Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel was a French composer and pianist of Swiss-Basque descent. He was one of the most prominent figures of musical impressionism, along with his contemporary Claude Debussy. He developed a style of great clarity and elegance, incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and jazz. He was a master of orchestration, creating rich and colorful soundscapes that often evoked exotic places and moods. He was also a virtuoso pianist who wrote many pieces for his own instrument, as well as for chamber music, ballet, opera and song. Some of his most famous works include Boléro, a one-movement orchestral piece that gradually builds up to a climax of rhythmic and melodic repetition; Pavane pour une infante défunte, a nostalgic and graceful piano piece later orchestrated by the composer; and Daphnis et Chloé, a ballet based on a Greek pastoral romance. Ravel was highly respected by his peers and critics, and influenced many composers of his own and later generations. He was also an innovator in the field of recording, participating in several recordings of his own works as a pianist or conductor. He died in 1937 at the age of 62, after undergoing an unsuccessful brain surgery to treat a neurological condition that impaired his ability to speak and write music.