1. Born in 1876, Maurice Ravel began his piano lessons when he was only six, and by the time he was 14 the future composer was already an accomplished musician who entertained first his family and friends with his recitals, eventually giving his very first public concert. In no small part his passion for music was influenced by his father, Joseph Ravel, an inventor but also a music afficionado, who wanted his children to discover the world of harmonies and classical compositions. 2. Totally devoted to his work, much to the surprise of his friends and admirers (and later his biographers) it seems that Ravel never had any romantic relationship. He never married, and the most important female presence in his life was his mothers, with whom he lived until her passing, in 1917. He often said that music was the only thing for him, and he wasn't "made for marriage", as he was destined for a rather unusual life. He was by all means a dandy, yet he wasn't interested in falling in love or starting a family, always saying that his music came before anything.
3. He has very much interested in miniatures and small mechanisms, undoubtly due to his father, and according to music critics this would play a huge part in the way he composed and played his music. At the same time in his youth he was an elegant and sociable fellow, who really enjoyed a good meal with nice company, inteligent conversation and some wine. He was also a heavy smoker. Later in life he proved to be passionate about gardening and he loved Siamese cats.
4. Ravel was not only impressed and to a point influenced by the new Russian composers of his time, but he also met the excentric Erik Satie, and although the two of them were rather opposed as musicians, Ravel will keep Satie in his heart as one of the greatest pianists he ever met.But according to Ravel himself the one musician who played a key role in his life was Gabriel Faure, who was his composition teacher.
5. Maurice Ravel was an admirer of Edgar Allan Poe, and even called him "my teacher in composition".
6. In 1920 he was awarded the prestigious Legion d'Honeur, yet to the surprise of the officials the composers refused it.
7. One of his most celebrated works, Pavane pour une infante defunte, was a composition for piano written for Princesse Edmond de Polignac. Dispite it's title, Ravel always said that it wasn't a funeral and sad work, but a fantasy imagining the little princess dancing in a Velazquez painting.
8. The Bolero was at first titled Fandango and it was a commissiion for a Russian ballerina.
9. Ravel was for a while one of the members of a group of Impressionists, bringing together writers, musicians, poets and painters. They called themselves "Les Apaches" and were regarded as the outcasts of the artistic world of the time, so it was somewhat puzzling that Maurice Ravel, an admired and popular artist, entered their ranks. It is also a strange thing since Ravel always rejected being considered an "Impressionist".
10. In the 1920s and the 1930s he was considered to be France's most important living composer. He was a wealthy and admired, yet he had his share of detractors.
Photo: wikipedia.org
