Ravel: A Listener's Guide (Unlocking the Masters Series) - Softcover

Victor Lederer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1574674773 ISBN 13: 9781574674774

Publisher: Amadeus (UK), 2015

Synopsis

An enigma to those who knew him, the early-20th century French master Maurice Ravel composed some of the most popular and beloved music in the repertory. In Ravel: A Listeners Guide, Victor Lederer surveys and explores this masters refined and utterly distinctive oeuvre.

Ravel is often mentioned in the same breath as his older contemporary Claude Debussy, but the works of the two composers display as many differences as similarities. Where Debussy rejected existing forms, the structuralist Ravel embraced the baroque suite and classical sonata form as vehicles for his ideas, in addition to his own concise inventions. At his best, which is where we usually find this focused stylist, passion flows just beneath some of the most exquisitely crafted surfaces in music, under which lurk ironies that raise as many questions as they answer. A perfect example is Boléro, Ravels most famous work; Lederer analyzes the music and looks at the outsized role it has assumed in our culture.

Lederer walks the reader and listener through Ravels relatively small but crucial contributions to orchestral, vocal, chamber, and piano music. Ravels two operas, idiosyncratic and underappreciated, are examined in detail as well. The book includes a Naxos CD with examples from across the masters career.

About this title

About the Author

Victor Lederer is a writer on music and urban history. He is the author of nine volumes of the Unlocking the Masters series, including Verdi: the Operas and Choral Works, Ravel: A Listener’s Guide, and Beethoven’s Piano Music. He lives and works in New York City.

Edition details

• Publisher: Amadeus (UK)
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1574674773
• ISBN 13: 9781574674774
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168