String Quartet in F major (Ravel)
The string quartet in F major (op. 35) is the only string quartet by Maurice Ravel .
Origin, structure and style
Ravel composed the work in two phases. The first two movements were written at the end of 1902, when Ravel was not yet exactly clear about the form in which to pour his composition. The third and fourth movements were written in April 1903. However, it took another year before his work was premiered on March 5, 1904 in Paris by the renowned Heymann Quartet .
Ravel chose a classic four-movement form, which, however, similar to Claude Debussy's string quartet , sorted it unconventionally by designing the second movement to be Scherzo- like and designing the third movement as a calm transition to the final movement, although it was also characterized by various changes in rhythm and key. The sentence names are:
- Allegro moderato. Très doux
- Assez vif. Très rythmé
- Très lent
- Vif et agité
In his composition, Ravel combined different styles such as elements of rhapsody and Basque dance rhythm with classical elements. The string quartet is therefore regarded by music critics and biographers, but also by Ravel himself as the beginning of the development of an individual musical language. The then 28-year-old composer wrote that the work showed his "desire for musical construction, which, although only imperfectly realized, still appears much more clearly than in my earlier compositions."
reception
The work was largely positively received by the public, but received extremely different from the French experts. Gabriel Fauré , who a few years earlier had been his teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris and to whom Ravel dedicated his string quartet, expressed himself from reserved to negative, while Claude Debussy, whose relationship with Ravel was otherwise characterized by some tension, was enthusiastic about the work and Ravel swore not to change a single note. An uproar occurred when Ravel's composition was excluded from the Prix de Rome, which was co-sponsored by the Conservatoire, due to formal concerns regarding violations of compositional norms. For this decision, the outgoing director of the Conservatory, Théodore Dubois , who had opposed Ravel in previous years, was publicly criticized, including by the Nobel Prize winner for literature and influential music critic Romain Rolland . This public controversy did not harm the string quartet; on the contrary, it helped the work to achieve great popularity in France and internationally, which continues to this day.
literature
Norman Demuth: Maurice Ravel , Hyperion Press 1979
Individual evidence
- ↑ quoted in Fauré dedicated - Debussy followed , Kerstin Unseld on SWR of August 9, 2010