MAURICE RAVEL

(1875-1937)
By P A U L LANDORMY

T HE year 1937 dealt harshly with French musicians. After the

death of Charles-Marie Widor, Gabriel Piernd, and Albert
Roussel, came Maurice Ravel's turn to go. His name shines bril-
liantly in the musical firmament; he is one of the purest and greatest
glories of France.

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

Maurice Joseph Ravel was born March 7, 1875, at Ciboure,
Basses-Pyre'ne'es, not far from St.-Jean-de-Luz. His mother was
Basque, his father's family came from Versoix, on the Lake of
Geneva. His admirable father was the rare exception to the rule, for
he actually encouraged his son to become a musician.
A few weeks after his birth, little Maurice was taken to Paris,
where his parents definitely established their domicile. At the age
of twelve, he began taking harmony lessons from Charles Rend, to
whom he soon presented a set of Variations sur un choral de Schu-
mann and a Premier Mouvement de sonate. In 1889 Ravel was
admitted to the Paris Conservatoire, in the preparatory piano class
conducted by Anthiome. Later he studied the violin for four years
with Charles de Bdriot, and through him met Ricardo Vines, whose
intimate friend he became.
Vifies's friendship was not without influence on Ravel's fondness
for Spanish themes and rhythms, a taste instinctive with Ravel by
reason of his Basque strain. Vines encouraged his friend's natural
inclination by playing for him a great many Spanish compositions
which his brother Pepito, familiarly called "Pepe", a marvellous
dancer, would accompany with the most picturesque dances.
When Ravel played his first attempts at composition, he made
the good Charles de BeYiot shiver with horror; he was, in the eyes
of both master and fellow-students, a revolutionary. When he studied
harmony with Pessard, counterpoint and fugue with G&ialge, and
composition with Gabriel Faur£, however, he proved to be a student
most docile, most submissive, and most concerned with strictly ap-
plying the rules. Yet, while bearing rules in mind, he would some-
430
 Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015
The Last Photograph of Maurice Ravel
Ravel coaching Jacques FeVrier in the interpretation of the
Concerto for Left Hand, shortly before his deatli
(From La-Revue Internationale de musique)
Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015
 Maurice Ravel 431
times risk the most adventurous audacities. In his Habanera, a
genuine masterpiece composed in 1895 or 1896, he wrote thus:

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

But he reserved these audacities for his free compositions, written
outside of class and away from the master's control.
In 1901 he won the Second Grand Prix de Rome. In the competi-
tions of 1902 and 1903, no award was given him. His judges thought
that he had made fun of them in submitting cantatas so academic
that they seemed almost parodies. In 1904 he did not compete. In
1905 he presented himself, but was refused at the trial competition.
This was a great scandal; the entire press protested—what 1 the author
of Shihirazade, of Jeux d'eaux, and of the String Quartet (for he
had already composed these three indisputable masterpieces) was
being eliminated from the Concours de Romel
This rebuff showed only the more clearly the place that he had
already taken in French music.

At this time Ravel was thin of body, hollow-cheeked, with large

nose and with an intelligent, ironic, piercing glance—a slight little
man, energetic in his gestures. Alluding to his Basque origin, Andre
Suares recognizes Spain "everywhere in Ravel". He notes Ravel's
wiry leanness, at once fragile and resistant, "the persuasive strength
and flexibility of the finest tempered steel". It seems to me, how-
ever, that Spain was not quite everywhere in him; in spite of his
love of the Iberian countries, he remained ever a Frenchman. His
face changed little after he was twenty, although he often modified
the style of his beard. At first he had a full beard with two points,
 432 . The Musical Quarterly
then short whiskers in the Austrian style, and finally no beard at
all, thus emphasizing the fineness of his sharp profile.
At times people accused him of affectation. But he himself said
one day to one of his friends, "Does it never occur to them that I
may be artificial by nature?" His spontaneous gestures, devoid of
all pretense, revealed, indeed, a thoroughly original turn of mind.
Yet, in reality, no one was more simple than this man, who could
rightfully be himself without imitating anyone.
People accused him, however, of imitating Debussy. They took
delight in discovering in his works the favorite techniques of the

