Composition

Notes

Sonata for Violin and Cello In the company of such composers as Bartók, Stravinsky, and Satie, Ravel wrote the first movement of this Duo for a special 1920 issue of La Revue Musicale in memory of Claude Debussy, who had died two years earlier. By 1922 he added three more movements and renamed the piece “Sonata.” The spare texture of the piece is quite unlike the luxuriant colors heard in his most well-known orchestral and piano works. New aesthetic ideas combined with economic concerns led many composers to a similar clarity of texture in the post-war years. However, the term “spare” in this piece may be applied most accurately to the choice of two primarily single-line instruments, as the richness of implied harmonies and extensive use of special effects make this piece often sound more like a quartet than a duo. Mutes, pizzicato, harmonics, double-, triple-, and quadruple- stops are all used to such dazzling effect that it is sometimes difficult to believe that all this music comes from two instruments. Perhaps even more striking is the ingenious use of unexpected entrances of melodic fragments, particularly in the last movement, where one might imagine a quartet had just stepped in. The poignantly alternating major and minor triads of the opening and highly charged leaping
melodic sevenths are featured throughout the four movements, with constantly shifting purpose.