780.92 R2528g Goss Bolero, the life of Maurice Ravel, Kansas city public library Kansas city, missouri Books will be issued only on presentation of library card. Please report lost cards and change of residence promptly. Card holders are responsible for all books, records, films, pictures or other library materials checked out on their cards. 3 1148 00427 6440 . i . V t""\ 5 iul. L-* J d -I- (. _.[_..., BOLERO THE LIFE OF MAURICE .RAVEL '/ ^Bpofas fay Madeleine Goss : BEETHOVEN, MASTER MUSICIAN DEEP-FLOWING BROOK: The Story of Johann Sebastian Bach (for younger readers) BOLERO : The Life of Maurice Ravel Maurice Ravel, Manuel from a photograph by Henri BOLERO THE LIFE OF MAURICE RAVEL BY MADELEINE GOSS "De la musique avant toute chose, De la musique encore et toujours." Verlaine NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Wfti^zsaRD UNIVERSITY PRESS COPYRIGHT, IQ40, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA '.'/I 19 '40 To the memory of my son ALAN who, in a sense, inspired this work CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Bolero 1 II. Childhood on the Basque Coast . 14 III. The Paris Conservatory in Ravel's Time 26 IV. He Begins to Compose .... 37 V. Gabriel Faure and His Influence on Ravel 48 VI. Failure and Success .... 62 VII. Les Apaches 74 VIII. The Music of Debussy and Ravel . 87 IX. The "Stories from Nature" ... 100 X. The Lure of Spain 114 XL Ma Mere VOye 128 XII. Daphnis and Chloe 142 XIII. The "Great Year of Ballets" ... 156 XIV. Ravel Fights for France .... 170 XV. "The Child and the Sorceries" . 185 XVI. Ravel's Home at Montfort-l'Amaury . 203' XVII. Concerts in America .... 216 XVIII. Last Compositions . 233 vii CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XIX. "Simple, sans remords" , . 248 XX. Finale 258 Acknowledgments 263 List of Ravel's Compositions . 265 Recordings of Ravel's Works . 275 Bibliography 283 Source Notes 285 General Index 293 Index of Ravel's Compositions . 301 Vlll ILLUSTRATIONS Maurice Ravel frontispiece Ravel directing Bolero 1 Ravel's baptismal certificate .... 18 Marie Eluarte Ravel 20 Joseph Ravel 20 Ravel's birthplace 20 Maurice Ravel and his brother, Edouard . 21 Ricardo Vines 52 Gabriel Faure 53 A group of Prix de Rome contestants ... 64 Ravel with his famous beard .... 65 Vines and Ravel 78 A letter from Ravel to Vines .... 79 The gateway to Le Belvedere .... 104 One of Ravel's scores 105 Le Belvedere from the garden .... 120 Teatime on the balcony 121 Rooftops Montfort-PAmaury .... 134 ix ILLUSTRATIONS RavePs writing-table 135 "Zizi," Ravel's mechanical bird . 135 Ravel "lifts his mask" 158 Edouard Ravel 168 The piano in Ravel's study 169 The bedroom at Le Belvedere .... 169 Ravel as a soldier during the World War . 174 Ravel's study in the home of M. and Mme Bonnet 174 The bedroom and bar, designed by Leon Leyritz 175 A corner of Ravel's modern bedroom . .175 Mme Reveleau, Ravel's faithful bonne . 206 The villa at Montfort-l'Amaury .... 207 Ravel with his Siamese kitten, "Mouni" . 212 At Biarritz with Mme Jourdan-Morhange and M. Vines 212 A later portrait of Ravel 240 At StJean-de-Luz with Mme Marguerite Long . 240 Back to France from the United States . 241 Going over a score with Jacques Fevrier . 254 Death-sketch by Luc-Albert Moreau . 254 Ravel's tomb in Levallois-Perret .... 255 BOLERO THE LIFE OF MAURICE RAVEL Ravel directing Bolero. I BOLERO FIRST ORCHESTRAL PRESENTATION OF "BOLERO" THE COMPOSITION ANALYZED RAVEL's PERSONALITY T HE of the foyer Opera-Comique in Paris was filled, one November evening in 1928, with an excited crowd of Some still remained in people. the theater, applauding and 99 madly crying, "Bis bis bravo!! The audience, moved to a frenzy by the steady beat of drums and gradually mounting crescendo of sound, were com under pletely the spell of the stirring music to which had they listened the first orchestral presentation of Ravel's Bolero. At the back of the hall a woman clutched hysterically at the exit door with both hands. "Aw fou . ." she cried. "Aufou!" Yet no one who had watched the little man as he stood on the podium, quietly but with relentless rhythm di the recting orchestra, could seriously have accused him of being crazy. On the contrary, he appeared the epitome of unhurried co-ordination. A slender figure, he was dressed in faultless evening clothes almost a shade too 1 BOLERO perfect. His gray hair gleamed silver in the light, and his narrow, ascetic face, with sharp nose and close-set eyes, showed no emotion. The thin lips were tight pressed, as if trying to shut away all outward expres sion of the pleasure which the enthusiastic reception of his Bolero gave him. In the artists' foyer a growing crowd waited to ac