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

composer of PelHas: the use of sevenths, ninths, and elevenths freely
linked; a predilection for certain scales not of the classical tradition;
a studied seeking after refined sonorities and vaporously enveloping
effects; and, in the orchestra, a division of the strings. They accused
Ravel of "Debussyism".
Ravel denied it1; or, rather, his friends fiercely took up his
defense against this charge. They pointed out the very individual
character of his melodic recitative,
Le Martin— P6cheur
On ne pcuiplus lent I -=—i

J
n'a pasmor - du ce Soir mais je rap-porteune rare e-mo-tio
the entirely new use he was making of pedals in inner voices, of
multiple appoggiaturas and acciaccaturas, and notably of the un-
resolved appoggiatura above the seventh in the diminished seventh
chord.

They pointed out that Ravel rarely uses the augmented fifth chord,
so dear to Debussy, and almost never uses the whole-tone scale. The
i Thui, in a letter to Pierre Lalo, dated February 5, 1906, he wrote: "You have com-
mented at great length upon a rather special method of writing for piano, the inven-
tion of which you attribute to Debussy. I wish to point out that my Jeux d' Ecu
appeared early in 1901, when there were no other piano works by Debusty than hit
three pieces Pour le Piano, which I admire very much but which contain nothing
new from the pianistic point of view." (Quoted from Nicholas Slonimiky, "Music
since 1900".)
 Maurice Ravel 433
augmented fifth chord, in fact, assumes in Ravel the very special
meaning of a part of the eleventh chord.1

In many points, then, Ravel's technique differs from Debussy's.

Indeed, the partial analogy between them masks a fundamental
difference of artistic temperaments—a difference which, in certain

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

respects, makes one the very opposite of the other. Debussy was a
dreamer, abandoning himself softly to the stream of sensation and
imagination with the sole idea of gathering from nature "impres-
sions" which he would reproduce faithfully in their vagueness, their
lightness, their inconsistency. He was that most of all. For he was
many kinds of person at once: true, there is not much of the impres-
sionist apparent to us when we witness the scenes of Golaud's vio-
lence; but even there the fury is breathed across a veil of exquisite
legend which does not let us perceive harsh reality. It still remains
that "impressionism" is one of the fundamental characteristics of
Claude Debussy. Maurice Ravel is not at all a dreamer. He has a
clear and definite perception of things. He seems to seek nothing
beyond what he sees. What he imagines always has the precision of
reality, as in the Histoires naturelles.
Perhaps I am exaggerating, and7to contradict me one could cite
significant examples from Ma Mire I'Oye (Le Jardin fierique), from
Shihtrazade, or from the String Quartet. But the mystery that
Ravel invokes by his revery is not of the same order as Debussy's,
and is translated into musical terms so precise and studied that it is
almost as clear as day. And how often Ravel looks upon things with
coldly critical eye and ironic smilel How keen he is, how intelligent,
as in L' Heure espagnole\ At all events, his music is always remark-
able for its substantialness, however delicate and light it may be. It
is of a classical correctness and elegance. Let us not forget how fond
he was of Saint-Saens, to whom he is allied in his manner of treating
and developing ideas, as, for instance, in his Trio for piano, violin,
and violoncello. Saint-Saens's name, encountered here quite natu-
rally, takes us far from Debussy.
1 Roland-Manuel, Maurice Ravel et son oevvre dramatique.
434 The Musical Quarterly
Too far, perhaps: this precision in writing has made certain
people say that Ravel lacked feeling. He himself boasted of it some-
what—or came near to boasting. Let us not take him at his word, nor
at the word of some of his commentators. "Everything in Ravel",
declares Andre Suares, "proves his wish to obliterate himself and to
confide nothing. He would rather be taken for unfeeling than to
betray his sentiments." If necessary he would pretend something in
order to hide from us his true feelings. "He is a deceiver."
This "deception" of Ravel's was a clever one, and took everyone
in.

