Boléro

This article is about Ravel's piece for orchestra. For Latin music, see Bolero. For other uses, see Bolero (disambiguation).

Ida Rubinstein, the inspiration behind Boléro. Portrait by Valentin Serov.

A scene from Maurice Béjart's production of Boléro. The leading ballet dancer Sylvie Guillem makes a leaping movement on a table, which is similar to the original 1928 choreography of Bronislava Nijinska.

Boléro is a one-movement orchestral piece by Maurice Ravel (1875–1937). Originally composed as a ballet commissioned by Russian ballerina Ida Rubinstein, the piece, which premiered in 1928, is Ravel's most famous musical composition. Before Boléro, Ravel had composed large scale ballets (such as Daphnis et Chloé, composed for the Ballets Russes 1909–1912), suites for the ballet (such as the second orchestral version of Ma Mère l'Oye, 1912), and one-movement dance pieces (such as La Valse, 1906–1920). Apart from such compositions intended for a staged dance performance, Ravel had demonstrated an interest in composing re-styled dances, from his earliest successes (the 1895 Menuet and the 1899 Pavane) to his more mature works like Le tombeau de Couperin (which takes the format of a dance suite).

Boléro epitomises Ravel's preoccupation with restyling and reinventing dance movements. It was also one of the last pieces he composed before illness forced him into retirement: the two piano concertos and the Don Quichotte à Dulcinée song cycle were the only compositions that followed Boléro.

Composition

The work had its genesis in a commission from the dancer Ida Rubinstein, who asked Ravel to make an orchestral transcription of six pieces from Isaac Albéniz's set of piano pieces, Iberia. While working on the transcription, Ravel was informed that the movements had already been orchestrated by Spanish conductor Enrique Arbós, and that copyright law prevented any other arrangement from being made. When Arbós heard of this, he said he would happily waive his rights and allow Ravel to orchestrate the pieces. However, Ravel changed his mind and decided initially to orchestrate one of his own previously-written works. He then changed his mind again and decided to write a completely new piece based on the musical form and Spanish dance called bolero. While on vacation at St Jean-de-Luz, Ravel went to the piano and played a melody with one finger to his friend Gustave Samazeuilh, saying "Don't you think this theme has an insistent quality? I'm going to try and repeat it a number of times without any development, gradually increasing the orchestra as best I can." This piece was initially called Fandango, but its title was soon changed to "Boléro".

Premiere and early performances

The composition was a sensational success when it was premiered at the Paris Opéra on November 22, 1928, with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska and designs by Alexandre Benois. The orchestra of the Opéra was conducted by Walther Straram; Ernest Ansermet had originally been engaged to conduct during the entire ballet season, but the musicians refused to play under him. A scenario by Rubinstein and Nijinska was printed in the program for the premiere:

Inside a tavern in Spain, people dance beneath the brass lamp hung from the ceiling. [In response] to the cheers to join in, the female dancer has leapt onto the long table and her steps become more and more animated.

Ravel himself, however, had a different conception of the work: his preferred stage design was of an open-air setting with a factory in the background, reflecting the mechanical nature of the music.

Boléro became Ravel's most famous composition, much to the surprise of the composer, who had predicted that most orchestras would refuse to play it. It is usually played as a purely orchestral work, only rarely being staged as a ballet. According to a possibly apocryphal story, in the mayhem that followed the premiere performance a woman was heard shouting that Ravel was mad. When told about this, Ravel smiled and remarked that the woman had been the only one who had understood the piece. The piece was first published by the Parisian firm Durand in 1929. Arrangements of the piece were made for piano solo and piano duet (two people playing at one piano), and Ravel himself arranged a version for two pianos, published in 1930.

