Editing Maurice Ravel (section)

===1920s===
After the war, those close to Ravel recognised that he had lost much of his physical and mental stamina. As the musicologist Stephen Zank puts it, "Ravel's emotional equilibrium, so hard won in the previous decade, had been seriously compromised."<ref name=z11>Zank, p. 11</ref> His output, never large, became smaller.<ref name=z11/> Nonetheless, after the death of Debussy in 1918, he was generally seen, in France and abroad, as the leading French composer of the era.<ref name=o230/> Fauré wrote to him, "I am happier than you can imagine about the solid position which you occupy and which you have acquired so brilliantly and so rapidly. It is a source of joy and pride for your old professor."<ref name=o230>Orenstein (2003), pp. 230–231</ref> Ravel was offered the [[Legion of Honour]] in 1920,{{refn|He never made clear his reason for refusing it. Several theories have been put forward. Rosenthal believed that it was because so many had died in a war in which Ravel had not actually fought.<ref name=f139>Fulcher (2005), p. 139</ref> Another suggestion is that Ravel felt betrayed because despite his wishes his ailing mother had been told that he had joined the [[French Army|army]].<ref name=f139/> Edouard Ravel said that his brother refused the award because it had been announced without the recipient's prior acceptance.<ref name=f139/> Many biographers believe that Ravel's experience during the Prix de Rome scandal convinced him that state institutions were inimical to progressive artists.<ref>Kelly (2000), p. 9; Macdonald, p. 333; and Zank, p. 10</ref>|group= n}} and although he declined the decoration, he was viewed by the new generation of composers typified by Satie's protégés [[Les Six]] as an establishment figure. Satie had turned against him, and commented, "Ravel refuses the Légion d'honneur, but all his music accepts it."<ref>Kelly (2013), p. 56</ref>{{refn|Satie was known for turning against friends. In 1917, using obscene language, he inveighed against Ravel to the teenaged [[Francis Poulenc]].<ref>Poulenc and Audel, p. 175</ref> By 1924 Satie had repudiated Poulenc and another former friend [[Georges Auric]].<ref>Schmidt. p. 136</ref> Poulenc told a friend that he was delighted not to see Satie any more: "I admire him as ever, but breathe a sigh of relief at finally not having to listen to his eternal ramblings on the subject of Ravel{{nbsp}}..."<ref>Kelly (2013), p. 57</ref>|group= n}} Despite this attack, Ravel continued to admire Satie's early music, and always acknowledged the older man's influence on his own development.<ref name=k16/> Ravel took a benign view of Les Six, promoting their music, and defending it against journalistic attacks. He regarded their reaction against his works as natural, and preferable to their copying his style.<ref name="Kelly 2000, p. 25">Kelly (2000), p. 25</ref> Through the Société Musicale Indépendente, he was able to encourage them and composers from other countries. The Société presented concerts of recent works by American composers including [[Aaron Copland]], [[Virgil Thomson]] and [[George Antheil]] and by Vaughan Williams and his English colleagues [[Arnold Bax]] and [[Cyril Scott]].<ref>Orenstein (1991), pp. 82–83</ref>

