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 def ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

Life and career

Maurice Charles Delage was born and died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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

Boulogne Boulogne-sur-Mer (; ; ; or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Hauts-de-France, Northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Boul ...

. 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, he was influenced by travels to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

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

Miroirs file:Ravel Pierre Petit.jpg, upRavel in 1907 ''Miroirs'' (, ) is a five-movement suite (music), suite for solo piano written by French composer Maurice Ravel between 1904 and 1905."Miroirs". Maurice Ravel Frontispice. First performed by Ricardo V ...

'' was dedicated to Delage. Delage's best known piece is '' Quatre poèmes hindous'' (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 #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

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 ''Works for pr ...

; the score specifies that a piece of

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

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 ...

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 journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

* 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 s ...

* ''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, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

* ''Toute allégresse'' (1925) on a poem by Paul-Jean Toulet ;Mélodies (voice with instrumental ensemble) * '' Quatre poèmes hindous'' (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 music, chamber ensemble of flute, oboe, B♭ clarinet, piano, and string quartet. Delage composed the work ...

'' (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

Citations

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