March 7 - Maurice Ravel (The Musical Birthday Series, 6th 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), and Maurice Ravel (2023)

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do I Hear a Waltz?

“This dance [La valse] may seem tragic, like any other emotion... pushed to the extreme. But one should only see in it what the music expresses: an ascending progression of sonority, to which the stage comes along to add light and movement." – Maurice Ravel

In La valse it is tempting to hear a

Lament for the end of an era;

Said Ravel, “Though I know it may seem

Like a dirge for an ancien regime,

The piece I was hoping to write

Was a paeon to movement and light.”

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Songs of My Childhood

Said an Englishman after Bolero,

“I confess that it entered my marrow,

And yet it’s repetitive

And acts as a sedative, –

I'd rather hear “Lilliburlero."

 

 

 

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