The first recording was made by Piero Coppola in Paris for The Gramophone Company on January 8, 1930. The recording session was attended by Ravel. The very next day Ravel made his own recording for Polydor, conducting the Lamoureux Orchestra. That same year further recordings were made by Serge Koussevitzky with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Willem Mengelberg with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Toscanini

Conductor Arturo Toscanini gave the U.S. premiere of Boléro with the New York Philharmonic on November 14, 1929. The performance was a great success, bringing "shouts and cheers from the audience" according to a New York Times review leading one critic to declare that "it was Toscanini who launched the career of the Boléro", and another to claim that Toscanini had made Ravel into "almost an American national hero".

On May 4, 1930, Toscanini performed the work with the New York Philharmonic at the Paris Opéra as part of that orchestra's European tour. Toscanini's tempo was significantly faster than Ravel preferred, and Ravel signaled his disapproval by refusing to respond to Toscanini's gesture during the audience ovation. An exchange took place between the two men backstage after the concert. According to one account Ravel said "It's too fast", to which Toscanini responded "It's the only way to save the work". According to another report Ravel said "That's not my tempo". Toscanini replied "When I play it at your tempo, it is not effective", to which Ravel retorted "Then do not play it". Four months later Ravel attempted to smooth over relations with Toscanini by sending him a note explaining that "I have always felt that if a composer does not take part in the performance of a work, he must avoid the ovations" and, ten days later, inviting Toscanini to conduct the premiere of his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.

Early popularity

The Toscanini affair became a cause célèbre and further increased Boléro's fame. Other factors in the work's renown were the large number of early performances, gramophone records (including Ravel's own), transcriptions and radio broadcasts, together with the 1934 motion picture Bolero starring Carole Lombard, in which the music plays an important role.

Music

Boléro is written for a large orchestra consisting of:

• piccolo, 2 flutes (one doubles piccolo), 2 oboes (one doubles oboe d'amore), cor anglais, 2 clarinets (one doubles on E-flat clarinet), bass clarinet, 2 saxophones (one sopranino and one tenor doubling on soprano), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon
• 4 horns, piccolo trumpet, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, bass tuba
• timpani, 2 snare drums, a bass drum, one piece/pair of orchestral cymbals, tamtam, celesta
• harp
• strings

The instrumentation calls for a sopranino saxophone in F; modern sopraninos are in E-flat. Today, both the soprano saxophone and the sopranino saxophone parts are commonly played on the B-flat soprano saxophone.

The celesta, E-flat clarinet, and the soprano saxophone only come once each in part, meaning they cannot be used in later parts of the music (including the finale). The oboe d'amore actually comes twice, one after the E-flat clarinet, and the other with the oboes and clarinets.

Structure

Boléro is "Ravel's most straightforward composition in any medium". The music is in C major, 3/4 time, beginning pianissimo and rising in a continuous crescendo to fortissimo possibile (as loud as possible). It is built over an unchanging ostinato rhythm played on one or more snare drums that remains constant throughout the piece:

On top of this rhythm two melodies are heard, each of 18 bars' duration, and each played twice alternately. The first melody is diatonic, the second melody introduces more jazz-influenced elements, with syncopation and flattened notes (technically it is in the Phrygian mode). The first melody descends through one octave, the second melody descends through two octaves. The bass line and accompaniment are initially played on pizzicato strings, mainly using rudimentary tonic and dominant notes. Tension is provided by the contrast between the steady percussive rhythm, and the "expressive vocal melody trying to break free". Interest is maintained by constant reorchestration of the theme, leading to a variety of timbres, and by a steady crescendo. Both themes are repeated a total of eight times. At the climax, the first theme is repeated a ninth time, then the second theme takes over and breaks briefly into a new tune in E major before finally returning to the tonic key of C major.

