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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.
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.
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.