Ravel and the Rome Prize
In the case of Ravel’s composition L’Aurore (Carus 10.407), submitted in 1905, the poet was Édouard Guinand, an author who had already provided the text for the cantata L’Enfant prodigue in 1884, with which Claude Debussy won first prize. L’Aurore describes an idyllic view of nature at sunrise and celebrates the sun almost as a deity for its beneficial influence on nature and mankind.
