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Technical Notice
| Classical Composer: | Ravel, Maurice |
|---|---|
| Work: | Sonatine |
| Year Composed: | 1905 |
| Instrumentation: | pf |
| Publisher: | Éditions Durand |
| Duration: | 00:10:00 |
| Period: | 20th Century |
| Work Category: | Instrumental |
Work Information
Available Recording(s)
Ravel's Sonatine, a model of fastidious classicism that contrasts with his elaborate Jeux d'eau of 1901 and Miroirs, was completed in 1905. In harmonic language and melodic contour the sonatina is characteristic of the composer.
It opens with a first theme marked doux et espressif, leading to a brief second subject, based on a modal C sharp, the dominant of the F sharp of the first subject. A classical development derives its opening from the codetta and goes on to make use of the principal thematic material of the exposition. The third section recapitulation, ushered in by a passage of passionate intensity, restores the serenity of the first theme, while the second theme re-appears now in the tonic major.
The second movement takes the mood if not the form of a classical minuet, shifting subtly in tonality. The lively final movement transforms material of the first movement in a work that is motivically united and beautifully constructed, the descending fourth of the opening of the first movement providing a recurrent figure in this form or in its inversion.
Two thematic elements of the opening of the last movement shift in tonality, before the re-appearance of a transformed version of the principal theme of the first movement, later changed still further in rhythm and contrasted with the dominant motif that marks the movement. The sonatina ends with a brilliant and still essentially modal F sharp major.
Writer: Keith Anderson
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