Ravel - Events in brief

Maurice Ravel conducting the orchester, probably at London's Queen's hall on April 14th, 1923.

1875 Maurice Ravel was born on March 7 in Cibourne, near the French-Spanish border.
1889 Became a student at the Conservatory of Paris.
1895 He writes the first major works, Habanera and Menuet antique (first published work).
1905 Fails for the fourth time to win the Grand Prize of Rome.
1909 Completes his first opera, "The Spanish Hour".
1912 Completes his first ballet, "Daphnis et Chloe".
1915 Enlisted as a guide in the French army.
1917 His mother dies.
1925 Completes the opera "The Child and the Spells".
1928 First tour of the United States, composes "Bolero".
1932 Car accident interrupts his synthetic activity.
1937 Dies on December 28 in Paris after brain surgery.

Because of Ravel's almost ideological attachment to the detail of the composition, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky called him "the most perfect of Swiss Watchmakers".
Ravel was at the center of a pioneering group of musicians and writers called Les Apaches. The name is due to a newspaperman who met the group on a Paris street and was surprised by their eccentric appearance.

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