His early works were strongly influenced by the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, while he later turned toward neoclassicism.īorn in Tourcoing (Nord), Roussel's earliest interest was not in music but mathematics. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (pronounced: 5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937) was a French composer.
