B o l e r o
Since 1928, when Maurice Ravel wrote Bolero, the piece has been one to
stimulate discussion and
argument. It has been called "hypnotic," "boring," "nerve-wracking"
and "captivating". Undoubtedly, it
has been all of these things to different listeners. It is, in any event, the
world's longest musical
crescendo.
Although Ravel was a frenchman to the world, his birth in the Basses-Pyrenees
of a Basque mother and
a French-Swiss father was sufficient to arouse his interest in Spanish music.
Bolero, however, is in no way a serious attempt at Spanish dance music. Ravel's
Bolero is not truly a
bolero at all. The basic rhythm pattern remains, but the tempo of this work
is much slower than the
bolero dance. The bolero is not even a true folk dance, but rather a theatrical
concoction based on the
polonaise, chaconne and the zarabande.
Ravel's Bolero is basically built upon a two part musical theme which is repeated
about eighteen times
in the work. The orchestral colors used are as vaired as ever attempted, but
through it all is the
relentless, driving rhythm of the snare drum.
The first part of the basic subject is presented by the flute. Then, beginning
with the bassoon, the wind
instruments in turn take up the melody or some variation of it. It moves from
clarinet to oboe to flute
to trumpet to tenor and soprano saxaphones. Then, as the crescendo builds, the
theme is taken up by
groups of instruments. It continues to build to the powerful, cumulative and
frenzied end.
1 September 1997 - A British study, published in today's Psychiatric Bulletin,
suggests that Ravel's Bolero, reputed to be the most often played composition
in the repertoire, was the work of a pathological mind. Dr Eva Cybulska, the
author of the study, claims that the famous melody repeated 18 times without
change during the
course of the piece demonstrates that the French composer was possibly succumbing
to Alzheimer's disease. The Kent-based psychiatrist claims that perseveration,
an obsession with repeating words and gestures, is one of the more notable symptoms
of this pathology. In other words, the repetitive nature of the score's principal
theme is
symptomatic of the degenerative condition which began to trouble the French
composer in 1927 at the age of 52. Was it really Alzheimer's disease or the
budding tumor which later killed Ravel during brain surgery in 1937? We look
forward to Dr Cybulska's diagnosis of the works of minimalist composers Philip
Glass, Terry Reilly and
Steve Reich.