[[File:Montfort-l'Amaury Maison Ravel.jpg|thumb|left|alt=exterior shot of small 19th-century French country house|Le Belvédère in [[Montfort-l'Amaury]], where Ravel lived from 1921 until his death]]
Orenstein and Zank both comment that, although Ravel's post-war output was small, averaging only one composition a year, it included some of his finest works.<ref>Orenstein (1967), p. 479; and Zank, p. 11</ref> In 1920 he completed ''[[La valse]]'', in response to a commission from Diaghilev. He had worked on it intermittently for some years, planning a concert piece, "a sort of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, mingled with, in my mind, the impression of a fantastic, fatal whirling".<ref>''Quoted'' in Orenstein (2003), p. 32</ref> It was rejected by Diaghilev, who said, "It's a masterpiece, but it's not a ballet. It's the portrait of a ballet."<ref>Nichols (1987), p. 118</ref> Ravel heard Diaghilev's verdict without protest or argument, left, and had no further dealings with him.<ref>Orenstein (1991), p. 78</ref>{{refn|According to some sources, when Diaghilev encountered him in 1925, Ravel refused to shake his hand, and one of the two men challenged the other to a [[duel]]. [[Harold Schonberg]] names Diaghilev as the challenger, and Gerald Larner names Ravel.<ref>Schonberg, p. 468; and Larner, p. 188</ref> No duel took place, and no such incident is mentioned in the biographies by Orenstein or Nichols, though both record that the breach was total and permanent.<ref>Orenstein (1991), p. 78; and Nichols (2011), p. 210</ref>|group= n}} Nichols comments that Ravel had the satisfaction of seeing the ballet staged twice by other managements before Diaghilev died.<ref>Nichols (2011), p. 210</ref> A ballet danced to the orchestral version of ''Le tombeau de Couperin'' was given at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in November 1920, and the premiere of ''La valse'' followed in December.<ref name=ln10>Lesure and Nectoux, p. 10</ref> The following year ''Daphnis et Chloé'' and ''L'heure espagnole'' were successfully revived at the Paris Opéra.<ref name=ln10/>

In the post-war era there was a reaction against the large-scale music of composers such as [[Gustav Mahler]] and [[Richard Strauss]].<ref>Orenstein (1991), p. 84</ref> Stravinsky, whose ''Rite of Spring'' was written for a huge orchestra, began to work on a much smaller scale. His 1923 ballet score ''[[Les noces]]'' is composed for voices and twenty-one instruments.<ref>[http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e4740 "Noces, Les"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316071724/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199579037.001.0001/acref-9780199579037-e-4740 |date=16 March 2021 }}, ''The Oxford Companion to Music'', Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 11 March 2015 {{subscription}}.</ref> Ravel did not like the work (his opinion caused a cooling in Stravinsky's friendship with him)<ref>Francis Poulenc, ''quoted'' in Nichols (1987), p. 117</ref> but he was in sympathy with the fashion for "dépouillement" – the "stripping away" of pre-war extravagance to reveal the essentials.<ref name="Kelly 2000, p. 25"/> Many of his works from the 1920s are noticeably sparer in texture than earlier pieces.<ref>Orenstein (1991), pp. 84, 186 and 197</ref> Other influences on him in this period were [[jazz]] and [[atonality]]. Jazz was popular in Parisian cafés, and French composers such as [[Darius Milhaud]] incorporated elements of it in their work.<ref>James, p. 101</ref> Ravel commented that he preferred jazz to [[grand opera]],<ref>Nichols (2011), p. 289</ref> and its influence is heard in his later music.<ref>Perret, p. 347</ref> [[Arnold Schönberg]]'s abandonment of conventional tonality also had echoes in some of Ravel's music such as the ''[[Chansons madécasses]]''{{refn|"Madagascan Songs"|group= n}} (1926), which Ravel doubted he could have written without the example of ''[[Pierrot Lunaire]]''.<ref>Kelly (2000), p. 24</ref> His other major works from the 1920s include the orchestral arrangement of Mussorgsky's piano suite ''[[Pictures at an Exhibition]]'' (1922), the opera ''[[L'enfant et les sortilèges]]''{{refn|"The Child and the Spells"|group= n}} to a libretto by [[Colette]] (1926), ''[[Tzigane]]'' (1924) and the [[Violin Sonata No. 2 (Ravel)|Violin Sonata No.2]] (1927).<ref name=ln10/>

Finding city life fatiguing, Ravel moved to the countryside.<ref>Lesure and Nectoux, p. 45</ref> In May 1921 he took up residence at Le Belvédère, a small house on the fringe of [[Montfort-l'Amaury]], {{convert|50|km|mi|abbr=}} west of Paris, in the [[Seine-et-Oise]] [[département]]. Looked after by a devoted housekeeper, Mme Revelot, he lived there for the rest of his life.<ref>Nichols (1987), p. 134; and [https://web.archive.org/web/20101018233221/http://www.ville-montfort-l-amaury.fr/La-maison-musee-de-Maurice-Ravel "La maison-musée de Maurice Ravel"], Ville Montfort-l'Amaury, retrieved 11 March 2015</ref> At Le Belvédère Ravel composed and gardened, when not performing in Paris or abroad. His touring schedule increased considerably in the 1920s, with concerts in Britain, Sweden, Denmark, the US, Canada, Spain, Austria and Italy.<ref name=ln10/>

