Ravel, Maurice

In his formative years, Claude Debussy (1862-1918) experienced the influence of the artistic movement of Impressionism and the literary movement of Symbolism. Both of these movements profoundly influenced Debussy and contributed to the formation of his aesthetics and tastes. Mau…

Composer Maurice Ravel was deeply affected by his experience as a truck-driving soldier in World War I (WWI). For the rest of his life, he never fully came out of the shadow of losing his friends in combat and his beloved mother during the same years. This study examines the imp…

In this dissertation, I study the Eastern influences on the music of the French composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), in particular, the composer’s masterpiece, Gaspard de la nuit (1908). This piano composition consists of three movements, “Ondine,” “Le Gibet,” and “Scarbo,” each …

Anxiety about the invasion of the foreign has always haunted France's quest for self-definition. Whether with regard to immigration policy, the Arabic and African slave trade, or even traveling circuses, the nation's fascination with---and imagination of---the exotic continues t…