Maurice Charles Delage (13 November 1879 – 19 or 21 September 1961) was a French composer and pianist.[1]
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.