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}} After two months of planning, Ravel made a four-month tour of North America in 1928, playing and conducting. His fee was a guaranteed minimum of $10,000 and a constant supply of [[Gauloises]] cigarettes.<ref>Zank, p. 33</ref> He appeared with most of the leading orchestras in Canada and the US and visited twenty-five cities.<ref>Orenstein (1991), p. 95</ref> Audiences were enthusiastic and the critics were complimentary.{{refn|In ''[[The New York Times]]'' [[Olin Downes]] wrote, "Mr. Ravel has pursued his way as an artist quietly and very well. He has disdained superficial or meretricious effects. He has been his own most unsparing critic."<ref>Downes, Olin. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A06E3D7133DE73ABC4E52DFB7668383639ED "Music: Ravel in American Debut"], ''The New York Times'', 16 January 1928, p. 25 {{subscription}}</ref>|group= n}} At an all-Ravel programme conducted by [[Serge Koussevitzky]] in New York, the entire audience stood up and applauded as the composer took his seat. Ravel was touched by this spontaneous gesture and observed, "You know, this doesn't happen to me in Paris."<ref name=o10>Orenstein (2003), p. 10</ref> Orenstein, commenting that this tour marked the zenith of Ravel's international reputation, lists its non-musical highlights as a visit to Poe's house in New York, and excursions to [[Niagara Falls]] and the [[Grand Canyon]].<ref name=o10/> Ravel was unmoved by his new international celebrity. He commented that the critics' recent enthusiasm was of no more importance than their earlier judgment, when they called him "the most perfect example of insensitivity and lack of emotion".<ref name="Orenstein 1991, p. 104">Orenstein (1991), p. 104</ref>

The last composition Ravel completed in the 1920s, ''Boléro'', became his most famous. He was commissioned to provide a score for [[Ida Rubinstein]]'s ballet company, and having been unable to secure the rights to orchestrate [[Albéniz]]'s ''[[Iberia (Albéniz)|Iberia]]'', he decided on "an experiment in a very special and limited direction{{nbsp}}... a piece lasting seventeen minutes and consisting wholly of orchestral tissue without music".<ref name=o477/> Ravel continued that the work was "one long, very gradual crescendo. There are no contrasts, and there is practically no invention except the plan and the manner of the execution. The themes are altogether impersonal."<ref name=o477>''Quoted'' in Orenstein (2003), p. 477</ref> He was astonished, and not wholly pleased, that it became a mass success. When one elderly member of the audience at the Opéra shouted "Rubbish!" at the premiere, he remarked, "That old lady got the message!"<ref>Nichols (1987), pp. 47–48</ref> The work was popularised by the conductor [[Arturo Toscanini]],<ref>Orenstein (1991), p. 99; and Nichols (2011), pp. 300–301</ref> and has been recorded several hundred times.{{refn|In 2015 [[WorldCat]] listed more than 3,500 new or reissued recordings of the piece.<ref>[http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=Ravel+Bolero#x0%253Amusic-%2C%2528x0%253Amusic%2Bx4%253Acd%2529%2C%2528x0%253Amusic%2Bx4%253Alp%2529format "Ravel Bolero"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926031252/http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=Ravel+Bolero#x0%253Amusic-%2C%2528x0%253Amusic%2Bx4%253Acd%2529%2C%2528x0%253Amusic%2Bx4%253Alp%2529format |date=26 September 2017 }}, WorldCat, retrieved 21 April 2015</ref>|group= n}} Ravel commented to [[Arthur Honegger]], one of Les Six, "I've written only one masterpiece – ''Boléro''. Unfortunately there's no music in it."<ref>Nichols (2011), p. 301</ref>