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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. . 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.