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

But, none the less, music betrays in the most tell-tale manner the
feelings of its composer. All artifices are in vain: music does not lie.
It is vain to repeat (though not entirely wrong): "The music of
Ravel often gives the impression of a marvellous machine, of a watch
accurate to the tenth of a second, of a mechanism regulated to the
hundredth of a millimeter. Ravel is the most perfect of Swiss watch-
makers. . . ." The fact remains that this music is human, that it
reveals a man, and that one can tentatively make the musician's
portrait from his music. After all, this fine mechanism did not drop
from heaven. And we refuse to believe that it is the work of a
wonderfully organized pure intelligence. If it were, it would not
"touch" us; it would not give us pleasure.
But let us hear Ravel himself speak of his art. He once made
some confessions that we have^preserved. One day he declared that
he was "moved unto tears by that gorgeous Iberia, by those Parfums
de la nuitj so profoundly touching. . . ." These are not the words
of an insensitive man. Nor are these: "There are rules for mak-
ing a building hold up, but none for linking modulations together.
Yes, only one—inspiration." Still more explicitly, he said: "The
source of genius—that is, of artistic creation—can be made up only
of instinct or feeling." And, to give a final quotation: "In art, the
craft in the absolute sense of the word cannot exist. In the harmo-
nious proportions of a work, in the elegance of its development, the
role of inspiration is almost unlimited; the will to develop some-
thing can be only sterile." In this he has spoken the truth. These
unequivocal assertions of Ravel's reveal to us his inner nature.
Of course, Maurice Ravel evolved; and, perhaps under the in-
fluence of his own admirers, he finally conceived a picture of himself
 Maurice Ravel 435
quite different from reality such as he had at first perceived it: from
then on, he attributed to intelligence what was due to feeling.
His capacity for feeling attached itself to a great variety of things:
sometimes strange and fantastic objects, as in Gaspard de la nuit; at
other times, on the contrary, to the simplicity and ingenuity of chil-
dren's tales, like Ma Mere I 'Oye, the fairy quality of which en-
chanted him. He loved irony, and excelled in it, without losing
thereby his taste for emotion, which he hid only because he wished
to avoid excess of it. And emotion often appears in Ravel just where
one least expects it: in an ingenious modulation apparently sought

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

for its own sake, or would-be elegance.
He himself once indicated to his friend Calvocoressi the pas-
sages in his works where the direct expression of emotion, far from
being excluded, was deliberately attempted. He designated particu-
larly the beginning of Asie in Shihe'razade, UIndifferent in the
same collection, and the Martin-Pecheur and the end of Le Grillon
in the Histoires naturelles. Calvocoressi wished to add the slow
movement of the String Quartet and the Oiseaux tristes—th&t mag-
nificent piece which, just after it was composed, Ravel would play
again and again for his friends, who could not manage to capture its
beauty despite all the composer's efforts and their own good inten-
tions. For my part, I should further include La Belle et la Bite,
which seems to me heart-rending in its effect, and the rapturously
delightful Jardin fierique. All this does not mean that Ravel cannot
elsewhere stir our emotions. But these are the special places.
Everywhere some feeling animates and "constructs" this perfect
music. It is a perfection overwhelming in its infallibility. Mozart
himself is not always this perfect. It is a perfection of an infinitely
sensitive grace, a thousand leagues from the cold correctness of the
academics—a grace that moves its auditors even when the music
would have nothing else to say but its very perfection.
So, despite the narrow frame in which he encloses his language,
despite the minute rules to which he subjects it—rules that made it
seem scanty when' it was not yet understood—, Ravel is able to
murmur to our hearts the secret words that have left in him their
live and penetrating wound. Like Couperin, his model and his mas-
ter, he conceals the ardor of a sensitive and—in its own way—
436 The Musical Quarterly
passionate soul beneath an exterior of indifferent politeness and a
sovereign and impassible air of distinction; and it is not by any
means through skill alone that his art is great

What must be noted, however, is Ravel's horror of whatever

arouses the passions. He could not bear unreserved sentimental effu-
sions, loud cries, grand gestures. Only a compact and restrained art
could satisfy him.
That is why he never composed a real opera. He tried to write for

