PROGRAM NOTES
SEASON OPENING CONCERT
Maurice Ravel
Born March 7 , 1875 in Ciboure , France
Died December 28 , 1937 in Paris , France
BOLÉRO [ 1928 ]
Ravel spent his early career rebelling against the gatekeepers at the Paris Conservatory and working in the shadow of chief rival , Debussy , but by 1928 this son of a Swiss engineer and a Basque peasant had risen to become one of France ’ s greatest musical treasures . Ravel was also just starting to complain of the neurological symptoms that would arrest his flow of music in 1932 and lead to his death five years later . It ’ s possible that he was suffering from frontotemporal dementia , a degenerative condition that has been associated with surges of creative work marked by meticulous patterns .
No work of Ravel ’ s was more meticulous or patterned than Boléro , composed in 1928 for Ida Rubinstein , a Russian dancer who broke off from the legendary Ballets Russes to form her
own company in Paris . His working title was Fandango , which he later changed to Boléro ; both are traditional flamenco dances with rhythmic patterns based on triplets .
The musical material of Boléro could hardly be simpler . There is an unchanging rhythmic ostinato , a Spanish-inflected melody in two repeating sections , and static harmonies that only stray from C major for several measures near the end . The sustained musical interest comes entirely through variations in instrumental color , intensifying with each successive repetition .
Instrumentation Two flutes including two piccolos , two oboes including oboe d ’ amore , English horn , four clarinets , two bassoons , contrabassoon , three saxophones , four horns , four trumpets , three trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion , harp , celeste , and strings .
Musical Terms Counterpoint : The relationship between two or more melodies in a musical composition . The Russian Five : Prominent 19th-century Russian composers : Mily Balakirev , César Cui , Modest Mussorgsky , Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov , and Alexander Borodin . Overture : An orchestral introduction to an extended work , such as an opera or ballet . Ostinato : Short melodic phrase repeated throughout a composition .
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