Gaspard de la nuit, M. 55 is a suite of piano pieces by Maurice Ravel, written in 1908. It has three movements, each based on a poem or fantaisie from the collection Gaspard de la Nuit – Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot completed in 1836 by Aloysius Bertrand. The work was premiered in Paris, on January 9, 1909, by Ricardo Viñes.
Ravel in 1910
Excerpt of the third movement, Scarbo, in a mural in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota
Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.
Ravel in 1925
Joseph Ravel (1875), Marie Ravel (1870) and Maurice Ravel aged four (1879)
Piano class of Charles de Bériot in 1895, with Ravel on the left
Gabriel Fauré, Ravel's teacher and supporter