Book Synopsis

One of the Best Books of 2025: Music at the Financial Times

An introduction to the life and work of the impressionist French composer.

Maurice Ravel is one of the twentieth century's most intriguing and contradictory composers. This biography, published for the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his birth, describes Ravel's journey from Parisian apprentice to global musical icon. Drawing on fresh research, Emily Kilpatrick reveals Ravel as both a daring provocateur and a reflective elder, his lifelong quest for originality driven by his deep love of history and literature. Set against a background of profound cultural and political upheaval, Ravel's story unfolds through his battles with the artistic establishment, his creative resilience after wartime losses, and the tragic incapacitation of his final years. The result is an intimate portrait of a composer whose music continues to enchant and challenge audiences worldwide.

Review Quotes

"A smart, concise study of possibly the twentieth century's most elegant composer."

-- "The Wall Street Journal, "Holiday Gift Books: Music""

"Succinct, lucid, never prurient, Kilpatrick's biography of Maurice Ravel is surely the kind of which the composer himself might have approved. This most private of men presented an elegant and meticulous persona in his music and Kilpatrick has responded with an account of his life that is comparably discerning."-- "Financial Times, "Best Books of 2025: Music""

"Engaging and perceptive . . . as likeable as, you sense, the composer himself was . . . Kilpatrick brilliantly charts the changing world around the composer."-- "BBC Music Magazine"

"Affecting in her examination of Ravel's life - her account of his final illness is astonishingly moving - Kilpatrick's discussions of the music are, in contrast, succinct, cool and finely judged . . . [Her study] packs a great deal of thought and information into a relatively short space, and often encourages us to think afresh about its subject, which makes it more than well worth reading."-- "Gramophone"

"Kilpatrick is to be commended for balancing rigorous scholarship with a humanizing element, making readers care about the characters they encounter . . . [She] packs much into a short volume. Essential reading for those with the musical background."-- "Library Journal"

"The composer's remarkable achievement - and elements of his closed private life - are provocatively addressed in this elegantly written study in Reaktion Books' Critical Lives series . . . one of the most valuable and insightful books on Ravel ever written."-- "CD Choice"

"An insightful biography of the complex, ever-enigmatic Ravel, which places his life, music and aesthetic in their cultural context. Generous illustrations, including letters and manuscripts, enrich the telling of Ravel's story. The research is up-to-date, and the writing is scholarly yet accessible."'--Deborah Mawer, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

"In her engaging biography of this beloved, quintessential French composer, Emily Kilpatrick explains that "language, literature and historical conversation" underpin the thread of her narrative, "for it is here that we find the most revealing intersections of practice and aesthetic - and perhaps, too, the most sustainable accommodations of self and art". In addition to the excellent, well-researched writing, there are 37 plates containing interesting photographs as well as reproductions of Ravel manuscripts. This impressive achievement is highly recommended."--Arbie Orenstein, author of 'Ravel: Man and Musician'

"A concise and very well-written short biography drawing on the best existing sources, while also providing a fresh perspective on Ravel's life and works . . . an ideal introduction to the man and his music."--Nigel Simeone

About the Author

Emily Kilpatrick is an associate professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Her books include French Art Song: History of a New Music, 1870-1914.