Maurice Ravel
This piece was very energetic, and had a compound duple meter. This meter is first established in the beginning with a duet flute part. One flute plays sixteenths on do and the play six one an octave higher on do. This harmony maintains tempo and puts a good metric accent on one. The constant sixteenths in the base are a reaccurring thing in the piece, it is one of the aspects of it that give it so much energy. This first subphrase hints at one of the two main themes in the piece. The next subphrase hints at the darker, second theme. This is because of the rhythms of longer beat duration, quarter eighth, and the instrument change to more brass intruments. Compared to the first subphrase, which is flighty and airy, it is heavier and darker. This subphrase also introduces the strings long ascending and descending scale. Scales seemed to be used a lot in this piece, crescdoing to the top of the scale, and descending down to begin a new phrase. In the first subphrase, one of the themes introduced is do-re-mi-fa-mi-re-do. After completing the entire two parts of the one phrase, the phrase is repeated, and this next theme begins. The darker, deeper theme is also stated several times thoughout the piece, and the contrast the two create put emphasis on the piece as a whole. I think there were a lot of half cadences in this piece, I did not get the feeling of finality as much as just a lot of asceding and descending scales. I enjoyed this piece, particularly because of the compound rhythms.
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