Maurice Ravel was a French composer known for his impressionistic music and melodies. During World War I, Ravel served as a truck driver but was unable to enlist as a pilot due to his age and health. After the war, he composed Le tombeau de Couperin as a commemoration of composer François Couperin. The work is a suite for solo piano composed from 1914-1917, with each movement dedicated to friends who died in the war. It features themes that reappear throughout and explores different keys.

1. Maurice RavelJoseph-Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937) was a French composer of Impressionist music known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects. Much of his piano music, chamber music, vocal music and orchestral music has entered the standard concert repertoire. During 1914, just as World War I began, Ravel composed his Piano Trio (for piano, violin, and cello) with its Basque themes. The piece, difficult to play well, is considered a masterpiece among trio works. Although he considered his small stature and light weight an advantage to becoming an aviator, and he tried every means of securing service as a flyer, during the First World War Ravel was not allowed to enlist as a pilot because of his age and weak health. Instead, he became a truck driver stationed at the Verdun front. At one point Ravel's unit engaged a German unit that included a young Adolf Hitler. With his mother’s death during 1917, his fondest relationship ended and he began a “horrible despair”, adding to his ill health and the general gloom over the suffering endured by the people of his country during the war. However, during the war years, Ravel did manage some compositions, including one of his most popular works, Le tombeau de Couperin, a commemoration of the musical ideals of François Couperin, the early 18th century composer, which premiered during 1919.

2. Le tombeau de Couperin Le tombeau de Couperin is a suite for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, composed between 1914 and 1917, in six movements. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of friends of the composer who had died fighting in World War I. Ravel himself was an army driver during the war.The movements are:Prélude - "To the memory of Lieutenant Jacques Charlot" (who transcribed Ravel's four-hand piece Ma mère l'oye for solo piano) Fugue - "To the memory of Jean Cruppi" (to whose mother Ravel dedicated his opera L'heure espagnole) Forlane - "To the memory of Lieutenant Gabriel Deluc" (a Basque painter from Saint-Jean-de-Luz) Rigaudon - "To the memory of Pierre and Pascal Gaudin" (brothers killed by the same shell) Menuet - "To the memory of Jean Dreyfus" (at whose home Ravel recuperated after he was demobilized) Toccata - "To the memory of Captain Joseph de Marliave" (killed in action in August 1914)

3. Le tombeau de Couperin - ForlaneThis is how the piece starts out and you will see this motif constantly throughout the score. Although it will get modified and transposed but it will always be there.To the left is the first cadence, in m18, which I find interesting to see a cadence to G# major. This is interesting because the key signature shows something much closer to G major.

4. Here, at the end of m29 we see a new motif begin with this descending pattern. This is the beginning of the second theme.Below we see the second motif of the new theme as they rotate back and forth.

5. In m55 we see the first theme re-emerge exactly the same as the beginning.This happens very briefly as a new stately theme appears in m63.

6. Yet again the original theme reappears in m96, this time back to it’s full form.All of a sudden we get a key change to what appears to be E Major in m124. Here we see a lot of block chords and rhythms from the various themes almost like the piece is going to reach a final cadence.

7. In m140 it changes keys back to the key signature of G major. With the constantly moving eighth note figure it’s telling us that the end is finally comingIt isn’t until the very end that we discover that it is actually centered around E minor. Although without the G or G# being played it is almost up to the listener to decide.