S<\/span>ometimes it takes a pressing deadline to set the creative juices flowing. By August 1914 Ravel had been working on a Piano Trio for four months, and had recently taken several weeks off for rest and relaxation. He was, seemingly, in no particular hurry to bring his new piece to completion.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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How did Elgar help Poland during World War One?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
14 composers who died in the First World War<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Was 1910-19 the best decade for English music?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
What were the most popular songs during World War II?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
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A fever of activity followed. \u2018I am working on the Trio with the sureness and lucidity of a madman,\u2019 Ravel wrote, days after France entered the war on 3 August. Partly because he already had the basic shape of the Trio in his head, work proceeded quickly. By 29 August, the piece was finished and ready for the printer. \u2018The idea that I should be leaving at once made me do five months\u2019 work in five weeks!\u2019, he informed his friend Stravinsky. \u2018I have never worked with more insane, more heroic intensity\u2019, he explained in another letter.<\/span><\/p>\n
Just one obstacle remained \u2013 getting into the French military and joining the war effort. This was not as easy as Ravel had expected. Earlier, at age 20, he had been exempted from regular conscription for health reasons. Now, approaching 40, a heart condition and his small stature were the issues. An initial application to join the Air Force was rejected. But Ravel persisted, and six months later he was finally accepted as a lorry driver.<\/span><\/p>\n
Though at times prosaic \u2013 for a while he serviced military vehicles in Paris \u2013 Ravel\u2019s war job was by no means permanently free of danger. In March 1916, he was posted to the front line at Verdun, transporting petrol and other munitions. \u2018Day and night without lights on unbelievable roads with a load double what my truck should carry,\u2019 he wrote. \u2018And even so I had to hurry because all this was within range of\nthe guns.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n
Already a celebrated composer when hostilities broke out, he could easily have avoided his wartime service. \u2018At his age and with his name he could have had an easier place, or done nothing,\u2019 Stravinsky commented. Ravel was, though, a \u2018little man of steel\u2019, as one observer put it, and proudly patriotic. And as he contemplated joining the military in those early days of August 1914, he was clear-eyed about what might happen, at one point even referring to his new Piano Trio as \u2018a posthumous work\u2019 \u2013 meaning he could easily be dead and buried by the time of its first performance.<\/span><\/p>\n
Fortunately, that didn\u2019t happen. The new Trio had its public premiere at the Salle Gaveau in Paris on 28 January 1915, attracting limited attention under wartime conditions. Ravel himself did not emerge entirely unscathed from the conflict \u2013 various ailments led to a conditional discharge from the army in 1917, by which time he was \u2018depressed, thin and suffering from neurasthenia\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n
He recovered sufficiently to complete the piano suite Le Tombeau de Couperin<\/i> that same year. Although its six movements are dedicated to friends he lost in the war, the tone of the work as a whole is surprisingly upbeat and optimistic. \u2018The dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence\u2019, was Ravel\u2019s explanation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n
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