The Young Alchemist (1893–1901): Forging a New Pianism Early Experiments: Spanish Grotesques and Antique Dances (1893-1895) Although Ravel’s compositional voice did not emerge fully formed,… Read More »Ravel’s Solo Piano Music, part 1
The Dawn of a New Sound: Debussy and the Aesthetics of Musical Impressionism To comprehend the persistent, yet often imprecise, association of Maurice Ravel with… Read More »The Faun and the Clockmaker: Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and the Impressionist Label...
On this day 150 years ago, Maurice Ravel, one of my absolute favourite composers, was born in Ciboure, a Basque town some ten miles from… Read More »A Pianist’s Guide to the Solo Works of Maurice Ravel
The Paradox of the Parlour Throughout the nineteenth century, a particular genre of music flourished, not in the grand, newly constructed concert halls of Europe,… Read More »Unfit for Intellectual Effort: Critical Condemnations of Salon Music in the 19th and 20th Centuries...
It is almost a dirty word, a label for a kind of polite, facile music, written for the bourgeoisie, lacking the heft of more serious,… Read More »In Defence of ‘Salon Music’: the Legacy of a Misunderstood Genre