The melody is passed among different instruments: 1) flute 2) clarinet 3) bassoon 4) E-flat clarinet 5) oboe d'amore 6) trumpet (with flute not heard clearly and in higher octave than the first part) 7) tenor saxophone 8) soprano saxophone 9) horn, piccolos and celesta 10) oboe, English horn and clarinet 11) trombone 12) some of the wind instruments 13) first violins and some wind instruments 14) first and second violins together with some wind instruments 15) violins and some of the wind instruments 16) some instruments in the orchestra 17) and finally most but not all the instruments in the orchestra (with bass drum, cymbals and tam-tam). While the melody continues to be played in C throughout, from the middle onwards other instruments double it in different keys. The first such doubling involves a horn playing the melody in C, while a celeste doubles it 2 and 3 octaves above and two piccolos play the melody in the keys of G and E, respectively. This functions as a reinforcement of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th overtones of each note of the melody. The other significant "key doubling" involves sounding the melody a 5th above or a 4th below, in G major. Other than these "key doublings", Ravel simply harmonizes the melody using diatonic chords.

This table here shows how the composition is actually played by what instruments (in order):

Part	Instruments that follow the snare drum's rhythm	Instruments that follow the theme to Boléro	Instruments that follow the quarter/eighth note rhythm
1st	none but 1st Snare drum	1st Flute	Violas and Cellos
2nd	2nd Flute	1st Clarinet	same
3rd	1st Flute	1st Bassoon	same, and Harp
4th	2nd Flute	E-flat clarinet	same
5th	1st and 2nd Bassoons	Oboe d'amore	String quartet with Basses except 1st Violins
6th	1st Horn	1st Flute & 1st Trumpet (con sordino)	Strings with Basses except 2nd Violins
7th	2nd Trumpet (con sordino)	Tenor saxophone	1st and 2nd Flutes, and Strings
8th	1st Trumpet (sord)	Sopranino saxophone, later, interchanges with the Soprano saxophone	Strings, 1st & 2nd Oboes and Cor anglais
9th	1st Flute & 2nd Horn	1st Horn, 2 Piccolos, Celesta	Strings, Harp, 1st and 2nd Bassoons and Bass clarinet
10th	3rd Trumpet (con sordino), 2nd Horn, and Violins and Violas	1st Oboe, Oboe d'amore, Cor anglais and 1st & 2nd Clarinets	1st & 2nd Trumpets (both sord), Harp, Bass clarinet and 1st and 2nd Bassoons
11th	Violas (arco), 1st Flute and 2nd Horn	1st Trombone	Rest of the Strings, 1st and 2nd Clarinets, Bass clarinet, Harp and Contrabassoon
12th	1st Trumpet (senza sordino), 4th Horn and 2nd Violins (arco)	All Wind instruments (except Bassoon and Contrabassoon), and Tenor saxophone	Strings but 2nd Violins, Harp, Bass clarinet, Bassoon and Contrabassoon
13th	1st and 2nd Horns	Flutes, Oboes and Clarinets (both 1 & 2), Piccolo, 1st Violins (arco)	Strings (still pizz, again), 3rd and 4th Horns, Timpani and 1st and 2nd Bassoons & Contrabassoon
14th	3rd and 4th Horns	same, and with Cor anglais, Tenor saxophone, and 2nd Violins	Sopranino saxophone, Harp, Bassoon, Contrabassoon, 1st and 2nd Horns and Timpani
15th	1st and 2nd Horns, later, 2nd Horn will turn to the theme (interchanging with the 1st Trumpet)	All Wind instruments except Clarinets, Bassoon and Contrabassoon, 1st Trumpet and 1st and 2nd Violins, later, Violas and Bass clarinet, later	1st & 2nd Clarinets, 1st & 2nd Bassoons, Contrabassoon, Tenor and Sopranino saxophone, 1st and 2nd Trombone, Tuba, Timpani Harp and some Strings
16th	1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Horns	All Woodwinds except Bassoons and Contrabassoon, Sopranino saxophone, 1st Trombone, 1st and 2nd Violins, Violas and Cellos, later, the Sopranino saxophone will interchange the theme with the Tenor saxophone.	Bass clarinet (later, turning to the theme), Bassoon, Contrabassoon, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Trumpet, 2nd and 3rd Trombones, Tuba, Timpani, Harp and Double bass
17th	1st & 2nd Oboes, 1st & 2nd Clarinets, all Horns, 2nd Violins, Violas and Cellos, added with another Snare drum playing throughout.	1st & 2nd Flutes*, Piccolo*, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Trumpets*, Piccolo trumpet, Sopranino and Tenor saxophone, and 1st Violins	Bass clarinet, Bassoons, Contrabassoon, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Trombones, Tuba, Timpani, Harp and Double bass
18th	same	same but the 1st Trombone in going with the theme	the same but not the 1st Trombone
Finale	All instruments except listed in the quarter/eighth rhythm on the right	Glissando: 1st, 2nd, 3rd Trombones and Sopranino and Tenor saxophone	Oboes, Clarinets, Cor anglais, Bassoons, Contrabassoon, Tuba, Timpani, Double bass, and Bass drum, Cymbals and Tam-tam
	* The Piccolo and Flutes play the Snare drum's theme, and the Trumpets play the three-eighth note rhythm before the start and after the end of 17th

