Timed Blog Post (exactly 30 mins)- Ravel Violin Sonata 1st Movement (First 3 minutes)

Ravel was a 20th century French Impressionist composer, and we can hear this in this piece. First of all, the extensive use of very varied, and sometimes very dissonant harmonies is reflective of the 20th century. The impressionistic style, created by the rich, emotional aspect of the piece, which is caused by the harmonies and varied dynamics, (from roughly pp to f), as well as the fact that it seems to be portraying something, perhaps a river or lake (popular topics for 20th century French Impressionist composers) and its extensive use of rhythm was also very commonly implemented by French composers of the time, and particularly Impressionist ones, such as Debussy or Faure.
The piece is in 3/4, and consists of a solo violin accompanied by a piano, who's part is so diverse and melodic that it is almost a counter-melody. At the beginning of the piece the piano has an introductory passage that begins on what sounds like the tonic, before it falls, with triplet motion, and at 0:06 plays a lilting, but stagnant few bars, before ascending at 0:11 into the violin's entry. At 0:14 the violin comes in with dissonance to the piano, that is slightly tense, because the piano had been so assonant and simple in its short melody. With this slight tension Ravel begins the piece, and we see that the rest of it is usually slightly tense in its harmonies, making this opening a foreshadowing to the Sonata.
The piano's octave quaver movement (0:14 onwards) provides a steady harmonic basis for the violin, and it sounds as though through the two, Ravel is depicting a body of water, with its rippling surface (the piano) and brightly coloured exotic fish (the violin) within. (The exoticness of the fish comes out through the weird harmonies, not 'normal' in our Western society, thus perhaps these fish are from another country).
The rhythm in the piece is generally comprised of quaver movement, until 1:08, when the violin recedes, and the piano has only crotchets. This continues for a few bars, giving rest to the music, as it has just had a climax at about 1:00 (following an ascending violin sequence comprised of crotchets, where the harmonic rhythm had been faster than usual).