Английский язык. 11 класс (О. В. Афанасьева и др.)

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melodies. His piano music, chamber music, vocal music and orchestral 
music have become staples of the concert repertoire.
Ravel’s piano compositions demand considerable virtuosity from the 
performer, and his orchestral music, including Daphnis et Chloe and his 
arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, uses 
tonal colour and variety of sound and instrumentation very effectively.
To the general public, Ravel is probably best known for his orchestral 
work, Bolero, which he considered trivial and once described as “a piece 
for orchestra without music”.
Ravel was born in Ciboure, in France, near Biarritz. His mother, 
Marie Delouart, was French, while his father, Joseph Ravel, was a 
Swiss inventor and industrialist. At age seven, young Maurice began 
piano lessons and, five or six years later, began composing. His parents 
encouraged his musical pursuits and sent him to the Conservatoire de 
Paris, first as a preparatory student and eventually as a piano major.
He studied composition at the Conservatoire for a remarkable fourteen 
years. During his years at the Conservatoire, Ravel tried numerous times 
to win the prestigious Prix de Rome, but to no avail.
Ravel later worked with impresario Sergei Diaghilev who staged 
Ma Mere L’Oye and Daphnis et Chloe. The latter was commissioned by 
Diaghilev with the lead danced by the great Vaslav Nijinsky.
In 1928, Ravel made a concert tour in America. In New York City, he 
received a moving standing ovation. He also met George Gershwin and 
the two became friends. Ravel’s admiration of American jazz led him to 
include some jazz elements in a few of his later compositions, especially 
the two piano concertos.
During the First World War Ravel was not allowed to enlist as a 
pilot because of his age and weak health. Instead, upon his enlistment, 
he became a truck driver. He named his truck “Adelaide”.
In 1932 Ravel sustained a blow to the head in a taxi accident. In late 
1937 he consented to experimental brain surgery, lapsed into a coma and 
died shortly afterwards.

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