I know people are joking about the percussionist (it _is_ funny), but, speaking as a percussionist myself, this is actually a very, very difficult piece of music to play for the percussionist. Imagine having to play the same rhythm for 18 minutes, all the while making it a perfectly even crescendo, all played with painstaking consistency. That is _really_ difficult.
You're absolutely right. Playing the same pattern over and over consistently is extremely difficult. I've played guitar almost 60 years and have played many styles from the classics to swing jazz and 60's, 70's and 80's rock.
I would imagine so! I've been listening to recordings of this obsessively and admiring how, despite the gradual crescendo, the percussionist is the one who holds the piece together and away from becoming a runaway train.
You have a very good ear! Ravel knew that a piccolo Flute tended to get out of tune when it played higher notes. So in order to keep the audiance's "ear" entertained he scored the 2nd Piccolo Flute & 1st Horn to play the theme while the Celesta joined in at an interval of a Major 4th (in octaves) and the 1st Piccolo joined in at an interval of a Major 6th. (In other words: an 2nd inversion of a C chord). A bizarre treatment of a simple theme. Truly genius!
I think that the instruments are actually playing the overtones/harmonics of the melody. The french horn plays the 1st harmonic, and the celesta plays the same melody one and two octaves up with each hand, playing the 2nd and 4th harmonics respectively. One of the piccolos plays the same melody an octave and a fifth above, playing the 3rd harmonic of the melody, and the other piccolo plays the melody two octaves and a major third above, playing the 5th harmonic of the melody. This part is particularly interesting because it's the only part with a celesta. The celesta plays no where else, not even at the end. This is also the only part with two piccolos playing at the same time as well.
This was originally considered to be the main tune for the first Legend of Zelda. The tune which we know as the Zelda main theme only came to be because Bolero was still copyrighted.
+ContraZombie4 Honestly the first thing I thought when I heard this was that it sounded so like Zelda. This gives me such relief knowing that it actually was going to be included
You can't imagine how much I would love to animate Holst's the planets but I'm afraid I can't do without funding. At the moment all of Bach's works are free but other composers / requests I'd have to charge for. It is a harsh reality but I'm trying to make a buck like everyone else and scrolling Bach is my way of presenting my skills to the world in order to get some kind of work. Please forgive me.
+Juan Bonnett I wish I didn't have to memorize which line was which instrument. I prefer regular scores where it has the parts divided by instrument, and it has initials for the instruments at the beginning of each line.
i saw this live when i was a little kid and i hummed it for weeks so now its ingrained in my brain and itll come back to me and get stuck in my head at random times its kinda nice that this piece has been with me through so many years in the back of my mind
A musical interval is simply the difference between two pitches. The 1st Horn plays the melody in the key of G and the Celesta plays it in the key of C. So the interval between G and C is called a Perfect 4th. The 1st Piccolo plays the melody in the key of E and the interval between G and E is a Major 6th.
My hat is off to you sir, a brilliant idea and your graphic realization was so precisely in sync with the music! When congratulated on the success of Bolero by one member of the press (reviewer, critic?) Ravel said "Yes, I seem to have a hit, too bad there is no music in it." This, for a work that is performed live every 15 minutes somewhere on this 3rd rock from the sun.
This is is my first expeience with a scrolling score and I agree. Not only to folks with reading challenges. This type of display could be of inordinate value for any musician. The leadijng edge of the vertical pink bars is almost always synchronized to the beat. Outstanding!
My first exposure to Rave's Bolero was in a Music History Class I took in college. I was an engineer and had to take an art class, this one was the only one available in my time slot. It changed my life and made me appreciate music and developed a very high respect for musicians. Ravel, like all the other composers blew my mind in ways that I had never known existed. I listen to this Bolero often and this Scrolling Score gets one involved with all the instruments. I love it.
I first heard Bolero when I went to see Blast! live as a kid. Loved this piece, and actually learned to play the main riff on trumpet by ear, which I often used to warm up before band class in high school. This is a highly impressive visualisation of the piece, and from your comments you seem to have an excellent knack for the intricacies of music. Excellent work :D
Great! I always wished to see the entire Boléro score, and now I had it! Very pleasant to listen to this piece - seems that something is winding up until explodes (6 last measures). Thanks, gerubach!
