Bolero – Maurice Ravel – 1928 [in HD, with iTunes Visuals]

"Bolero" is a well-known and often performed piece of music by the French composer Maurice Ravel. Ravel wrote "Bolero" as a quasi commissioned work for the famous Russian ballerina Ida Rubinstein and was therefore originally conceived as a ballet.

Musically speaking, "Bolero" is a one-movement orchestral piece. The music is in C major, in 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 – what gives "Bolero" its unique character.

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, and the trombones 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♭ chord to a C major chord.

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 (more about this on Wikipedia, see link below).

"Bolero" , which premiered in 1928, is Ravel's most famous musical composition.

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If you want to learn more about this piece of music:

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[MartinBenner]

Did you know that Maurice Ravel himself did not count Bolero as one of his best works?