Maurice Charles Delage (13 November 1879 – 19 or 21 September 1961) was a French

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Biography

Delage was born and died in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He first worked as a clerk for a maritime agency in Paris, and later as a fishmonger in

Boulogne Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the ...

. He also served for a time in the French army, before embarking on a music career in his twenties. A student of

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

, who proclaimed him one of the supreme French composers of his day, and member of

Les Apaches Les Apaches (or Société des Apaches) was a group of musicians, writers and artists which formed in Paris, France in 1903. The core was formed by the French composer Maurice Ravel, the Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes and the writer and critic Mic ...

, he was influenced by travels to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 1912, when he accompanied his father on a business trip. Ravel's "La vallée des cloches" from ''

Miroirs upRavel in 1907 ''Miroirs'' (French for "Mirrors") is a five-movement suite for solo piano written by French composer Maurice Ravel between 1904 and 1905."Miroirs". Maurice Ravel Frontispice. First performed by Ricardo Viñes in 1906, ''Miroir ...

'' was dedicated to Delage. Delage's best known piece is ''

Quatre poèmes hindous The ''Quatre poèmes hindous'' ("Four Hindu poems") are a cycle of ''mélodies'' by the French composer Maurice Delage for soprano and chamber ensemble of two flutes, oboe, two clarinets, harp, and string quartet. Delage composed it in 1912 w ...

'' (1912–1913).Georges Jean-Aubry (1917
''An Introduction to French Music''
p.67, Cecil Palmer & Hayward, London His ''Ragamalika'' (1912–1922), based on the

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

of India, is significant in that it calls for

prepared piano A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers, and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to John Cage's dance music for ''Bacchanale' ...

; the score specifies that a piece of

cardboard Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper-based products. The construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple plies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light b ...

be placed under the strings of the B-flat in the second line of the bass clef to dampen the sound, imitating the sound of an Indian

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

Selected works

;Poèmes symphoniques * ''Conté par la mer'' (1908) * ''Les Bâtisseurs de ponts'' (1913) after

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

* Overture to ''Ballet de l'avenir'' (1923) * ''Contrerimes'' (1931), orchestration of pieces for piano * ''Bateau ivre'' (1954) after the poem by

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he starte ...

* ''Cinq danses symphoniques'' (1958) ;Chamber music * String quartet (1949) * ''Suite française'' for string quartet (1958) ;Mélodies (voice and piano) * ''Trois mélodies'' (1909) * ''Ragamalika'', chant tamoul (1914) * ''Trois poèmes'' (1922) * ''Ronsard à sa muse'' (1924) * ''Les Colombes'' (1924) * ''La Chanson de ma mie'' (1924) * ''Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'' (1924) * ''Sobre las Olas'' (1924) on a poem by

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

* ''Toute allégresse'' (1925) on a poem by

Paul-Jean Toulet Paul-Jean Toulet (5 June 1867, Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques - 6 September 1920) was a French poet, novelist and feuilleton writer. Life and works Paul-Jean Toulet was the son of a wealthy sugar planter, originally from Pau but living in Mauri ...

;Mélodies (voice with instrumental ensemble) * ''

'' (1912) * ''

Sept haï-kaïs ''Sept haï-kaïs'' (, "Seven haikais") is a song cycle of ''mélodies'' by the French composer Maurice Delage for soprano and chamber ensemble of flute, oboe, B♭ clarinet, piano, and string quartet. Delage composed the work in 1924 based ...

'' (1924) for soprano and chamber orchestra (to be sung without a break between songs) # # # # # # # * ''Deux fables de La Fontaine'' (1931), ''Le Corbeau et le Renard'', and ''La Cigale et la Fourmi'' * ''Trois chants de la jungle'' (1934) after Kipling * ''In morte di un samouraï'' (1950) on a collection of haïkaïses and tankas by Pierre Pascal * ''Trois poèmes désenchantés'' (1955) ;Music for solo piano * ''Schumann...'' (1918) * ''Contrerimes'' (1927)

References

Sources

*Pasler, Jann (2000). "Race, Orientalism, and Distinction in the Wake of the 'Yellow Peril'." In ''Western Music and Its Others: Difference, Representation, and Appropriation in Music'', ed.

Georgina Born Georgina Emma Mary Born, is a British academic, anthropologist, musicologist and musician. As a musician she is known as Georgie Born and for her work in Henry Cow and with Lindsay Cooper. Background Born was born in Wheatley, Oxfordshire, ...

and David Hesmondhalgh. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.

External links

Maurice Delage works at Classical Archives
at ''Maurice Ravel Frontispice'', archived at th
Wayback Machine
on 18 September 2017 fro

etrieved 17 November 2008br>Cypres bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Delage, Maurice 1879 births 1961 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century French composers 19th-century French male musicians 20th-century classical composers 20th-century French composers 20th-century French male musicians French classical composers French male classical composers Musicians from Paris