[The death of Ravel]

The composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was chronically ill during the last five years of his life. He was suffering from Pick's astrophy, the first signs of which appeared in 1923 and 1927 and which were probably already reflected in the stereotypy of the "Bolero" of 1928. Transient apractic symptoms were prominent, later, difficulty in finding words, agraphia and alexia. Ravel left no completed composition after an accident to the head in 1932. Complete apathy and involutional phenomena characterize the period before the death of the master, who passed away a few days after a surgical operation on the brain.