{"id":2380,"date":"2025-09-07T18:04:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T17:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/?p=2380"},"modified":"2025-09-07T18:04:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T17:04:14","slug":"an-elegantly-written-new-study-of-ravel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/?p=2380","title":{"rendered":"An elegantly written new study of Ravel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/?attachment_id=2381\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2381\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2381\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ravel-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ravel-195x300.jpg 195w, http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ravel-666x1024.jpg 666w, http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ravel-768x1182.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ravel.jpg 975w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/a>Maurice Ravel by Emily Kilpatrick<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the most famous descriptions of the composer Maurice Ravel was that given by Igor Stravinsky: &#8216;The most perfect of Swiss clockmakers&#8217;. While that is true in terms of the astonishing precision of Ravel\u2019s work, it by no means tells the whole story. The composer grew up in Paris of the 1880s and 1890s &#8212; a time of change &#8212; and his innovative approach to harmony alongside his poetic pianism may have superficially resembled that of his colleague Debussy, but was essentially something that the music world had not previously heard \u2013 and the charm and colour of his work did not conceal emotional undertones. The composer\u2019s remarkable achievement \u2013 and elements of his closed private life \u2013 are provocatively addressed in this elegantly written study in Reaktion Books\u2019 \u2018Critical Lives\u2019 series. Emily Kilpatrick teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London and her books include <em>French Art Song: History of a New Music, 1870 \u2013 1914. <\/em>Her Ravel study examines in stimulating detail the composer&#8217;s reputation as a provocateur, and the fashion which he dealt artistically with this period of great cultural and political upheaval. The composer\u2019s sexuality is shrouded, and Kilpatrick wisely makes no claim to have solved it. At just under 200 pages, this is one of the most valuable and insightful books on Ravel ever written.<\/p>\n<p>Maurice Ravel by Emily Kilpatrick is published by Reaktion Books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maurice Ravel by Emily Kilpatrick One of the most famous descriptions of the composer Maurice Ravel was that given by Igor Stravinsky: &#8216;The most perfect of Swiss clockmakers&#8217;. While that is true in terms of the astonishing precision of Ravel\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/?p=2380\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2382,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380\/revisions\/2382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cdchoice.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}