March 7 - Maurice Ravel (The Musical Birthday Series, 5th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for March 7th  can be found here: John Wilbye (2019), Maurice Ravel (2020), and Thomas Linley the Younger (2021), Maurice Ravel (2022)

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Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Orchestral Morceaux

One critic wrote, "In reality he is, with Stravinsky, the one man in the world who best knows the weight of a trombone-note, the harmonics of a 'cello or a pp tam-tam in the relationships of one orchestral group to another." – adapted from Wikipedia

(1)

It’s a perfectly fair estimation

That you hear in Ravel’s orchestration

An ear so refined

That the sounds are combined

With precisely the right calibration.

(2)

Ravel, who created a splash

With flamboyant orchestral panache,

Avoided all hideousness

With Gallic fastidiousness,

And elegant Francophone flash.

 

 

 

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