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

the theater twice, and with great success both times. Among his best
works are L'Heure espagnole (a musical comedy in one act, text by
Franc-Nohain, 1907) and L'Enfant et les sortileges (a lyric fantasy
in two tableaux after Madame Colette's booklet, 1920-25). But the
subjects that he treats have nothing moving in them, and they are
wholly compatible with his fondness for the "inhuman", as we say
today, taking the word in its etymological sense. Indeed, there are
some men and one woman on the stage in L'Heure espagnole, but
the scene occurs at a watchmaker's shop and the symphony of the
clocks takes up almost as much time as the commentary on the
human action. The clocks become, after a fashion, "inhuman" char-
acters to whom the composer lends voices and souls. In L'Enfant et
les sortileges, there is only one human being on the stage, the child;
and he is surrounded by all sorts of animals whose speaking voice
the composer lets us hear. He makes animate even the furniture and
the household utensils. The duet between the Wedgwood teapot
(tenor) and the China cup (mezzo) is a delightful bit. Ravel invests
even inanimate objects with sentiments and discovers there a source
of emotion that does not fail to move us.
In this last work, L'Enfant et les sortileges, there appears also
what is known in Ravel as the "passion for the impossible". One
could say truly that, when Ravel chooses literary subjects for musical
treatment, he searches at music's very antipodes. It would not be
beyond his fancy to make an armchair sing, and to produce by its
song an expressive effect. Likewise, in the realm of chamber music,
one cannot imagine a text that would apparently lend itself less
suitably to music than Jules Renard's Histoires naturelles:
 Maurice Ravel 437
The Kingfisher
They didn't bite very well this evening, but I caught a rare emotion.
Ai I was holding out my rod with the line taut, a kingfisher came to perch on
i t . . . We have no bird more splendid. . . .
The Peacock
He is surely going to be married today. It was supposed to take place
yesterday. He was ready, all dressed up in bis Sunday clothes. He was only
waiting for his fiancee. She didn't show up. . . .
It is marvellous to consider the music suggested to Ravel by these
lines and the added poetry with which it envelops them.1

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

We have just said a word regarding Ravel's works for the theater.
Among his other most characteristic works should be cited the fol-
lowing: Shihirazade (1903), a suite of three settings of poems by
Tristan Klingsor, in which there is translated with particular inten-
sity a nostalgic soul's sensual curiosity for adventure; the Histoires
naturelles (1907), to which we have just referred above; the Rap-
sodie espagnole (1908), in which the violence, fury, and abandon
of the Spanish soul are rendered with surprising truth, yet with a
delicately French sensitiveness that has sifted away all coarseness;
Daphnis et Chloi, at once a ballet and a broad symphonic fresco,
which, though it is the work that has most affected all Maurice
Ravel's publics, and though it contains magnificent passages, such as
the famous "Dawn", is not perhaps the most steadily personal of his
works, nor the one that reveals best the innermost feeling of the
composer; the Tombeau de Couperin, homage to a revered musical
ancestor, as delightful in its original piano form as in its bewitching
sRenard, in bit remarkable "Journal", made, under date of January it, 1907, a
curious entry which, translated into English, reads as follows: "M. Ravel, the musician
of the Histohres Naturelles, black, rich and subtle, insists that I go, this evening, to
hear his songs. I confess my Ignorance and ask him what he could have possibly added
to the Histoira Naturelles.
— My intention, said he, was not to add but to interpret.
— In what way?
— To say in music what you say in words when you stand, for instance, before a tree.
I think and feel in music, and I want to think and feel the same things you do. There
exists an instinctive, sentimental music, which is my kind—to be sure, you have to
know first your craft—and there is the intellectual music: that of dindy. There will
be nothing but dlndys this evening. They do not admit such a thing as emotion,
which they refuse to explain. I am of the opposite opinion; but they find interesting
what I have written, since they admit me [<o their program]. It is very important to
me, this test. At any rate, I am sure of my singer; she is admirable."—Ed.
438 The Musical Quarterly
transcription for orchestra; the Valse (1920), the most unexpected
of the compositions of Ravel, revealing to us heretofore unexpected
depths of Romanticism, power, vigor, and rapture in this musician
whose expression is usually limited to the manifestations of an essen-
tially classical genius—depths that he gave evidence of nowhere else
so brilliantly; finally, after the popular Boliro, the two piano Con-
certos, one for two hands and one for left hand alone (1931),
supreme successes, which practically constitute this genius's adieu
to music.
He was one of the greatest composers of our era, equal in his class

