Ravel was born on March 7, 1875, in France. He remains one of the best known composers of all time and is now regarded as one of the great Impressionist artists.
Ravel began studying at
the Paris Conservatory at age 14 and continued there into his early
twenties. During his long career he wrote music for all kinds of
instruments, including some very famous works for the piano. Ravel
loved to take pieces written for other instruments and rewrite them
for the orchestra. His best known works for the piano include Jeux
d'eau (Fountains), Miroirs (Mirrors), and Le Tombeau de Couperin (the
Tomb of Couperin). Ravel's orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's piano piece,
Pictures at an Exhibition, is widely played and well loved.
Ravel died in Paris,
France on December 28, 1937.
This year we've been studying some of the qualities of Impressionist music, and when you listen carefully you will hear many of these ideas in Ravel's music. Can you hear each of the Impressionist ideas we've studied in Jeux d'eau (Playing Water) linked below?
1) Dissonance - Notes that don't quite "fit" together.
2) Perpetual Motion - Motion that doesn't stop
3) Intervals of 4ths and 5ths
4) Large leaps between low and high sounds
5) Pedal effects that may sound veiled or blurry
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