claim Ravel. "C'etait magnifique, Maurice," a friend cried, seizing him by both hands. "The audience was carried off its feet!" Ravel smiled ironically. "That was my intention," he replied. "A deliberate attempt, if you like, to work up the emotions." "del how you succeeded!" his brother exclaimed, and told him of the woman who had cried "Au fou!" Ravel smiled again. "She is the only one who really understood." To Ravel's own surprise, his Bolero took the musical world of two continents by storm. People from all walks of life the man in the street as well as the educated music-lover were completely fascinated by the stirring rhythm of its simple theme. Ravel, whose fame had pre viously been restricted to a limited number of admirers, became almost overnight a musician of international im portance. The critics, who do not always echo popular opinion, 2 BOLERO joined with one accord to marvel at Bolero. They spoke of its "irresistible power of bewitchment/' and called it 9 "an amazing wager of virtuosity/ a "tour de force of orchestration," Ravel could not understand this success. (When Bolero was in rehearsal he was heard to remark: "Celui-la, on ne Ventendra jamais aux grands concerts du Dimanche" On the contrary, it became such a favor ite with concert audiences that some called it "la Mar seillaise des Concerts Classiques.") In the United States the success of Bolero was even greater than abroad. Toscanini first presented it in the fall of 1929, and the audience was so carried away that it stamped and howled with enthusiasm. Countless per formances followed, given by every conceivable com bination of instruments from symphony orchestras to jazz bands; it was played at radio concerts and at cabaret shows; it became more popular than so-called "popular music." As a final triumph, Hollywood, whose endorse ment is the last word in public favor, used it as the basis of a moving-picture. Believing Bolero to be an opera, a film company paid Ravel a fabulous sum for the rights; then, finding that it was only a musical composition, ended by using just the title with the music as back ground. Yet to Ravel Bolero was one of his least important works. Few will deny that he wrote it with his tongue in his cheek. "C'est une blague" he admitted a wager (gageure) with himself to see how successfully he could 3 BOLERO develop one simple phrase into a major orchestral com fashion he dis position. In characteristically modest claimed all credit for his extraordinary achievement: "Once the idea of using only one theme was discovered/' done he said, "any Conservatory student could have as well. ." The theme of Bolero is of little importance; it is the it a superlative orchestration that makes masterpiece. One might expect a work built upon a single phrase to be monotonous and uninteresting; but the contrary is true: the varied coloring and combinations of the dif ferent instruments which Ravel has used produce an effect of great variety and richness. There is a proverb in France which says that "the sauce makes the fish" le In the case of Bolero (la sauce fait passer poisson). 9 the theme is the fish, and the orchestration the sauce. Ravel reduced the fish to nothing, and by means of the sauce produced a supremely palatable dish. It is the workmanship in this composition which is important, rather than the musical outline, and Ravel asserted that in this respect at least it was one of his most successful * compositions. Of it he said: "I am particularly desirous that there should be no misun derstanding about this work. It constitutes an experiment in a very special and limited direction and should not be suspected of aiming at achieving anything other or more than what it actually does. Before its first performance I issued a warning to the effect that what I had written was a piece lasting seven teen minutes and consisting wholly of 'orchestral tissue with- BOLERO out music' of one long, very gradual crescendo. There are no contrasts, and there is practically no invention save the and the manner of execution. plan The themes are altogether . folk tunes of impersonal the usual Spanish-Arabian kind, and (whatever may have Been said to the contrary) the or chestral writing is simple and straightforward throughout, without the slightest attempt at virtuosity. ... I have carried out exactly what I intended, and it is for the listeners to take it or leave it." Bolero begins softly, and with such ingenuous sim plicity that it is hard to believe it can develop into the compelling force of the final climax. First the drums * herald the rhythm: 3 3 3 333 nnn Pp v v f 7 PP This beat continues through the entire number with monotonous insistence and a very gradual crescendo.