Download Matt Pike Music 122 Final Paper Ravel – String Quartet in F Major

Matt Pike
Music 122 Final Paper
Ravel – String Quartet in F Major
The first movement of Ravel's string quartet in F is a perfect example of early-modern
pandiatonic tonal composition. Written in 1903, it takes its place chronologically among the early
modern masterworks that challenged and eventually shaped the way notes traditionally relate to one
another. Ravel was right on the borderline between romantic and modern conceptions of music. This
comes through in his work as both classical and modern techniques are implemented throughout. This
piece explores harmonic relationships and juxtapositions that have virtually no place in the functional
harmonic structures solidified by the baroque and classical masters.
This quartet follows a classical four movement string quartet form. The first movement is in
sonata form. The first theme sounds in F to open the exposition.
Unlike earlier sonatas, Ravel uses third relations and whole tone fragments to move around as
opposed to dominant tonicizations. The second theme sounds in D minor.
Another point of departure between the Ravel quartet and the classical quartet is that the
exposition lasts much longer than the development, and by the time the second theme is played, many
key areas have already been recognized.
Ravel sought only to capture the outermost structural concepts of sonata form, his harmony,
counterpoint and voice leading were unprecedented. Use of parallel 4ths, 5ths and octaves are
commonplace, and dissonances are rarely prepared or resolved. A chordal analysis of this piece is both
difficult and unfruitful. Ravel loved to use extended chords like 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths, sometimes
omitting entire middle sections of these chords, creating an ambiguous and open harmony, defiant of
concrete analysis.
This chord, for example, is spelled D, E, C#, A. It could be justified as an A major 11th chord, or
possibly a D minor major 7th chord with a 9th, these types of chords abound in Ravel's
music, and attempting to analyze them with roman numerals is futile. Extended chord
techniques and upper-structure based voicings would not become common practice
until decades later when jazz was being created. This is one of the ways in which
Ravel and his contemporaries innovated and expanded the harmonic palette of the
time.
Not only did Ravel defy tradition when building chords, he also did so when moving them
around. This piece in particular focuses on third relations. Instead of moving chords based on the
notes available in a given key, Ravel would create harmonic areas using chords related by thirds, and
then use modal mixture and borrowed chords to move elsewhere. There are different degrees of
harmonic weight to the different types of third relations. In the second part of the first theme of the
exposition there is a call and answer section between the two violins, meanwhile, the cello and viola
are moving between G dominant7 and Bb dominant7; major chords related by a minor third. These
two chords juxtaposed create an unstable yet somehow neutral harmonic mood.
While the above third relation functions to neutralize motion and prepare new motion, other
third relations serve different purposes. In the exposition, when the opening theme is played for the
second time, in F, it is denied by an A major chord. A third relation of a major third, jammed into the
middle of a passage with a definite tonal center. This third relation functions to disrupt the harmony
and jar the listener.
Another effective way in which Ravel uses third relations can be seen in the development
section. Here, Ravel is restating a part of the main theme harmonized in D minor, with dm7 chords
arpeggiated over it, His next move is to an f diminished chord, which has no functional relationship
with dm7 and sounds somewhat dissonant in the context. The rhythm, texture and gesture remain the
same, and the melody is transposed to fit with F diminished. This has the effect of pushing the
harmony into an area that seems unknown and foreign, but by instantaneously committing to that new
harmonic area, the flow of the piece doesn't seem broken by the transition. This example also
illuminates another one of Ravel's techniques for harmonic expansion. He would take a chord and
move some of the voices in parallel motion by a selected interval, sometimes diatonic, sometimes
chromatic. In this case, D, F, A, C moves to F, Ab, Cb. Root movement of a third, common tone F, and
parallel motion of a half step from A and C to Ab and Cb. This technique of moving groups of voices
by chosen intervals is called “planing”, and Ravel uses it often. By combining planing with the use of
a common tone, chords can seem distant, yet related.
Another good example of planing can be heard in the beginning of the development at rehearsal
E, where the triplet figure from the second theme and the descending section of the first theme are
voiced in a call and answer format. The harmony here begins on BbMaj7 with cm as a neighbor, it then
moves to AbMaj7 with Bbm as a neighbor, then GbMaj7 and Ab, Then it comes to rest and the theme is
restated in E. This passage is a distinct example of planing. He is taking a Major seventh chord shape,
and moving it down sequentially by whole steps. These combinations of diatonic and non diatonic
structures create harmonies that seem new and fresh; still consonant to the ear, but not boring or
overstated like the predominant-dominant-tonic formula of before.
One of the achievements of this piece is creating non-diatonic-sounding harmony through the
use of diatonic methods. One of the ways this is accomplished is through a practice called
“polytonality”. This refers to the use of more than one diatonic key simultaneously. At first glance, the
harmony seems to be chromatic, or simply atonal, but upon inspection, two distinct keys are audible,
and they push and pull on one another which creates that tension akin to chromatic and octatonic
harmony. In this passage, the cello, viola, and second violin are playing chords in the key of A major,
while the 1st violin is playing a slow lyrical melody in F.
Ravel's music, while unarguably tonal, centering around weighted pitches and harmonies,
makes use of a very colorful harmonic palette. He makes good use of pentatonic and whole tone scales
and the tritone plays a leading role in his music. His use of the tritone is somewhat like the serving of
water between courses of a meal. They function to eradicate the sense of a tonic and put the harmony
up in the air. This use of the tritone appears most clearly during the exposition when the first theme
ends and the second theme begins. Tritones sound in the bass between EbMaj and AMaj, the
momentum decreases, then a new area is opened up immediately.
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The music of Ravel in general, and this string quartet particularly, are key stepping
stones between romantic music and new music. He employs just enough of the world of romanticism,
in its lyrical melodies and lush harmonies, to grab the ear of an untrained listener and pull him or her
in. But his music also contains a bounty of “new” and at the time unexplored techniques in harmony,
line, and the general narrative that can be told by the arc of a piece. This combination of the old and
the new allows his music to captivate the listener time and time again, and allows the listeners
appreciation of it to grow alongside his or her understanding of its inner workings.