Ravel said of Bolero, among other comments (unfortunately negative), "I issued a warning to the effect that I had written was a piece lasting seventeen minutes and consisting wholly of 'orchestral tissue without music' - of one very long, gradual crescendo." Nevertheless, I believe he vastly underestimated both orchestration and crescendo, the very reasons for its permanent place in time. And that sudden modulation, impossibly dramatizing and increasing the crescendo, is, in my opinion, unparalleled. Thank you to Gerubach's Scrolling Score. Introducing the entrances of the instruments by name is fabulous here. (And no, it's no polyphonic in the least.)
wow. teaching myself orchestration with piston's book but your run through and focus of solo and combinations during this piece with all of its repetitions teaches me more than a days lesson.Daphne and chloe is hard to read but you made bolero (which is also tricky) a fun enchanting lesson.Thankyou so much.i will be coming to this everyday.I thought i didnt need to buy this score now I want it desperately. what a good soul you have !
Well to put it simply: If Ravel's Bolero was a salad, the "out of tune" part that you heard was pretty much the "blue cheese" crumbs you tasted. Some people love those bitter blue cheese crumbs because if you just had cranberries, strawberries, walnuts and cherry tomatoes in your salad, it would be a boring salad! (I wonder if the Tenor Sax solo would have been the bacon bits?).
(watch?v=HlXDJhLeShg) The scrolling you see isn't done by only one particular software but five! Adobe Photoshop: Used for fine alignments to graphics. Adobe Fireworks: Used for graphics / secondary alignments. Adobe Flash: Used for scrolling graphics Sound Studio: Used for audio editing. Quicktime Pro 7.7: for the final video production to upload.
bonjour, pour moi, cette vidéo est plus q'amusante, elle est géniale .. il y a longtemps que je voulais jouer ce morceau , seul avec mon clavier, mais n'ayant jamais appris la musique, ne la lisant pas et ne jouant que d'oreille, il m'était impossible de faire quelque chose de correcte, vu la complexité du morceau... là, je vais arriver à me débrouiller je pense, en pouvant déjà comprendre qui joue quand et appréhender nettement mieux le morceau . :) cordialement
Still one of my favorite pieces to listen to. Something so hypnotic about the whole thing. Favorite moments...mine has always been @8:37 when Ravel has the 2nd violins and violas (cellos get a little as well) playing pizzicato arpeggios based on the snare rhythm. It's so subtle and barely anyone notices it, but it's pretty bold and only happens for one theme. I always sing those arpeggios when it happens. And those are some wide arpeggios! Follow that up with one the best trombone solos @9:37 with the accompaniment resetting and I'm completely sold. I know Ravel thought this piece was a joke, but it's a masterclass in orchestration and I love it!
@TheBlackbelair yes, and I think there's an account of a woman at the premiere complaining it was rubbish and Ravel saying "yeah, she gets it." Happy new year!
The clarinet at 3:47 sounds a bit sharp. Ha, perfect pitch is wonderful. I would say that this is one of Ravel's best works. Great interpretation with your score!
That's correct. But what gives it the flavor, is that the intervals are not adjusted to conform to C, they are not diatonic.. You therefore have an early example of polytonality, actually a form of polychordalism since the C tonality is never lost to the ear (hard to miss the tonality with a 15 minute pedal point). These harmonies also emphasize the overtone series.
Thanks for Uploading this version. Call me archaic, but I prefer this orchestral version of this to the Syntheziser Moog or Midi Versions. A matter of taste that's all. Just learning about the Ravel and Debussy rivalry while studying Experssionism. Now THATS a movie or show I dare any actor or writer to tackle.
I might add that Ravel is using not a TONAL duplication of the melody at different intervals, but an EXACT one. The harmonies are therefore not of the same key, but follow the overtone series. Much easier to show on the piano. If you have a series of 3rds beginning on c and, using only white keys, go up to C,you will get Major,Minor, Minor,Major, Major, Minor and Minor intervals diatonic to C. If you keep the 3rds Major you must add 3 sharps at F G and C, which belong to A not C.
everybody interested into the story behind this, google "unraveling bolero", click on the radiolab link and listen to their podcast. They tell an amazing story.
It's a compositional technique known nowadays as harmonic parallelism. Here you have the original melody shape doubled exactly on different notes of the scale. French horn and celesta are playing the melody starting on C (key of the piece). The two piccolos are causing all the trouble above with one playing in G major and the higher one playing in E major. So we are hearing parallel major thirds and fifths. Some passing notes sound weird Esp. the Emajor because they are literally out of key.
