Ravel for kids: his life, his music, and what to play first

Maurice Ravel was a French composer who lived from 1875 to 1937. He wrote Boléro, in which one tune repeats again and again while the orchestra grows louder. He also wrote Mother Goose, a set of fairy-tale pieces for two children he knew. He was a master at choosing which instrument plays each tune. The best first pieces for a child come from Mother Goose.

Quick facts

• Born: 1875, in Ciboure, France, near the border with Spain
• Died: 1937, in Paris, France
• Era: Modern
• Played: piano
• Known for: Boléro, Mother Goose, Daphnis and Chloé, and his orchestra version of Pictures at an Exhibition

The life in short

Ravel was born in a fishing village in the Basque country. His mother was Basque and sang him Spanish songs. His father was a Swiss engineer who loved machines. The family moved to Paris when Maurice was a baby.

He entered the Paris Conservatory at 14. He was a careful worker and took his time. He tried five times for the top prize for young French composers and never won it. The last refusal caused a public outcry, because by then he was already well known.

During the First World War, Ravel drove a truck for the French army.

He lived alone in a small house outside Paris. He filled it with wind-up toys, music boxes, and tiny ornaments, and he liked to show them to visitors. He was a small, neat man who dressed with great care.

In 1922, he took a piano piece by the Russian composer Mussorgsky and arranged it for full orchestra. His version of Pictures at an Exhibition is the one most people hear today.

Mother Goose

Ravel was friends with a family named Godebski. He wrote Mother Goose in 1910 as piano duets for their two children, Mimie and Jean. Each of the five pieces is a scene from a fairy tale. The next year, he arranged them for orchestra.

What the music sounds like

Ravel’s music is polished and exact. Every note has a job. Another composer compared him to a Swiss watchmaker.

He chose instruments the way a painter chooses colors. He often gave a tune to an instrument a listener would not expect, such as a saxophone, or a bassoon at the top of its range.

Four pieces to play first

“Empress of the Pagodas,” from Mother Goose. An empress takes a bath while tiny creatures play music on nutshells. The tune uses a five-note scale, with bells, a xylophone, and a gong.

“Conversations of Beauty and the Beast,” from Mother Goose. A clarinet plays a gentle waltz for Beauty. A contrabassoon growls down low for the Beast. At the end, a harp sweeps upward, and the Beast becomes a prince, played by a violin.

“The Fairy Garden,” from Mother Goose. It starts in a hush, with strings alone. It grows, bit by bit, and ends with ringing bells and the whole orchestra.

Boléro. A snare drum taps the same rhythm from start to finish. A flute plays the tune. Then a clarinet plays it, then a bassoon, and on through the orchestra. Nothing changes except the instruments and the volume. Play the first three minutes and the last two.

Things to do together

Who is talking? Play “Conversations of Beauty and the Beast.” Ask your child to stand tall for Beauty and crouch for the Beast. Listen for the moment the spell breaks.

Name the instrument. In Boléro, pause each time a new instrument takes the tune. Ask what it is. The guide to the four families helps.

Tap the drum part. Tap the Boléro rhythm on a table along with the snare drum. See how long you can keep it up.

Soft to loud. Draw one long line that climbs from the bottom corner of a page to the top while Boléro plays. The word for this is crescendo, and it is explained in dynamics in music for kids.

Print and play

Print the Ravel fact sheet. It has the story, three pieces, and room to write and draw. To hear his orchestra version of another composer’s piano music, use the Pictures at an Exhibition guide.

Next, read Debussy for kids. For all 24 composers by era, see classical composers for kids.