An Analysis Of On Wenlock Edge With The First Movement Of Ravel's String Quartet

Compare and contrast the songs of On Wenlock Edge with the first movement of Ravel's String Quartet

Introduction:

During the 19th century, France saw the birth and development of the art movement known as Impressionism. The term was initially coined when critic Louis Leroy commented on Claude Monet’s famous work, Impression, soleil levant ("Impression, Sunrise"), noting that the painting was simply an “impression”. Late during the 19th century, the term was applied to music, as music had become more pensive, and more like an “impression” of a thought, piece of artwork, or piece of literature, rather than what is literally portrayed. There was heavier interest on the atmospheric nature of the works, rather than clear-cut melodic lines with

His influences derived somewhat directly from English folk music and Tudor music, as he attempted to break British music away from the typical Germanic orchestration style and sounds of the time. Vaughan Williams, during his time at the Royal College of Music, studied with Hubert Parry and later Charles Villiers Stanford, having spent 3 years studying music and history at Trinity College, Cambridge. However, Vaughan Williams grew frustrated with the Germanic-influenced state of 19th century British music. Through the critic Calvocoressi, Vaughan Williams found teaching with Ravel, and spent 3 months from 1907-1908 in Paris studying orchestration. Ravel attempted to push Vaughan-Williams away from the British-Teutonic archetype, and in some ways, this brought on an initially disapproving British critical response to Vaughan-Williams’ works. The critic Ernest Newman even declined to recognise VW as a British musician, and instead simply referred to him as a “musician dangerously influenced by the

However, similarly to Vaughan Williams, the tonality does not remain constant, and instead fluctuates, switching to Ab major in the 5th bar (the median of F major), and ending the first phrase/theme with a G minor chord (the supertonic i.e. second degree of F major). This G minor chord remains used for further bars, however with a fluctuation of IV#6 on every 2nd beat of the bar, until we reach bar 16. Bar 16 ends with a C major chord (dominant of F major), and after this, we hear the use of the whole tone scale, similar to during the opening bars of ‘On Wenlock Edge’. Later on, we hear Ravel use chromatic progressions in the cello line, whilst remaining on vii13 (E minor), for 3 bars. Ravel uses the dominant of the minor key as a pedal point, and we hear, in bar 31, his use of 8 tone scales. This is a common occurrence in the movement, along with the axis system (i.e. the idea of having a common relative notes between chords in different