What is Maurice Ravel?
[[File:Maurice Ravel 1925.jpg|thumb|Ravel in 1925]] '''Maurice Ravel''' (born [[Ciboure]], [[Pyrénées-Atlantiques]], 7 March 1875; died [[Paris]], 28 December 1937) was a [[France|French]] [[composer]]. His name is often thought of with that of [[Claude Debussy]], but their music is really quite different. Ravel liked children and [[animal]]s and his music is often about them. He liked to write about [[fairy tale]]s and stories from far away lands. He wrote some lovely [[piano]] music, most of which is difficult to play. ''Boléro'' is a 17-minute piece for orchestra. A short version was used by [[Olympic Games|Olympic]] gold medallists, ice-dancers [[Torvill and Dean]] for the dance that made them [[Olympic Games|Olympic champions]] in 1984. ==His life== ===Early years=== It soon became clear that Maurice was musically gifted, so his father arranged for him to have piano lessons with a well-known teacher. In 1889 he entered the [[Paris Conservatoire]]. In 1889 there was a big international exhibition: the Paris World Exhibition. Ravel and Debussy both heard [[gamelan]] music from [[Java]] at this exhibition. They were both [[influence]]d by it, especially Debussy. Ravel also heard [[Russia]]n music at concerts given by [[Rimsky-Korsakov]]. He left the Conservatoire in 1895, but went back in 1897 to study [[Composition (music)|composition]] with [[Gabriel Fauré]] and [[counterpoint]] and [[orchestration]] with Andreé Gédalge. At this stage Ravel was not sure of himself as a composer. His first work that was to become very well-known was the short piece for orchestra called ''Pavane pour une infante défunte''. Fauré had been a very good teacher for Ravel. Ravel dedicated his [[virtuoso]] piano piece ''Jeux d’eau'' (meaning “Play of water” or “Fountains”) and his ''String Quartet'' to Fauré. However, Ravel never got a prize for composition, so he left Fauré’s class in 1903. ===Early career=== Ravel was starting to live the life of a [[dandy]]. He always dressed very smartly, and got to know people with si