Autograph Letter about Jazz and Ravel's Music

Autograph letter from the important French composer, rather forcefully asserting the insignificance of jazz in influencing European music, and stating that jazz did not affect the music of Maurice Ravel. On a card, 2 pp. (recto/verso) n.d. Translated from the French, in full: "Dear Sir, I will not write much, for I've already spent a lot of time telling you that jazz does not interest me at all. It has had almost no influence on European music, and it is not from it that the best Ravel comes; quite the contrary. To refer to it now makes me think of someone reading a newspaper from 1920. I hope that your health is better. Believe me, with cordial sentiments, Poulenc." 14 x 10.5 cm. Fine. 

Maurice Ravel is known to have enjoyed jazz and blues, and on his 1928 tour of the United States he enjoyed meeting George Gershwin, seeing the new musical Funny Face and hearing Duke Ellington and his orchestra at the Cotton Club. Although some (including Poulenc and Messiaen) asserted otherwise, it is now widely accepted that the harmonic language of his work was influenced by jazz, especially his Violin Sonata no. 2 and his Piano Concerto in G. Francis Poulenc, meanwhile, disliked jazz, stating in a 1935 lecture: "I do not like it and I especially don't want to hear about its influence on contemporary music [...] Can anyone cite a single work of quality that it has inspired!" Poulenc biographer Carl B. Schmidt states that only a few of Poulenc's works display any jazz influence. (See: Carl B. Schmidt, Entrancing Muse: A Documented Biography of Francis Poulenc, p. 88.) (16124)

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Autograph Letter

Classical Music

Jazz

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