Bolero Through the Ages

1. Introduction (50-70 words)

a. Premiere of the piece in 1929 (150 words)
i. Interesting things to note (Varied Regions of the world involved):
1. Conducted by an Italian
2. Played by New York Philharmonic
3. Premiered in Paris Opera
2. The setting of the premiere was in an open-air auditorium
3. First recording made in 1930
4. Inclusion of instruments like Tenor Saxophone (due to Ravel’s inclination towards
Jazz) - https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bolero-by-Ravel
5. Ravel, having served in World War 1, might have been a reason of this piece having a
nationalistic feel (change this word). https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bolero-by-
Ravel
6. Expand on this: He was about to go for a swim when he called a friend over to the
piano and, playing the melody with one finger, asked: “Don’t you think that has an
insistent quality? I’m going to try to repeat it a number of times without any
development, gradually increasing the orchestra as best I can.”
(https://www.classicfm.com/composers/ravel/guides/story-maurice-ravels-bolero/)
7. With such beginnings, Ravel never thought of this to become a popular masterpiece
(Same Source)
8. Through the years, the piece has been surviving due to its unique nature of
repetitiveness with extremely slow development through orchestration.

Main Topic (Points are from: https://www.charlottesymphony.org/blog/ravel-bol-ro-

popular-culture/)
Bolero in Pop Culture
1. “Boléro appears in a number of films, such as The Three Stooges film Soup
to Nuts (1930), 10 (1979), Bolero (1984), Paradise Road (1997),
and Basic (2003), as well as television series like Doctor Who (Series 2/ Ep. 8
"The Impossible Planet") and Futurama (Season 5/ Ep. 16 "The Devil's Hands
Are Idle Playthings").”
2. IMPORTANT: Frank Zappa’s Bolero performance 1988 of Bolero in Reggae
style
3. Rufus Wainwright: Oh What a World has theme of Bolero forming the base of
almost the whole song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riJJbPdCxBY)
4.