Ravel finished the quartet in early April 1903, aged 28, and dedicated it to his teacher Gabriel Fauré, who was not very impressed. The Heymann Quartet gave the first performance at the Société nationale de musique in Paris on March 5, 1904. Debussy liked it and wrote Ravel an encouraging letter. It was first published in 1905, and a revised edition followed from Durand in 1910.
Its four-movement plan follows Debussy’s quartet of 1893, but the music sounds quite different. Themes from the first movement return later, in the slow movement and the finale. The second movement begins with plucked strings and sets patterns in three against patterns in two; the finale keeps changing between 5/8, 5/4 and 3/4.
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