Volume 22, Number 7 · May 1, 1975
The Nostalgic Kingdom of Maurice Ravel
By Robert Craft
In the century since the birth of Maurice Ravel two or three Promethean composers have transformed the very identifying features of Western music. Ravel's influence was of a different and lesser order. Unlike Schoenberg, the creator of Ma Mère l'Oye and the Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé was not only of his time but wholly circumscribed by it, playing only a minor role in shaping the future. This is not an adverse judgment of him, especially in view of what that future has become, but it provides a perspective on his achievements, unnecessary as that may seem in the case of music at once so unproblematic and so enduringly popular. Yet the core of Ravel's personality is an enigma, reflected throughout his work in certain limitations of development, in the narrowness as well as the perfection of his expression, and in the disparity between the most and least successful in the comparatively small body of his music.
Feature, 3598 words
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