Editing Maurice Ravel (section)

===Early years===
[[File:Ravel-and-parents.jpg|thumb|upright=.5|alt=head-and=shoulder shots of bearded man, youngish woman and small child|Joseph Ravel (1875), Marie Delouart (1870) and Maurice Ravel aged four (1879)]]
Ravel was born in the [[Northern Basque Country|Basque]] town of [[Ciboure]], France, near [[Biarritz]], {{convert|18|km|mi}} from the Spanish border. His father, [[Pierre-Joseph Ravel]], was an educated and successful engineer, inventor and manufacturer, born in [[Versoix]] near the Franco-Swiss border.<ref>Nichols (2011), p. 1</ref>{{refn|Joseph's family is described in some sources as French and in others as Swiss; Versoix is in present-day (2015) Switzerland, but as the historian Philippe Morant observes, the nationality of families from the area changed several times over the generations as borders were moved; Joseph held a French passport,<ref name=n390>Nichols (2011), p. 390</ref> but Ravel preferred to say simply that his paternal ancestors came from the [[Jura Mountains|Jura]].<ref>''Quoted'' in Nichols (2011), p. 3</ref>|group= n}} His mother, Marie, ''née'' Delouart, was [[Basque people|Basque]] but had grown up in Madrid. In 19th-century terms, Joseph had married beneath his status – Marie was illegitimate and barely literate – but the marriage was a happy one.<ref>Nichols (2011), p. 6</ref> Some of Joseph's inventions were successful, including an early [[internal combustion engine]] and a notorious circus machine, the "Whirlwind of Death", an automotive [[loop-the-loop]] that was a major attraction until a fatal accident at [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus|Barnum and Bailey's Circus]] in 1903.<ref>James, p. 13</ref>

Both Ravel's parents were [[Roman Catholics]]; Marie was also something of a [[free-thinker]], a trait inherited by her elder son.<ref>Orenstein (1991), p. 9</ref> He was baptised in the Ciboure parish church six days after he was born. The family moved to Paris three months later, and there a younger son, Édouard, was born. (He was close to his father, whom he eventually followed into the engineering profession.)<ref name="Orenstein, 1991, p. 8"/> Maurice was particularly devoted to their mother; her Basque-Spanish heritage was a strong influence on his life and music.<ref>Howat, p. 71</ref> Among his earliest memories were folk songs she sang to him.<ref name="Orenstein, 1991, p. 8">Orenstein (1991), p. 8</ref> The household was not rich, but the family was comfortable, and the two boys had happy childhoods.<ref>Orenstein (1995), pp. 91–92</ref>

Ravel senior delighted in taking his sons to factories to see the latest mechanical devices, but he also had a keen interest in music and culture in general.<ref>Orenstein (1991), p. 10</ref> In later life, Ravel recalled, "Throughout my childhood I was sensitive to music. My father, much better educated in this art than most amateurs are, knew how to develop my taste and to stimulate my enthusiasm at an early age."<ref>''Quoted'' in Goss, p. 23</ref> There is no record that Ravel received any formal general schooling in his early years; his biographer [[Roger Nichols (musical scholar)|Roger Nichols]] suggests that the boy may have been chiefly educated by his father.<ref name=n9/>

When he was seven, Ravel started piano lessons with [[Henri Ghys]], a friend of [[Emmanuel Chabrier]]; five years later, in 1887, he began studying [[harmony]], [[counterpoint]] and composition with Charles-René, a pupil of [[Léo Delibes]].<ref name=n9>Nichols (2011), p. 9</ref> Without being anything of a child prodigy, he was a highly musical boy.<ref>Goss, p. 23</ref> Charles-René found that Ravel's conception of music was natural to him "and not, as in the case of so many others, the result of effort".<ref>Goss, p. 24</ref> Ravel's earliest known compositions date from this period: variations on a chorale by [[Schumann]], variations on a theme by [[Grieg]] and a single movement of a piano sonata.<ref name=grove>[[Barbara L. Kelly|Kelly, Barbara L]] [https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052145 "Ravel, (Joseph) Maurice"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001 {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref> They survive only in fragmentary form.<ref>Orenstein (1967), p. 475</ref>

In 1888 Ravel met the young pianist [[Ricardo Viñes]], who became not only a lifelong friend, but also one of the foremost interpreters of his works, and an important link between Ravel and Spanish music.<ref>James, p. 15</ref> The two shared an appreciation of [[Wagner]], Russian music, and the writings of [[Edgar Allan Poe|Poe]], [[Baudelaire]] and [[Stéphane Mallarmé|Mallarmé]].<ref name="Orenstein, 1991, p. 16">Orenstein (1991), p. 16</ref> At the [[Exposition Universelle (1889)|Exposition Universelle]] in Paris in 1889, Ravel was much struck by the [[Russian Symphony Concerts|new Russian works]] conducted by [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]].<ref>Orenstein (1991), pp. 11–12; and Nichols (2011), pp. 10–11</ref> This music had a lasting effect on both Ravel and his older contemporary [[Claude Debussy]], as did the exotic sound of the Javanese [[gamelan]], also heard during the Exposition.<ref name=grove/>

[[Émile Decombes]] took over as Ravel's piano teacher in 1889; in the same year Ravel gave his earliest public performance.<ref name=ln9>[[François Lesure|Lesure]] and Nectoux, p. 9</ref> Aged fourteen, he took part in a concert at the [[Salle Érard]] along with other pupils of Decombes, including [[Reynaldo Hahn]] and [[Alfred Cortot]].<ref>Orenstein (1991), p. 11</ref>