From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad Aaron Levinson originally asked: > I was wondering whether anyone on this list might be able to steer > in the direction of any performance of >Bolero by Ravel< that is considered > the benchmark upon which other are judged? ----- and a spate of responses appeared. David S. Sager commented on trombone performance, and Karl Miller fortunately reproduced an early reference, and I am going to do the same. Nicholas Slonimsky: "Slonimsky's Book of Musical Anectotes" (originally issued in 1948, but now available from Routledge), pp. 187-8: " The Bolero For many years Ravel was a great composer without money. His music was highly regarded by cultured audi- ences all over the world, but he had failed to establish contact with the masses. Then in 1928 he wrote a dance piece in Spanish 3/4 time called Bolero. The remarkable feature of this work was that it went on for seventeen minutes in the same rhythm, with the same tune and in the same key of C major, outside of a brief digression into E major toward the very end. It was little noticed in Paris when Ida Rubinstein danced to it on November 22, 1928, but in repeated performances as a concert piece, the popularity of Bolero spread like wildfire. The crowning success came when it was arranged for a jazz band. It was the first piece of serious music that pene- trated the lower regions of musical culture. Ravel himself was as much bewildered by this sudden leap into popular glory as anybody else. He was eager that his purpose in writing Bolero should not be misconstrued. In a letter to the English music critic, Calvocoressi, Ravel wrote: "I am particularly desirous that there should be no mis- understanding as to my Bolero. It is an experiment in a very special and limited direction ans should not be suspected of aiming at achieving anything different from, or anything more than that which it actually does achieve. Before the first performance, I issued a warning to the effect that what I had written was a piece lasting seventeen minutes and consisting wholly of orchestral tissue without music - of one long, very gradual crescendo. There are no contrasts, and there is practically no invention except in the plan and man- ner of execution. The themes are impersonal - folk tunes of the usual Spanish-Arabian kind. Whatever may have been said to the contrary, the orchestral treatment is simple and straightforward throughout without the slightest attempt at virtuosity. . . . I have done exactly what I set out to do, and it is for listeners to take it or leave it." [and now Slonimsky introduces a fascinating means of distinguishing between the composer's intentions and performers' interpretations (as well as involving microphone placement in later years)] There is an instrumental effect in the score of Bolero that is unique. It is a forced change of tone color in the solo instrument, the French horn, by bolstering up the natural overtones through their doubling by two piccolos. One piccolo takes the third partial tone and the other the fifth partial. In fact, the piccolo parts are written in G major and E major, while the theme is in C. The effect is not that of consecutive major chords in open harmony, but the enhancement of the corresponding partials in the tone of the French horn. Ravel marks pianissimo for the piccolo palying in E, and mezzo piano for the one in G, to imitate the relative strength of natural overtones, while the horn solo is to be played mezzo forte. If per- formed correctly, the tone color of the solo horn will suffer a change that must be a surprise to the player himself. Unfortunately, the dynamics indicated by Ravel are rarely observed, and the piccolos are permitted to play loud, thus killing the intended effect. " Now, this is heart-warming to an old acoustician like myself, because it permits us to use our ears in deciding the degree to which a performer adheres to the spirit of the composer. Obiously it is permissible for an artist (conductor) to experiment, and greater insight will be obtained thereby (e.g. I would not miss Glenn Gould's reproduction of the Rondo alla Turca by Mozart, precisely because it clashes with our standard conceptions). However, if we are looking for a standard to judge Bolero performances by, I would look for a performance lasting 17 minutes and having the dynamic relationships between piccolos and French horn prescribed by Ravel. We have to bear in mind that French wind and brass playing is in a separate tradition, but it cannot mean that nobody else can play French music. Kind regards, and enjoyable listening, George