Maurice Ravel
France, 1895–1937
French composer (1875-1937) known for precise orchestration. Bolero, Daphnis et Chloe and his orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition are central examples.
MusicRoots documents 8 artists who influenced Maurice Ravel and 7 artists Maurice Ravel influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Maurice Ravel?
- George Gershwin — Ravel turned down Gershwin as a pupil but took from him instead: the Piano Concerto in G of 1931 is long regarded as a kind of homage to Gershwin's jazz-inflected writing.
- Modest Mussorgsky — Ravel's 1922 orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition is the version the world knows — and Mussorgsky's raw modal harmony fed Ravel's own language, as it did all French modernism.
- Gabriel Fauré — Ravel studied composition under Fauré at the Conservatoire; his teacher's elegance, clarity and harmonic refinement shaped Ravel's language, and Ravel dedicated works to him.
- Erik Satie — Ravel was among the first, with Debussy, to recognise Satie's originality — Satie's constant experiments in musical form were a direct inspiration.
- Franz Liszt — Liszt's pianistic virtuosity and orchestral colour were among the models behind Ravel's own dazzling keyboard writing.
- Richard Wagner — Wagner's harmonic ambition was part of the late-Romantic backdrop that shaped Ravel's generation.
- François Couperin — Ravel claimed to be far more influenced by the structured classical forms of Couperin and Mozart than by Debussy — his Le Tombeau de Couperin is an explicit homage.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Ravel held up Mozart's classical clarity and structure as his true model, against the Impressionist label often pinned on him.
Which artists did Maurice Ravel influence?
- Burt Bacharach — Ravel completes the trio of French and modernist composers Bacharach names behind his harmony, alongside Debussy and Stravinsky.
- Astor Piazzolla — Ravel's harmony was among Piazzolla's studies in Paris and colours the lyrical side of his writing.
- Antonio Carlos Jobim — Ravel is the other French source behind Jobim's harmony and his orchestral writing.
- Isao Tomita — Ravel's orchestral colour was a natural fit for Tomita's synthesizer palette and one of the repertoires he made his own.
- Aram Khachaturian — As a young composer Khachaturian was strongly influenced by contemporary Western music, particularly Maurice Ravel's lush, colourful orchestration.
- Herbie Hancock — The French end of Hancock's harmony, and he puts Ravel in the same list as the jazz musicians rather than in a separate classical box.
- Bill Evans — One of the three French and Russian composers Evans is documented as drawing on.