The Prolongation in the Music of Ravel

Abstract

The principles of prolongation and linear progression give us a comprehension of music from a broader perspective, of general architecture, as an organic scheme of the whole. Such an understanding of music helps us to avoid, in interpretation, considering each note as having the same degree of importance in a musical phrase. Also, a proper division of the musical works into fragments according to prolongations and harmonic progressions is a genuine help in the process of obtaining fluency and correct phrasing. The analysis is necessary because only in this way can the musical ideas be understood and performed.