When and where was Maurice Ravel born?
Joseph Maurice Ravel entered the world on the 7th of March 1875 in Ciboure, a small town near Biarritz. His family moved to Paris three months after his birth.
Questions about Maurice Ravel
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Why did Maurice Ravel get expelled from the Paris Conservatoire?
Maurice Ravel was expelled twice because he failed to win composition prizes despite solid progress under teachers like Gabriel Fauré. Director Théodore Dubois actively opposed the young composer and ensured Ravel won no prizes during his second tenure before he was expelled again in 1900 after five attempts to win the prestigious Prix de Rome.
What happened to Maurice Ravel during World War One?
Germany invaded France in 1914 and Maurice Ravel joined the Thirteenth Artillery Regiment as a lorry driver in March 1915 at age forty. He composed few works including Le tombeau de Couperin which emerged between 1914 and 1917 as his most substantial wartime piece while his mother died in January 1917 leaving him in horrible despair.
Which work is considered Maurice Ravel's most famous composition?
Boléro became his most famous work commissioned for Ida Rubinstein's company and lasted seventeen minutes consisting wholly of orchestral tissue without traditional development. Arturo Toscanini popularized the piece through recordings made several hundred times even though critics called it a masterpiece lacking music inside.
How did Maurice Ravel die and when did his health decline begin?
Maurice Ravel suffered a blow to the head during a taxi accident in October 1932 which may have exacerbated existing cerebral conditions suggesting frontotemporal dementia or Alzheimer's disease. He died on the 28th of December 1937 at age sixty-two after neurosurgeon Clovis Vincent recommended surgery that proved short-lived before coma set in.