Classical music meets the machine. Episode 23 - Boléro by Maurice Ravel
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- Опубликовано: 27 сен 2024
- A steady beat and a catchy tune are unremarkable these days, but when Ravel wrote Boléro, repetition was radical. Did Ravel predict the future of popular music in a brilliant lightbulb moment? Or was he just being, well, a bit lazy? Is it deceptively complex or outrageously simple? Or both? What does Boléro tell us about how this eccentric French composer ticked? Let’s find out…
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Composer: Maurice Ravel
Work: Boléro
Performer: New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Pierre Boulez
Year: 2010
Label: Sony
If you want to see more Classics Explained episodes, please consider supporting us on Patreon. You can pretend you're a 17th century lord patronising a court musician.
Okies
DO BALLETS RUSSES BY SERGEI DIAGHILEV NEXT, PLEASE!!!
The world creates a needed niche for autistic percussionists.
@@cbgeary More importantly try Firebird and Petrushka next.
I hope it works @@TristanMA
Ravel's Bolero is, in essence, a backstory to Bizet's Carmen, and an Outer-Space ballet in the manner of Holst's Mars from The Planets.
I wish I could like this comment more than once.
so ravel wrote a prequel fan fiction base on bizet's Carmen?
uh, what? Definitely not Carmen-related.
@partituravid Not directly, no, but the idea of a sexy, enchanting Gypsy woman doing a seductive dance certainly calls to mind _Carmen_ to a moder listener.
Brandenburg Concrtos next please!
YESSSS
@@jddrew1000 The Third Brandenurg Concerto belongs in Christmas , along with Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, Christmas Oratorio, Pastorale in F Major for Organ, Variation on Vom Himmel Hoch, Sheep May Safely Graze, Sleepers Wake, & Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland.
Poor percussionist has to just play the same rhythm for 16 minutes over 100 times
Yeah, i can see why that would be rather boring!
With a very, very slow crescendo. The volume of the snare drum has to increase otherwise the rest of the orchestra would drown it out.
In crescendo
Well actually it changes a little bit with the modulation, for like 20 bars before the end..... So you are graced with like 40s of diversity after 13mins of playing the same 4 bars on repeat and the chance to fuck it up because you forgot!
Almost every musical tradition in the world features some kind of repetitive percussive rhythm most of the time (I'm including strumming), with Western Classical being a rare exception. Most drummers are playing a beat. Bolero is one of the exceptions to the exception. I suppose your point is that there aren't any fills. In any other musical tradition the drummer would play some fills, even if they weren't written. Again, Western Classical is a curious outlier.
I've heard the dementia explanation too. I'm glad that there's more to it than that!
the smoke cloud at 0:25 is hilarious bc i know it would have been ***very painful*** to actually animate that
Fr
This channel deserves way more viewers and subscribers. the quality of the animation is really good and the narrator continues to do an amazing job.
This is your second Ravel survey after his orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Ravel also did Mother Goose, Pavane for a Deceased Princess, Tombeu de Couperin, and La Valse. Ida Rubinstein performed the role of Zobeide in Fokine's version of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.
You forgot Daphnis et Chloé!! Fantastic work of his.
Thanks for pointing out the horns - celeste - piccolo section. It's one of my favorite parts, too, with how eerie it sounds. That and the trumpets coming in fortissimo near the end are the sections I most anticipate when listening to the piece.
I guessed it!🎉 The image from community looked soooo iconic that made me think immediately about Ravel.😊
Fun fact: bolero was also used in an anime called Digimon.
Great video! ❤
Absolutely wonderful as always. Get this important content in schools.
I really appreciate all the work you put into these videos. They're both entertaining and educational.
I love Bolero so much in can’t wait for this video!
Excellent video as always! Boléro was one of the first classical music pieces I've listened to when I seriously started exploring the genre back in 2016, and it has been one of my favourties even since. Loved the parallel between the music and the precise machines; made me wonder about Franz Kafka for a minute there. Never knew about the Toscanini bit though; that was absolutely hilarious!
