GRMUS 639T — The French String Quartet in the 19th and 20th Centuries

2 credits
Spring
Kendall Briggs

Studies of the history of the string quartet are almost exclusively German, starting with Haydn and following the trajectory of the German Classical and Romantic composers to the beginning of the 20th century. Only in the late 19th and early 20th century do the Debussy and Ravel string quartets emerge in the context of the French tradition, underscoring one of the challenges in the history of the French quartet: its late beginnings. There are no French string quartets prior to the French publication of Haydn’s Op. 3 in 1766, and only a handful of quartets are in the current repetoire, composed in the last 50 years. Yet, the quality and elegance of the quartets from France prior to and after Debussy and Ravel are some of the most beautiful and moving.  

This course will examine the French Quartet from the late 19th century with Debussy and Ravel and to its latest representation in Boulez’s Livre pour Quatour in 1948-2015 (in its last edits Boulez made just before his death). With the quartets of Debussy, Ravel, Dutilleux, and Boulez as our point of departure, we will examine quartets from the earliest years in France, in the hands of Jadin, Gossec, and Vachon through Cherubini, Reicha, Franck, and Saint-Saens in light of their influences on Debussy and Ravel. From there we consider the influences of Debussy and Ravel in the hands of Emmanuel, Martinon, Milhaud, Tailleferre, Faure, Francaix, Boulez, Dutilleux, and Ohana in order to demonstrate the important coloristic effects and structural experiments found in the works of these later composers. In this way, Debussy and Ravel are framed within a long tradition of elegant quartet writing.