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

to Claude Debussy or Richard Strauss.
And he was also an admirable character. Reserved, secretive, dis-
tant to the importunate, he was yet capable of the most extreme
devotion to his friends and of the greatest kindnesses to young artists
whom he deemed worthy of aid. He was a man of courage, enlisting
as a volunteer to serve in the War with other Frenchmen. He was a
proud man, refusing all honors, even the red ribbon offered to him
in vain. He did not belong to the Institute. He manifested a remark-
able independence of mind and never sacrificed an opinion to spare
his reputation or his success. He commanded respect by the strength
of his genius, and also by the influence of this unshakeable dignity.
THE WORKS OF MAURICE RAVEL
Year Publisher
•893 (?) Sirinade grotesque, for piano, two-hands. Unpublished
1894 Ballade de la reine morte d'aimer, for voice and Unpublished
piano (Roland de Mares) .
1895 Menuet antique, for piano, two-hands. Enoch
1895-96 Sites auriculaires, for two pianos, four-hands. Unpublished
1. Habanera
s. Entre cloches
(The Habanera is taken up again in the Rap-
sodie espagnole.)
1896 Un Grand Sommeil noir, for voice and piano Unpublished
(Verlaine).
Sainte, for voice and piano (Mallarme'). Durand
1898 Deux ipigrammes, for voice and piano (Marot). Demets (Eschig)
1. If Anne jouant de I'espinette
s. If Anne qui me jecta de la neige
Shih&razade* overture for orchestra. Unpublished
1899 Pavane pour une infante difunte, for piano, later Demets (Eschig)
arranged for orchestra.
Si morne, for voice and piano (Verhaeren). Unpublished
 Maurice Ravel 439
Year Publisher
igoi Jeux d'eau, for piano. Demets (Eschig)
Myrrha, cantata for the Concoun de Rome (Beissier) . Unpublished
1902-03 Quatuor a cordes. Durand
1903 Manteau de fieurs, for voice and piano (Gravollet). Hamelle
Shihirazade, for voice and orchestra (Tristan Durand
Klingsor).
1. Asie
x. La Flite enchantie
3. L'lndiQirent
Alcyone, cantata for the Concoun de Rome (A. and Unpublished
F. Adenis).
1905 Miroin, for piano. Demets (Eschig)

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

1. Noctuelles
s. Oiseaux tristes.
3. Une Barque SUT Vocian
4. Alb orado del gracioso
5. La ValUe des cloches
Le Noel des jouets, for voice and piano (M. Ravel) . Mathot
Alyssa, cantata for the Concoun de Rome. Unpublished
Sonatine, for piano. Durand
1906 Introduction and Allegro, for harp, flute, clarinet, Durand
and string quartet (later arranged for orchestra).
Les Grands Vents venus d'outre-mer, for voice and Durand
piano (H. de Regnier) .
Histoires naturelles, for voice and piano (J. Renard) . Durand
1. Le Paon
x. Le Grillon
3. Le Cygne
4. Le Mdrtin-Pecheur
5. La Pintade
1906-11 Daphnis et Chloi, choreographic symphony in three Durand
parts (Michel Fokine).
1907 Sur I'herbe, for voice and piano (Verlaine) . Durand
Vocalise en forme d'habanera, for voice and piano. Leduc
Cinq milodies populaires grecques, for voice and Durand
piano (translations by M. D. Calvocoressi).
1. Le Reveil de la marine
x. La-bas vert Viglise
3. Quel galant!
4. Chanson de cueilleuse de lentisques
5. Tout gai!
Rapsodie espagnole, for orchestra. Durand
1. Prelude a la nuit
s. Malaguefia
3. Habanera
4. Feria
1908 Gaspard de la nuit, for piano (after Aloysius Durand
Bertrand).
1. Ondine
440 The Musical Quarterly
Year Publisher
a. Le Gibet
3. Scarbo
Ma Mire VOje, for piano, four-hands. Durand
5 pieces enfan tines:
l. Pavane de la belle an bois dormant
a. Petit Poucet
3. Laideronnette, impiratrice det pagodes
4. La Belle et la Bete
5. Le Jardin fierique
1909 Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn, for piano. Durand
1910 Chanson franjaise, for voice and piano. Jurgenson
italienne, '

