A naval career officer until 1894, Roussel studied (1898-1907) with the French composer Vincent d'Indy at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, where he later became an influential teacher.

Roussel's music is impressionistic in its color and poetic allusion, but in its formal design and clarity it reflects the neoclassicism of the Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky. Works such as Roussel's opera-ballet Padmâvatî (1918) reflect his fascination with Oriental culture.

His most popular works are Bacchus et Ariane ballet music and the symphonic fragments Le Festin de l'Araignee. His four symphonies are performed less often, although the hauntingly impressionistic symphony No.1 "Le Poeme de la Foret" is certainly helping his reputation as the greatest French symphonist of the twentieth century.