The accompaniment becomes gradually thicker and louder until the whole orchestra is playing at the very end. Just before the end (rehearsal number 18 in the score), there is a sudden change of key to E major, though C major is reestablished after just eight bars. Six bars from the end, the bass drum, cymbals and tam-tam make their first entry, the English horn returns, and the trombones and both saxophones play raucous glissandi while the whole orchestra beats out the rhythm that has been played on the snare drum from the very first bar. Finally, the work descends from a dissonant D-flat chord to a C major chord.

Tempo and duration

The tempo indication in the score is Tempo di Bolero, moderato assai ("tempo of a bolero, very moderate"). In Ravel's own copy of the score, the printed metronome mark of 76 per quarter is crossed out and 66 is substituted. Later editions of the score suggest a tempo of 72. Ravel's own recording from January 1930 starts at around 66 per quarter, slightly slowing down later on to 60–63. Its total duration is 15 minutes 50 seconds. Coppola's first recording, at which Ravel was present, has a similar duration of 15 minutes 40 seconds. Ravel said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph that the piece lasts 17 minutes.

An average performance will last in the area of fifteen minutes, with the slowest recordings, such as that by Ravel's associate Pedro de Freitas Branco, extending well over 18 minutes and the fastest, such as Leopold Stokowski's 1940 recording with the All American Youth Orchestra, approaching 12 minutes.

At Coppola's first recording Ravel indicated strongly that he preferred a steady tempo, criticizing the conductor for getting faster at the end of the work. According to Coppola's own report:

Maurice Ravel [...] did not have confidence in me for the Boléro. He was afraid that my Mediterranean temperament would overtake me, and that I would rush the tempo. I assembled the orchestra at the Salle Pleyel, and Ravel took a seat beside me. Everything went well until the final part, where, in spite of myself, I increased the tempo by a fraction. Ravel jumped up, came over and pulled at my jacket: "not so fast", he exclaimed, and we had to begin again.

Ravel's preference for a slower tempo is confirmed by his unhappiness with Toscanini's performance, as reported above. Toscanini's 1939 recording with the NBC Symphony Orchestra has a duration of 13 minutes 25 seconds. In May 1994, with the Munich Philharmonic on tour in Cologne, conductor Sergiu Celibidache at the age of 82 gave a performance that lasted 17 minutes and 53 seconds, perhaps a record in the modern era.

Criticism

Ravel was a stringent critic of his own work. During Boléro's composition, he said to Joaquín Nin that the work had "no form, properly speaking, no development, no or almost no modulation". In a newspaper interview with The Daily Telegraph in July 1931 he spoke about the work as follows:

It constitutes an experiment in a very special and limited direction, and should not be suspected of aiming at achieving anything different from, or anything more than, it actually does achieve. Before its first performance, I issued a warning to the effect that what I had written was a piece lasting seventeen minutes and consisting wholly of "orchestral tissue without music" — of one very long, gradual crescendo. There are no contrasts, and practically no invention except the plan and the manner of execution.

In 1934, in his book Music Ho!, Constant Lambert wrote: "There is a definite limit to the length of time a composer can go on writing in one dance rhythm (this limit is obviously reached by Ravel towards the end of La valse and towards the beginning of Boléro)."

