One of my favorite post-classical pieces: Ravel's Bolero from 1928. You would think that a 4-beat background repeated over and over, never changing, supporting a quirky, dystonic primary-secondary-call-answer theme repeated over and over, never developing, with only changes in the volume and combination of instruments to make the orchestra fuller and louder over a period of 15 minutes would be tedious. Instead it is a mesmerizing exercise in timbre and harmony that morphs a song that starts as a winsome frolic through a lonely forest into a thundering march down a boulevard to cheering crowds. It's the same notes, the same tune, the same pace, the same rhythm... but the difference in characterization makes it one of history's great pieces of music (with or without Bo Derek's help).
Part 1
Part 2
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4 comments:
Torville & Dean got a perfect score using Ravel's Bolero to skate to and made history plus getting gold. You need to find the vid of that on the net and see a superb artistic interpretation.
Hmm... It must have been a shortened version of the 15-minute original.
I had found an 8-minute version before coming upon the two-video 15-minute version that I've posted. I didn't care for the shortened version: The crescendo was too brisk and forced.
I remember Torville and Dean's performance vaguely. I was young at the time, but I watched those Winter Olympics skating championships, mostly because Katerina Witt was easy on my teenaged eye.
Here is another classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuTiTfbfy7Q
One more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPovuLgo0Wo&feature=related
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