Welcome to the Nuts and Bolts segment

for Program Five, "The Internationalists

Part Two." Today, I'll be demonstrating the ideas

and building blocks found in the scherzo movements

of Debussy's String Quartet in G Minor,

opus 10, and Ravel's String Quartet in F Major.

For these French modernist composers,

sound color and rhythm effect were foremost

considerations. In order to achieve a different

sound color, they moved away from the traditional

major and minor scales we're accustomed to hearing

in tonal music. Rhythmically speaking, they used

meter and interesting cross-rhythms to create

a fun, bouncy feel. How appropriate this is

for the scherzo movement, which is meant

to feel playful.

Both scherzo movements display an interesting use

of six-eight meter, that avoids predictability

through cross-rhythms.

In six-eight meter, six eighth notes are

evenly divided into two groups of three.

This rhythmic grouping sounds like this.

One two three, four five six.

With this meter in mind, let me play

for you the opening of Debussy's

scherzo movement.

[PLAYS]

After a consistent presentation of this swing in two,

we see that Debussy uses two eighth notes

instead of three, for some of his beats.

This is an example of a cross-rhythm,

because the grouping of two eighth notes

works against the grouping of three.

Let me play the top two voices

of these measures for you, so you can

hear the conflict.

[PLAYS]

Now, Ravel's scherzo movement

displays even more pervasive cross-

rhythms, that give it a delightfully

playful and bouncy feel as well.

Again, the meter is six-eight. But he

also notates a three-four meter

in parentheses.

This means that Ravel is grouping the eighth notes

into two beats, as indicated by the 6/8 meter,

and also grouping the eighths into three beats,

with two eighth notes in each.

One two three, four five six,

one two three, four five six.

That's the six-eight. And here's the three-four.

One two three four five six.

He also places accents on the six-eight patterns,

to create a three-four effect,

something known as the hemiola.

Here's how the opening of this movement sounds.

[MUSIC]

Now, regarding the sound colors and effects,

let's take a look at the two alternating textures

that reside in Debussy's scherzo.

The first comes from the passage in Debussy's string quartet

that we just examined, for cross-rhythms.

This texture was in fact inspired

by the Javanese gamelan, an ensemble

of metallic percussion instruments

the Debussy heard at the Paris Exhibition of 1889.

All four quartet members play repeating

and non-repeating fragments, in bowed and plucked timbres,

in imitation of the gamelan's sound,

which was radically new for listeners of that era.

In this passage, viola plays a melodic fragment

that is a variant of the opening theme

from the first movement, which is built on

the phrygian mode.

Here's how the theme sounds in the first movement.

[MUSIC]

Here's how it sounds in the scherzo movement.

[MUSIC]

The phrygian mode is simply a scale

that starts on E, and uses all the white keys on the piano.

[PLAYS]

I should point out that this mode isn't limited

to E, because I can play the phrygian mode

starting on any key, by preserving all the same series

of half and whole steps that I just played starting on E.

If I build the phrygian mode on G,

this is what it sounds like.

[PLAYS]

Now, I'll play the theme from the first movement

one more time, and you'll hear the similarities.

[PLAYS]

In the alternating textures, we hear shimmering

rhythms that underlie another quotation

of this melody, in a different register.

Here's where Debussy's scintillating,

impressionistic, or atmospheric sound world

comes to life.

The first violin carries the same melody,

with a long, legato, or smoothly played quality,

a far cry from the crisp, bouncing rhythmic texture

of the first example.

Let me play part of this passage for you.

[MUSIC]

In the Ravel String Quartet, the same contrast

of textures is present. The bouncy, rhythmic

texture with the cross rhythms opens the movement.

And then, shortly after, a legato, melodic line

over a shimmering accompanimental texture

is also evident.

The legato melody sounds like this.

[MUSIC]

Forty measures later, it sounds like this.

[MUSIC]

You'll notice that it has a distinctive sound.

That's because it uses whole tone intervals.

Whole tone scales, which were commonly used

by Russian composers in the 19th century,

are made up of whole steps, and no half steps.

Here's what the whole tone scale sounds like.

[PLAYS]

It gives rise to a music that has almost an

atmospheric, placid, or tensionless quality to it,

because it doesn't have half steps, to create

harmonic dissonance.

Dissonance is a form of tension that requires resolution.

Another scale that Ravel and Debussy loved,

that has similar qualities, is the pentatonic scale,

from East Asia. As the term "penta" would suggest,

it's made up of five pitches, and sounds like this.

[PLAYS]

The black keys of the piano essentially make up

the pitches of this scale.

Together, the whole tone, pentatonic,

and the phrygian scale I described earlier

are some examples of the building blocks

Debussy and Ravel used to create their

distinctively nontraditional sound color.

Nuts and Bolts: Scherzo Movements--Debussy and Ravel

The World of the String Quartet

Meet the Instructors