With his mother’s death during 1917, he was really depressed and could not compose anymore. The January 15th 1920 he wrote : "I'm always thinking to her, all the days, each minute".

With the death of Debussy in 1918 it Ravel was exhausted and lacking creative spirit at the war’s end during 1918.

He's invited by the Herold Family to have rest in her welcoming house in the south of France. Here, in Herold House, he'll compose The Valse, famous for its “fantastic and fatal whirling”.