Separate strands of a French composer (7)
I believe the answer is:
unravel
'separate strands' is the definition.
'unravel' can be an answer for 'separate' (thesaurus). I am unsure of the 'strands' bit.
'a french composer' is the wordplay.
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'composer' becomes 'ravel' (Maurice Ravel, 1875-1937).
'un'+'ravel'='UNRAVEL'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for unravel that I've seen before include "Disentangle or undo like knitted fabric" , "Become undone" , "Unpick, untangle" , "Come undone; solve" , "Solve the problem" .)