Ed Potter wants to know, for a dissertation, our thoughts, whatever they
may be, on

>Ravel - impressionist, post-impressionist, colourist or neo-classicist?

OK, but then you owe us something about your dissertation.  Ravel spanned
more than one style because be lived from 1875 to 1937.  I would call quite
a few of his works, including his Sonatine and other piano works, the
pavane, Daphnis et Chloe, and Ma mere l'oye, impressionist, and I think
that is a well enough established critical category, however one might
quibble about it.  His Concerto in G is surely neoclassical.  In painting,
post-impressionist art had strong emphasis on structure; I am not familiar
with discussions of post-impressionism in music, but, if this were a quiz
and I had to list something under that rubric, I'd say the Concerto for the
Left Hand, though it would not surprise me to see someone speak of Daphnis
that way.  (Fortunately I'm not doing this for academic credit.) Although
Ravel was one of the great orchestrators, I would not insult him by calling
him a colourist.

Jim Tobin