One of the works of classical music best-known in history, adn their gestation and Spanish roots are the subject of an exhibition in Parisa few months before the 150th anniversary of the birth of its composer.
In 2017, on the occasion of a dispute sabout the copyright of the work, the Society of Authors French had calculated that the Bolero It was heard somewhere in the world every ten minutes.
Starting from a rhythmic base that the percussionist opens with a snare, in stubborn, The instruments are added like an oriental dance, repeating two 16-bar themes in a crescendo, for 17 minutesuntil the final explosion, with the full orchestra.
It is a unique work in the history of music because it mixes orientalism with avant-garde machinery, with that “obsessive repetition of the melody” that caused a sensation in its time, explained the curator of the exhibition, Pierre Korzilius.
The exhibition, with objects from the house of Ravel, made on the outskirts of Paris, instruments, photographs and videos of choreographies, will be open in the Paris Music City until june 15.
“My masterpiece? the Bolero, of course.It’s a pity that it is devoid of music,” Ravel once commented at the end of his life, when his fertile career had already been overshadowed by the phenomenal success of that work.
The original sheet music, exhibited in this exhibition, shows that the author’s provocation was not misguided.
“The initial rhythm,with the snare,is written at the beginning,only once. Then there are repetitions. It’s that industrial notion, as if you press the button just once, and the machine starts“explains the commissioner.
He Bolero It was created, with its spanish spelling, in November 1928 for a dancer, Ida Rubinstein, who adored Spanish music and wanted to perform a dance with exotic airs in the Paris Opera.
Ravel was the son of an industrial engineer and a French-Basque woman. His father worked for years on the railways south of the Pyrenees, where he met his wife. “Without Madrid I problably would not exist,” said Ravel.
The original project, at the beginning of 1928, was to transcribe the “Iberia” suite from Spanish for orchestra. Isaac Albeniz. But Ravel soon discovers that the rights to the piano work have already been purchased.