "Now criticism is easy, but art is difficult", " Real art, I repeat, is not to be recognised by definitions, or revealed by analysis: we sense its manifestations and we feel its presence: it is apprehended in no other way"