Maurice Ravel Quotes

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was a French composer.

• "Then M. Ravel discussed another idea. That was that in these days of cacophony it might be quite an original idea for the orchestra to start, say, in C major, and then, through a series of discords the instruments should divide, some going up a semitone at every three or four bars, while others went down in the same way, eventually ending in perfect harmony in C major two octaves apart. He said: 'It is just an idea but it might be rather fun working it out and certainly a novel way of resolving harmony from discord.'"
  • Maurice Ravel and unattributed.

    "Finding Tunes in Factories", Evening Standard, London, 24 February 1932.

  • Also printed in: Orenstein, Arbie, ed. (1990).A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews, p.490-91. New York: Columbia University Press.
• "Mais est-ce qu'il ne vient jamais à l'idée de ces gens-là que je peux être 'artificiel' par nature?"
  • "But do these people never come up with the idea that I might be artificial by nature?"
  • Answering M. D. Calvocoressi on a question insinuating that many people thought Ravel's music rather "artificial" than "natural".
  • quoted in Calvocoressi's Musicians gallery, London, Faber, 1933
• "I have the intention to dedicate Le Gibet to you. It is not because I think you merit a rope to hang yourself, but because it is the least difficult of the three pieces."
  • Ravel to pianist Jean Marnold about Le Gibet from Gaspard de la Nuit