Emily Kilpatrick – författare

Maurice Ravel's operas L'Heure espagnole (1907/1911) and L'Enfant et les sortilèges (1919-25) are pivotal works in the composer's relatively small œuvre. Emerging from periods shaped by very distinct musical concerns and historical circumstances, these two vastly different works nevertheless share qualities that reveal the heart of Ravel's compositional aesthetic. In this comprehensive study, Emily Kilpatrick unites musical, literary, biographical and cultural perspectives to shed new light on Ravel's operas. In documenting the operas' history, setting them within the cultural canvas of their creation and pursuing diverse strands of analytical and thematic exploration, Kilpatrick reveals crucial aspects of the composer's working life: his approach to creative collaboration, his responsiveness to cultural, aesthetic and musical debate, and the centrality of language and literature in his compositional practice. The first study of its kind, this book is an invaluable resource for students, specialists, opera-goers and devotees of French music.

Maurice Ravel's operas L'Heure espagnole (1907/1911) and L'Enfant et les sortilèges (1919-25) are pivotal works in the composer's relatively small œuvre. Emerging from periods shaped by very distinct musical concerns and historical circumstances, these two vastly different works nevertheless share qualities that reveal the heart of Ravel's compositional aesthetic. In this comprehensive study, Emily Kilpatrick unites musical, literary, biographical and cultural perspectives to shed new light on Ravel's operas. In documenting the operas' history, setting them within the cultural canvas of their creation and pursuing diverse strands of analytical and thematic exploration, Kilpatrick reveals crucial aspects of the composer's working life: his approach to creative collaboration, his responsiveness to cultural, aesthetic and musical debate, and the centrality of language and literature in his compositional practice. The first study of its kind, this book is an invaluable resource for students, specialists, opera-goers and devotees of French music.

A ground-breaking study of the musical and literary priorities, professional practices and creative interactions that shaped one of the most adventurous artforms of the Belle Époque.French art song, or mélodie, was one of the most radical and exploratory artforms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was also among the most intimate, a genre of experimentation, hesitation and unfiltered artistic conversation. In this landmark history, Emily Kilpatrick charts the compositional preoccupations and literary stimuli, the friendships and rivalries, critical narratives and performance practices that shaped French art song between 1870 and the First World War. She traces the expanding horizons of an essentially new musical idiom, moving from the lively debates of the avant-garde to the social and artistic contradictions of the salons, the pedagogy of the Paris Conservatoire, and the eventual accession of song to the concert platform and a central place in the world's musical imagination. The mélodie of the Belle Époque flourished amidst a culture of creative collaboration, and through the musicianship and advocacy of performers as well as composers. Setting key works by Fauré, Duparc, Chausson, Debussy, and Ravel alongside historical curiosities and hidden gems, French Art Song: History of a New Music probes composer-performer relationships and the shaping of performance traditions and addresses the challenges faced by the twenty-first century interpreter. Kilpatrick twines cultural history with musical insight and a wealth of previously unpublished source material in a wide-ranging and richly detailed account of the public and private faces of musical invention.

One of Financial Times’s Best Books of 2025: Classical and Pop MusicMaurice Ravel is one of the twentieth century’s most intriguing and contradictory composers. This timely new biography – published for the 150th anniversary of his birth – describes Ravel’s journey from Parisian apprentice to global musical icon. Drawing on fresh research, Emily Kilpatrick reveals Ravel as both a daring provocateur and a reflective elder, his lifelong quest for originality driven by his deep love of history and literature. Set against a background of profound cultural and political upheaval, Ravel’s story unfolds through his battles with the artistic establishment, his creative resilience after wartime losses and the tragic incapacitation of his final years. The result is an intimate portrait of a composer whose music continues to enchant and challenge audiences worldwide.