I discovered classical music earlier when i was a baby :3
You know what got me liking this track? *FREAKING DIGIMON!*
(Especially the movies like kizuna and the beginning)
BASQUE MENTIONED RAHHHHHH💪💪💪💪
No but for real, love me some ravel
Yeah!! You’re back!! And you brought Ravel with you this time!! Woow!!
One of my favorite pieces!
The simplicity of the theme being repeated for 15 minutes yet it is always interesting from it's build and you never get bored of it makes it truly a masterpiece.
Also think Shostakovich has a symphony that does a similar thing, but cant remember which one.
The first movement of Shostakovich's Symphony #7 does something similar.
@@erind9535Leningrad, right?
@@liamannegarner8083 Yes
You mentioned Toscanini. He was at the premiere of Puccini's Turandot (completed by Alfano) and conducted the American premiere of Respighi's Pines of Rome.
Le Boléro will forever be associated in my mind with the ballet in the Claude Lelouch Les Uns Et Les Autres, a 1981 film that everyone should see.
Timbre also appears in Benjamin Britten's Guide to the Orchestra.
This is your best animation yet! Funny, informative, brilliant artwork. Bravo!
Just discovered your channel recently! I really enjoy your videos! Thanks! 🎉😊
Love it!
Let’s get you to 100k, your work is valuable and I’d show it to my kids if I had any, listened to Bolero the first time last month after I heard Bernstein say it’s an orchestrational masterclass, at first the piece pissed me off but now I replay it just for its experience I can just let go of the music a bit and let the thing ride higher 😎🙏🥇
1970s and 1980s saw the the rise of Tintinabulation under Arvo Part, John Rutter's mature carols, and John Tavener's Holy Minimalism.
I loved it! ❤ Sooo great!🎉🎉 Congrats!🎉🎉🎉
Brilliant!!!
This is soo awesome and adorable 😸👏💖
Great video 🤵🏻♂️👏🏼
I saw a video saying that this was the worst piece of classical music ever. I cannot understand how anyone could think that. This piece captivates me from start to finish and the ending always gives me shivers.. even just the snippet at 8:28 was enough to give me goosebumps!
Thank you! Brilliant, as usual!
Plase, find it in your heart to do Pärt's Cantus in memoriam of Benjamin Britten next. It's one of the saddest pieces of music ever imo, and I would love to see how your comic style would tackle it.
So in another nearby universe they have Ravel’s Fandango but have never heard of Bolero.
I'm curious about what will happen. I'm really excited. ❤
Always fun and educating content.
Please do Darius Milhaud’s Saudades do Brasil!!!!🎉🎉❤❤❤
This is kind of a weird fact. I live in Israel and like 99% of the popularion thinks about chocolate milk when they hear this piece because of a series of commercials back in the early 2000s of a man sleepwalking to a Kibbutz to get said chocolate milk.
Second. Fantastic vid! Keep them comin’!
i love this piece, thank you for making a video about it!!!
Can you please do a video about his string quartet? I beg
Exquisite. What a treat for the ear and the eye!
Isn't it disappointing that RAVEL has composed a lot of other works, much more elaborated than BOLERO, and that people only know him for BOLERO???
Makes me wonder how Holst felt when he composed other suites (e.g. The Japanese Suite), but people only recognize him as the guy who wrote The Planets.
Finally! :D
I live the Little Book of Calm (Black Books reference?!)
6:55 George Gershwin with Maurice Ravel!
Can you talk about Rossini's Barber of Seville next, please?
Some Bruckner next!
Excellent, as always. However, I believe it was Bo Derek's character that introduced Dudley Moore to Bolero, not the other way around.
Allegro Non Troppo: Am I a joke to you?
I love this video to bits
Love this video, love this channel ❤
This was a great explanation!
Oh, I wish I could've just watched Classics explained instead of being forced into a classroom to "learn"! Those lessons in frustration taught me classical music is boooooring.