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

" espagnole, " " " "
hibraique,
" icossaise, '
" flamande, " " " "
" russe,
(Accompaniments of folk-songs written for the
competition held by the Maison du lied. The first
four were selected. The fourth was arranged for
orchestra.)
1911 Valses nobles et sentimentales, for piano. Durand
191s Ma Mire I'Oye, ballet, after the suite for piano, Durand
four-hands (1908).
Adelaide ou Le Langage des fleurs, ballet, after the Durand
Valses nobles et sentimentales.
1913 Prilude, for piano (test-piece for sight-reading com- Durand
petition at the Conservatoire).
A la maniire de . . . , for piano. Mathot
1. Borodine
s. Chabrier-
Trots poimes de Stiphane Mallarmi, for voice ac- Durand
companied by piano, two flutes, two clarinets, and
string quartet.
1. Soupir
s. Placet futile
3. Surgi de la croupe
1914-15 Trio in A minor, for piano, violin, and violoncello. Durand
1914 Kaddisch, for voice and piano. Durand
1915 Trois chansons, for mixed chorus a cappella. Durand
1. Nicole tie
a. Trois beaux oiseaux
3. Ronde
1917 Le Tombeau de Couperin, for piano. Durand
1. Prilude
t. Fugue
3. Forlane
 Maurice Ravel 441

Year Publisher
4. Rigaudon
5. Menuet
6. Toccata
(AH except Nos. s and 6 arranged for orchestra)
1919 Frontispice, for two pianos, four-hands, for a book Feuillets d'Art
by Canudo, Pohne de Vardor.
La Vahe, choreographic poem for orchestra. Durand
lgto-xs Sonata, for violin and violoncello, in four movements. Durand
19*0-15 L'Enfant et les sortiliges, lyric fantasy in two tab- Durand
leaux (Mme. Colette).
igss Berceuse, sur le nom de Fauri, composed for the Durand

Downloaded from http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/ at East Carolina University on June 27, 2015

supplement of an issue of La Revue musicale,
dedicated to Fauri.
1014-17 Sonate, for violin and piano, in three movements. Durand
1924 Ronsard a son tone (P. de Ronsard) , composed for Durand
the Tombeau de Ronsard, in a supplement of La
Revue musicale.
19*4 Orchestral transcription of Musorgsky's "Pictures at Bessel
an Exposition".
19*5 Tzigane, concert rhapsody for violin and piano- Durand
lutheaL
1985-16 Trois chansons tnadicasses (Evariste Parny), for Durand
voice accompanied by piano, flute, and violoncello.
[Written for Mrs. E. S. Coolidge; the composer's
holographs are.in the Library of Congress.]
19*7 Rives, for voice and piano (L. P. Fargue). Durand
L'£ventail de Jeanne, fanfare for a ballet composed Heugel
in collaboration with G. Auric, Delannoy, Ferroud,
Ibert, Milhaud, Poulenc, Roland-Manuel, Roussel,
and FL Schmitt.
19S9 BoUro, for orchestra. Durand
1931 Concerto, for piano, two-hands, and orchestra. Durand
Concerto de piano, for the left hand alone, with Durand
orchestra.
1934 Don Quicholte 4 Dulcinie, three songs accompanied Durand
by piano or orchestra.
1. Chanson romantique
s. Chanson ipique
5. Chanson a boire
(Translated by Willis Wager)