Legacy

Adaptations

African singer Angélique Kidjo has created a vocal adaptation of the Boléro called "Lonlon" in which almost all of the instrumental parts of the score are sung in the Mina language of Benin. It is included on her Grammy-winning album Djin Djin.

"Boléro" also serves as a counter-melody in the Rufus Wainwright song "Oh What A World" and portions of it appear throughout the song.

"Boléro" was also arranged for guitar by Kotaro Oshio and that arrangement is performed in concert,and on Youtube, by Sungha Jung.

Film soundtracks

In the 1980 movie 10, the character played by Bo Derek asks "Did you ever do it to Ravel's Bolero?", a reference to the thinking that the work is a good soundtrack for making love to. A four-minute excerpt of Boléro is used during the subsequent sex scene. This significantly increased sales of recordings of the work, which is still under copyright in many countries.

In the anime film Legend of the Galactic Heroes: My Conquest Is the Sea of Stars, the first half of the final battle features Boléro in its score.

The music is used in the 2008 Japanese film, Love Exposure., and in the opening to the 2003 film Basic, starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson.

The music is the central piece and scene which gives name to film El bolero de Raquel (Raquel's Shoe Shine Man / Raquel's Bolero) which is a 1957 Mexican film starring Cantinflas, Manola Saavedra and Flor Silvestre. Child actor Paquito Fernández was nominated for a 1958 Silver Ariel for Best Performance by a Child Actor for the role of Chavita. The main title in Spanish itself its a pun of the song name but with the name of the main character's friend that hears Cantinflas by mistake when hearing Ravel.

This was Cantinflas first color film in Mexico, and in it he played a down to his luck man that must work in different works such as a shoe shiner (bolero in Spanish), in order to support his godson Chavita, whose mother, Raquel played by Saavedra, left in order to get a better job outside Mexico City. Cantinflas accidentally dances to Ravel's Boléro with actress Elaine Bruce, a scene reminiscent of his Apache dance in the 1944 film, Gran Hotel, sabotaging her act in the process. El bolero de Raquel satirizes the lifestyles of the rich with their bodyguards, managers etc. through scenes set in posh nightclubs. Though a relative box-office disappointment for a Cantinflas film, it still ranked among the most profitable Mexican films of the year

The background music during the fight scene in Star Trek's Episode 30, Amok Time (first air date September 15, 1967), has portions of the Bolero theme (less the drum background). On the planet Vulcan, Spock must battle Kirk in a fight to the death over Spock's betrothed wife because she picked Kirk to champion her.

The anime series Digimon Adventure and the associated pilot film of the same name make heavy use of Boléro as a leitmotif relating to events on Earth.

Boléro also plays a central part in the film Les Uns et les Autres, as danced by Jorge Donn.

Boléro features in the film Allegro Non Troppo, as the music for the evolution skit.

Torvill & Dean

Boléro was famously used as the accompanying music to the gold-medal-winning performance by British ice dancers Torvill and Dean at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. The pair commissioned a specially-adapted version of the work to comply with Olympic time restrictions to accompany their dance, which gained them the highest score of all time and the gold medal.

In Torvill and Dean's home city of Nottingham, the square by the National Ice Centre is named Bolero Square in honour of their achievements and their historic routine.

Bibliography

• Mawer, Deborah (2006). The Ballets of Maurice Ravel: Creation and Interpretation. Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-3029-3.
• Orenstein, Arbie (1991). Ravel: Man and Musician. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-26633-8.
• Ravel, Maurice (2003). A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews. Minneola, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-43078-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

Further reading

• Ivry, Benjamin (2000). "Maurice Ravel: a Life" (Document). New York: Welcome Rain. {{cite document}}: Unknown parameter |isbn= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |oclc= ignored (help)

External links

• Free scores by Boléro at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Bolero in Rock - Ravel's Boléro Drumbeat in Rock Music Throughout the Decades