Turns out I love a lot of classical music.
Cheers!
You mentioned Shostakovich. He wrtoe the Second Piano Concerto (whose first movement was set to an animated Adapation of Hans Christian Anderson's The Steadfast Tin Soldier), and the Seventh Symphony "Leningrad", among other works.
Awesome animation! Love your content!
Brahms Requiem would be a great animation. Its beautiful
Suggestion: Charles Ives Country Band Suite. Had to play that in college.
Ives entered the public domain in the EU this year since he passed away in 1954
I love Bolero. I think it's such a daring and subversive composition because of its structure. It's still not as crazy as Satie's Vexations though...
In the commentary you keep referring to "the melody" as if there was only one. In fact there are two different melodic themes in Bolero. The first one opens the work and is repeated, then there is a second theme which is jazz-based, also repeated. The repeated pairs occur (I think) eight times in total, before the final dramatic outburst. There is also an underlying rhythmical 'bom bom, bom bom' which moves around the orchestra like the other themes, as well as the snare drum rhythm which stays the same throughout.
There is a fantastic performance of the piece by the Polish film & television orchestra (AkademiaFilmuiTelewizji) on RUclips, well worth watching.
The melody comprises two melodic themes is the way I’d put it :)
Love your videos! Just to let you know that there's a small error at 8:45 where the subtitles say "tantrum" instead of "tam-tam"
Thank you for picking that up - it's been corrected
@@ClassicsExplained Is Bartered Bride, Barber of Seville, Pines of Rome, Finlandia, Bells across the Meadow, Rigoletto, Scottish Fantasy, Kinderszenen, Hungarian Rhapsody and Appalachian Spring coming soon?
One of those is coming up next!
An additional two of those are in the making!
@@ClassicsExplained Don’t forget Norma!
I love this song
Piece* not song
Me too.
I was lucky enough to see the episode on time. Just one question. Why is it unlisted? Is it because the music or something is copyrighted? Are you going to delete the video eventually?
Just technical hiccup on our emd. You were lucky to get an advance screening! The episode will be released as usual very soon.
Thank you. PS: I first saw your videos in 2020!
@@ClassicsExplained I hope you will explain Beethoven's 7th next. The 2nd movement is my favorite and I'm curious about the story behind it. 🧐
The first techno track
Thinking about doing the Roman Trilogy next????
So Ravel was on the neurodivergent spectrum. Awesome!
Mahler 2 pls 👉🏼👈🏼
Mahler is number 2 MUST be next! We've been waiting for far too long! 🙏 🙏
When I first saw the thumbnail I thought the video was going to be about 4'33'' by John Cage.
His precision and perfectionism surprises me, didn t Emile de Combes say that Ravel was the laziest student he ever had?
That was Satie he was talking about :)
@@ClassicsExplainedthanks! Your videos are extraordinary by the way
Purple (from World Of Colors/Discovery Kit)
Nyala
Do you think you could do one on Brahms Hungarian Dances? They are such a bop! :)
The fith of the hungarian Dances is very omnious and appears in Little Einsteins Episodes: Hungarian Hiccups and The Legend of the Golden Pyramid.
Please do Bizet’s L’arlesienne Suite next
This is one of Bizet's Lighter works and is a fitting choice for Epiphany.
Would you please cover Antol Lyadov's Baba Yaga, The Enchanted Lake, & Kikimora? I would like to have him be given attention.
Who thinks Chopin or Liszt should be next ?
Who thinks Scriabin should be next?
Yuuuuuuh
Something by Antonio Salieri soon, I hope.
ada scene kawan sia la ehem
Chopin's Ballade no. 1 next pleeeeeaaaase
The Boulez recording is good, but why not the Abbado? Sure, it's a little fast, but I'm not listening to Bolero without everyone screaming at the end.
"Gaspard..." We need.
Do one on Canon In D by Johann Pachelbel!
This would be a favorite for Christmas.
