_Bolero_ does not fare the better by repetition. It is the clever trick
of a super-refined composer. The trick is amazingly well performed, but
it is only a trick. The surprise of a first performance does not affect
one a second time. Still, there is the expectation of something going to
happen, of a final, thunderous proclamation of the inherently negligible
tune. According to the old saw, surprise is the chief element of wit.
Perhaps—but honest laughter follows the first cracking of a joke. After
that, the laughter is only courteous.
* * *
This _Bolero_, dedicated to Ida Rubinstein, was brought out by her and
danced by her at Paris in November, 1928. Alexandre Benois designed the
settings and the costumes to represent a scene that Goya might have
painted: a Spanish inn, with the dancer on a trestle table, men
surrounding it. At first calm, the actors on the Parisian stage were
little by little excited to frenzy as the dancer became more and more
animated. Knives were drawn—the woman was tossed from arms to arms,
until her partner intervened; they danced until quiet was restored. So
was the scene described by French and English reporters.
The first performance in the United States of this Bolero as a concert
piece was by the Philharmonic Society of New York, Mr. Toscanini
conductor, on November 14, 1929.
_Tempo di ballo, moderato assai_, 3-4. A drum gives the dance rhythm,
which is maintained throughout; a flute announces the theme, which is
taken up by the wind instruments in turn; then by groups of instruments.
There is a _crescendo_ for about twenty minutes, until there is an
explosive modulation—brass and percussion instruments swell the din
until at last there is what has been described as a “tornado of sound.”
M. Prunières called attention to the fact that Ravel was not the first
to repeat a simple, common theme until by the monotony of tune and
rhythm the hearer was excited (as are Oriental hearers by the same
method). Padilla, the composer of _Valencia_, had worked this obsession
by the repetition of a tune for at least twenty times.
Ravel’s _Bolero_ calls for these instruments: two flutes (and piccolo),
two oboes, oboe d’amour, English horn, two clarinets, one E flat
clarinet, two bassoons, double bassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three
trombones, bass tuba, high saxophone in F, soprano and tenor saxophones
in B flat, kettledrums, side drums, cymbal, tam-tam, celesta, harp, and
the usual strings.
OTTERINO
RESPIGHI
(Born on July 9, 1879, at Bologna, Italy)