37. So he spent months driving a truck around Verdun , and left stunning descriptions of the abandoned town: ‘I will doubtless see more horrifying, more repugnant sights; I do not think I will ever experience anything as profound and strange as this sort of mute terror.’

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38. Ravel's truck, which he’d christened Adélaïde, then broke down, leaving him to play Robinson Crusoe (as he put it) in the woods for over a week. #Ravel150
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39. After the war #Ravel never drove a vehicle again, haunted by the visceral terror of his war service. #Ravel150
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40. The six movements Ravel's 'Le tombeau de Couperin' are all dedicated to the memory of friends killed during the First World War. #Ravel150
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41. Ravel loved mechanical metaphors: new pieces might be ‘en panne’ (broken down); hard at work, he writes ‘Je turbine’. After the War, ‘The magneto’s worn out’; but by the end of 1919 ‘I’ve got La Valse started up at last and I’m in 4th gear!’ #Ravel150
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42. Trying to complete La Valse, Ravel travelled to a friend’s house in the Rhône-Alpes, writing, ‘This has got to work: not being able to travel to Vienna, I’ve installed myself close to…Vals!’ #Ravel150
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43. Ravel dispatched the manuscript of La Valse to his publishers with the cheery note ‘Let’s hope it doesn’t get lost, I haven’t kept a draft’. #Ravel150
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