For years I couldn't work out why this piece always bored and slightly depressed me; this video explained everything. For me, this is the only work by Ravel that I truly dislike.
I personally rather like Ravel's "Bolero"!
Did *Allegro Non Troppo* bring anyone here?
Hey! Just letting you know the term “gypsy” is a bit outdated, the word nowadays is “Romani”. Great video!
Hi thanks for the comment. we didn’t intend to use the word as a noun to describe the Romani people (which would, of course, constitute a slur) but are using the word in the small “g” sense to describe the sort of bohemian way of life which many of these early twentieth century composers looked to for inspiration - in the sense of “wayward”, “demimonde” or “nomadic”. Thanks for watching :)
As a Czech, I'm realy offended by the term "Bohemian".... JK😝
Great cartoon, great story/narration!
Thanks! (Bohemian with a small b, that is, ha!). Keep watching - many more coming :)
No, my friend. No word is outdated, it's just the followers of the political correctness that want us to change our way to think or talk and the words we have been using for centuries to be replaced. Also Roma and Romani sound way too similar to "Romania", "Romanian", "Rome" and "Roman" and can create confusions. By that logic, why wouldnt we ban or cancel several operas and operettas like Carmen, Il Trovatore, The Gypsy Baron, La Traviata for using this "outdated" word? Or countless pieces of litetature?
@@ClassicsExplained ah, okay! Thanks for much for clarifying:)
Well I guess it's time to upset some apple carts, and explain the truth about Ravel's Bolero, and unravel this fictional account. It was inspired by and commissioned by Ida Rubenstein(ballet dancer, actress, and nude/non nude model in Europe around the early 20th century. Ravel created an erotica piece based on two similar melodies with solos with full crescendo(orgasmic crashes) for the finale . When it was first performed in 1928, Ravel went backstage to talk with the conductor because of a complaint of a woman said it was perverted garbage. Ravel said well, I guess she was the only one that understood the piece! Bolero has been done by many orchestras, and been wrote with many variations. It is on the top 10 of sexiest classical music pieces.
Mahler’s 2nd??
No figure skating fan will ever be able to forgive Maurice Ravel lol. Every new season of competition there is someone doing a Bolero program, and some fans even choose social media names such as No.1 Bolero hater because of it.
But in the end it is still a brilliant piece of music, just sadly it has become a bit overused in this nieche sport called figure skating.
hello there
Mahler symphony no 2
Could you explain the complexities of 4:33 composed by John Cage?
Legends state the snare player hasn't moved his wrists again to this very day.
Thiiiiiiis is the piece that has the moooost boring paaaaaart ever written for the baaaaaaass...
what a stupid clickbait title. No music? Whatever.
Ravel said it - that’s not clickbait
France 🤢
Miaou get out goofy ahh racist numberblocks enfant no1cares 🤡
No Spain.
Deceptive difficulty all over this piece. Just maintaining an even crescendo over 16 minutes is impressive. Ah man and the trombone solo 🤩
The Horns, Celeste and Piccolo aren't playing in completely unrelated keys. The transpositions are derived from the overtone series .... similar to an organ mixture, as you mentioned.
Babe, wake up. New classics explained just dropped
Npc copypaste ahh comment ☠️
@@uriahlegutki2257 ngl idc
@@uriahlegutki2257you said this comment is NPC, bur you use the most NPC words
I red that Ravel was so tired of people wanting to hear Bolero that he got angry and said something like "You know, I have written other things!"
Funfact, Koji Kondo wanted to use Bolero as the title theme of the first Legend of Zelda game back in... checks notes... 1985/86!
And the funny thing is that it was only about a month away from the public domain as well.
@@XtTapelatakettle That's a little bit of a stretch tho, the "about a month" claim is assuming the International release date and Japanese copyright laws. The Japanese release was in February 1986, one and three quarters of a year before it would have become public domain in Japan (and Japan only).
Yeah, the Legend of Zelda main theme is heavily inspired by Bolero for this reason (down to the rhythm)