RAVEL’ S BOLÉRO, DEBUSSY & SAINT-SAËNS portrays Iberian rhythms, instrumentation, and melodies.
The opening movement,“ In the Streets and Byways” features driving rhythms, and the woodwinds and brass trade jubilant melodies back and forth. The sound of busy streets fades into the distance as the movement concludes. Mystery and intrigue abound in the second movement,“ Perfumes of the Night,” which Debussy indicates should be played in a“ slow and dreamy” manner. We are awakened from our sleepy haze near the end of the movement when church bells begin tolling faintly in the background.“ The Morning of a Festival Day,” the third movement, is infused with energetic excitement. Everyone is busily preparing for a celebration full of spirted dancing and music-making.
Instrumentation: Three flutes( third doubles piccolo), piccolo, two oboes, English horn, three clarinets, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, chimes, castanets, snare drum, cymbals, xylophone, tambourine, two harps, celesta, and strings.
Maurice Ravel
Born: March 7, 1875, in Ciboure, France Died: December 28, 1937, in Paris, France and repetitive nature of the work. Some accounts of the premiere suggest that a woman leapt to her feet at the end of the piece and shouted that Ravel was mad; he purportedly responded that she had properly understood the music.
Ravel described Boléro as an experiment with orchestral texture and one continuous crescendo that gradually increases from a nearly imperceptible volume to a raucous conclusion. The piece begins with the snare drum playing the standard bolero rhythm, which continues as an unwavering backdrop for the rest of the ballet. Two very similar melodic themes are then introduced and passed around the orchestra to create a wave of different colors. These melodies are repeated a total of 18 times, generating an almost trance-like state with the underlying snare drum rhythm and repeated plucking in the lower strings. Ravel also stays in the key
of C Major for almost the entire duration of the piece, further adding to the sense of madness. One can imagine Rubenstein’ s original frenzied choreography as the music continues to build on these same melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements for 15 minutes.
Instrumentation: Two flutes( second doubling piccolo) piccolo, two oboes( second doubling oboe d’ amore), English horn, two clarinets( second doubling on E-flat clarinet), bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, tam tam, cymbals( pair), harp, celeste, and strings.
PAULA MAUST is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the Peabody Conservatory. She is the author of Expanding the Music Theory Canon and performs extensively as a harpsichordist and organist.
BOLÉRO [ 1928 ]
Audiences in 1928 were equally enthusiastic about and shocked by Maurice Ravel’ s short ballet Boléro. The famous Russian ballerina Ida Rubenstein commissioned the work, choreographed it, and danced in the premiere alongside twenty men. Inside a Spanish tavern, a rowdy crowd encourages a young woman to climb onto a table and dance the traditional bolero. Her steps become more complex and animated until the piece comes to a climactic halt. Although the ballet was staged inside a tavern, Ravel himself envisioned Boléro being set outdoors with a factory in the background to reflect the mechanical
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