Joseph-Maurice Ravel Accomplishments

The twentieth was a century that saw two world wars, the Great Depression, the Russian Revolution, the invention and use of the atomic bomb, the invention of the airplane, man’s first steps on the moon, the Watergate Scandal and the resignation of President Nixon and Einstein’s Theory of Revolution. All of these events characterized change and revolt which were translated into the music of the twentieth century. Twentieth century music was a time of great development of dramatic reaction to the late romanticism of previous. The twentieth century saw a wide variety of living styles and cultures often meeting together which added to the variety of the music of this era. Music was influenced by non-European folk, American jazz and past music.

His mother was Basque and his father was Swiss. He began piano lessons at the age of 7 and at the age of 14 he was admitted to a music school in Paris Conservatoire. He studied under Gabriel Faure for 14 years at the conservatoire until his early twenties in which time he composed the Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess; 1899); the Jeux d'eau (1901), also known as "Fountains" or "Playing Water," the Sonatine (circa 1904), for the solo piano; the Miroirs (1905); and the Gaspard de la nuit(1908).
Ravel never married and had no children but he did have a few long term relationships. He was however often seen in the Bordellos of Paris. Musically he was influenced by music around the world from American Jazz to Asian Music. He was not fond of religious music and considered himself an atheist. Ravel died on December 28 1937 in Paris France.
In 20th centry, the Nationalism became huge political issue in the world. There were changes and development with politics, economics, society, culture, science and in music. In 20th century music, the composition developed from Romantic music in tone colour by having extreme instrumental ranges, melody that was often not tonal, new chords, twelve- tone system and rhythms were emphasized irregularly. Music became experimented with form, tonality and orchestration and Ravel was one of the composers who combined classical and jazz

Ravel composed the first movement for a magazine competition of which he was the only entrant but he never won because the magazine was on the verge of bankruptcy. The next two movements he completed two years later. In world history this was a time of great change in human history. In this time the Wright Brothers made the first controlled flight in an airplane, Henry Ford designed the first mass-produced car, the Bolshevik Party was established in Russia, Norway separated from Sweden, the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed and Albert Einstein developed the special theory of