Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season November-December 2015 | Page 27

Spanish dance of the same name — and
two themes of exotic Arabic coloration,
and with his orchestral wizardry built
from them a 15-minute piece of hypnotic
power. Starting with just a snare drum,
plucked low strings, and a solo flute, it
builds the longest, most inexorable, and
most thrilling crescendo in classical music.
Boléro was composed in 1928 as
a short ballet for Ida Rubinstein, a
fascinatingly sensual dancer and Ravel’s
close friend. During a vacation that
summer near his hometown of Ciboure
on the Spanish border, he played the
undulating theme of Boléro on the
piano for a friend. “Don’t you think
this theme has an insistent quality?” he
asked. “I’m going to try and repeat it a
number of times without any development, gradually increasing the orchestra
as best I can.”
Being one of the greatest orchestrators
of the 20th century, Ravel achieved this
goal with ease. A snare drum taps the
unvarying boléro rhythm throughout,
but it is enhanced by a changing ensemble of wind and eventually string
instruments. An equally varied palette of
instruments — strings, harp, even brass
— imitate the strumming of a guitar
marking out the three beats. The two
oriental melodies sung by various solo
wind instruments — exotic combinations
like two piccolos, horn and celesta, and
eventually the full orchestra — alternate
over constant C-major harmonies.
The ballet scenario takes place in
a smoky Spanish café where a group
of men are avidly watching a beautiful woman dance provocatively on a
tabletop. At the cataclysmic conclusion, their lust has been so enflamed
that knives are drawn and a bloody
battle ensues.
Instrumentation: Two flutes (second doubles
piccolo), piccolo, two oboes (second doubles
oboe d’amore), English horn, two clarinets,
bass clarinet, E-flat clarinet, three saxophones,
two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns,
four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani,
percussion, harp, celesta, and strings.
Notes by Janet E. Bedell, Copyright ©2015

Photo by Broadmead
resident: Erroll Hay

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NOVEMBER– DECEMBER 2015 |

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