Ravel on Debussy

In a lecture in 1928 in Houston, Texas, Ravel described the differences between Debussy and his approach to composition:

For Debussy the musician and the man I have had profound admiration, but by nature I am different from him. Although he may not be quite a stranger from my own personal heritage, I would at the first stage of my own evolution come nearer to Gabriel Fauré, Emmanuel Chabrier and Erik Satie. The aesthetic of Edgar Allan Poe, your great American, has been of singular importance to me, as also has been the poetry of Mallarmé – illimitable visions but of precise design enclosed a mystery of sombre abstractions, an art where all the elements are so intimately linked among themselves that one cannot always analyse the effects but only perceive them. Nevertheless, I think I have always personally followed a direction opposed to that of the symbolism of Debussy.

B. James, Ravel: his life and times, New York, Midas Books, 1983, pp. 19-20.

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