Although raised in Paris, Maurice Ravel made much of his partly Basque ancestry and the influence of Spanish music on his development. At 14 he entered the Paris Conservatory, where he was greatly influenced by Erik Satie. With a series of works, Ravel became, next to Debussy, the most popular French composer in the years just before World War I. In 1928, Ravel’s Bolero, written for the dancer Ida Rubinstein, quickly became one of the most popular orchestral scores of the era; six different recordings appeared within a year, it was played frequently on radio, and its title was used for a 1932 Hollywood movie. Audiences of our generation might remember this piece of music from the Movie ‘Ten’
Ravel conceived the work as a technical exercise in a gradual, steadily building crescendo, repeating one rhythmic melody by passing it continuously from solo instruments to instruments in groups and then, finally, to the full orchestra. He insisted it was a simple work, not a virtuosic one. He also took issue with those conductors (including Toscanini) who played it faster than the fifteen-minute duration specified by him in the score.
No comments:
Post a Comment