Ravel, his life and times

The Illustrated Lives of the Great Composers

by David Burnett James

Ir has been said that no music amplifies the french ideals of precision and good taste better than the work of Maurice Ravel, yet his background could scarecly have been more cosmopolitan. The son of a Swiss father and a Basque mother, he was born near St. Jean de Luz in 1875; he died in Paris at the age of sixty-two.

His primary inspiration, and in consequence the character of his best music, came from art and life. He was exceptionally sensitive to the new current of thought and the aesthetic changes in the Arts following the First World War. Indeed, the music of Ravel is an accuarate reflection of the man himself. This lavishly illustrated book which sets the work and achievements of Ravel in the context of the events of his time, will appeal to the general music lover and also to the serious student.

Genres: Music

144 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1983

About the author

David Burnett James was born in 1919. He was originally intended for a career in the Royal Navy (he was actually named after Admiral Beatty) but a disabling attack of polio in 1935, when he was fifteen and a cadet at the Nautical College in Pangbourne, altered the course of his life and put an end to all nautical ambitions. Thereafter he took steps to develop an already embryonic interest in music, which soon became the dominant motive force in his life, largely through the medium of records.
He has been for many years a leading music/ records critic and has held editorial appointments on literary and musical publications. He has written books on Beethoven, Wagner and Sibelius and also on Spanish and English music. He has also worked regularly in jazz criticism and was for some years co-editor of ‘Jazz Journal’ with its founder the late Sinclair Traill. He has a special interest in the music of Duke Ellington and has written monographs on Billie Holiday and Coleman Hawkins. Among current projects are books on the music of Elgar and the recorded work of Otto Klemperer, plus a further autobiographical volume.
He married in 1947 and now lives with his wife in Sussex.
This is text on the dust jacket of his book ‘The music of Gustav Mahler’, published 1985.

Reviews

[Emily]

Not too boring, and written well. I appreciate this was all written by one author as opposed to lots of essays in one book by many people like a lot of other music literature books I have read.