Joseph-Maurice Ravel. A Concise Biography

Your Playlist:

Description

This installment of the Famous Composers series introduces the life and work of French composer Joseph-Maurice Ravel. Opening with pictures and a description of the composer's birthplace, the seaport of Ciboure in Basque country, the film characterizes Ravel's childhood and family as modest but pleasant. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at 14, and while he was a piano major, he was also greatly influenced by literature, and the film discusses how Poe, Baudelaire, and Mallarme touch his work. He struggled in the Conservatoire, and the conservative professors found him too radical. Along with one of his great influences, Debussy, Ravel became a leader of the French avant-garde. The film also discusses Ravel's involvement in WWI and how the experience and post-war world shaped his music.