Maurice Ravel completed his String Quartet in F major in early April 1903 at the age of 28.

Ravel attended the Paris Conservatoire, but his unconventional ideas had incurred the displeasure of its ultra-conservative director Théodore Dubois and some other faculty members.

His friend and teacher Gabriel Fauré continued to encourage and advise him, and Ravel made continual efforts to win the country's top musical award, the Prix de Rome, in the face of resistance from the Conservatoire regime.

Among his works by that date were the piano pieces Pavane pour une infante défunte and Jeux d'eau, and 1904 saw the premieres of his orchestral song cycle Shéhérazade and the String Quartet.

[3] The structure of Ravel's quartet is modelled on Debussy's, but where Debussy's music is, in Arbie Orenstein's words, "effusive, uninhibited, and open[ing] up fresh paths", Ravel's displays emotional reticence, innovation within traditional forms, and unrivalled technical mastery.

[4] Ravel followed a direction he described as "opposite to that of Debussy's symbolism", abandoning "the vagueness and formlessness of the early French impressionists in favour of a return to classic standards.

[10] By 1914, the work was so well established that a London critic was able to compare performances by the Parisian String Quartet with those of British players in consecutive months.

The first, rising and falling through a long arc, is played by all four players at the opening and taken over by the first violin, accompanied by scalar harmonies in the lower instruments.

There are strong thematic links with the first movement, and, in defiance of orthodox rules of harmony, conspicuous use of consecutive fifths.

Short melodic themes are given rapid tremolandi and sustained phrases are played against emphatic arpeggios.