Maurice Charles Delage (13 November 1879 – 19 or 21 September 1961) was a French
composer and
pianist.[1]
Life and career
Maurice Charles Delage was born and died in
Paris. He first worked as a clerk for a maritime agency in Paris, and later as a fishmonger in
Boulogne. He also served for a time in the French army, before embarking on a music career in his twenties.[2] A student of
Ravel, who proclaimed him one of the supreme French composers of his day,[3] and member of
Les Apaches, he was influenced by travels to
India and
Japan in 1912, when he accompanied his father on a business trip.[4] Ravel's "La vallée des cloches" from Miroirs was dedicated to Delage.
Delage's best known piece is Quatre poèmes hindous (1912–1913).[5] His Ragamalika (1912–1922), based on the
classical music of India, is significant in that it calls for
prepared piano; the score specifies that a piece of
cardboard 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.
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.