He is remembered in the United States primarily for the rather banal repetitions of Bolero, but Maurice Ravel wrote a great deal of music more worthy of celebration: ballets like Ma Mere l'Oye (Mother Goose) and Daphnis et Chloe; orchestral and piano works like Pavane pour une Infante Defunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) and the Rapsodie Espagnole; operas like L'Enfant et les Sortileges (The Child and the Enchantments); and settings of Greek and Jewish songs. British author and critic Gerald Larner offers a well-researched, well-written, accessible biography of Ravel's life and compositions that explores his music and his motivations, a part of the Phaidon Press Limited 20th Century Composers series.
