Mamacita says: Ravel’s Bolero has long been one of my favorites, and NOT just because it makes everybody who listens to it horny. I mean, there are tons of other reasons as well. Check out that conductor, for one thing; Andre Rieu is a hottie.
My daughter sent me this video. It hardly seems appropriate, but thank you, dear Princess.
I once helped chaperone a high school band field trip, and the last piece the orchestra played was Bolero. Let me just say that we had to drive all the way back home – a little over a hundred miles, after dark – with all the bus’s bright lights turned all the way up. Even then, that trip was hard. No pun intended. Maybe.
Enjoy. And I mean that in the most innocent way possible. Or not.
Heh… some have said that Bolero was proof of Ravel’s deteriorating mental health, that it’s obsessive repitition was “an exercise in compulsivity, structure and perseveration…” (this quote from a neurologist studying the progress of a different patient’s degenerative brain disease). NPR even did a story on this hypothesis.
Personally, I like the piece. A lot. That obsessive, continual reiteration of the opening phrase is both funny and gorgeous. Everybody who discusses it makes reference to it’s sexuality, probably because of it’s association with a certain Dudley Moore movie (heh!), but I sense an aesthetic above and beyond that to the piece. It just immerses itself, as well as the listener into that one melodic stretch over and over and over and OVER, making it feel like you just took a bath in the emotion it paints. It’s lovely.
Also, about the same time I rediscovered and decided I liked Bolero, I found my own mental processes deteriorating. That can’t be coincidence, now can it? 🙂
Anyway, going back to that neurologist’s quote: The study of his patient makes for some fascinating reading. She was a mathematician and research scientist who, in the throes of her own disease, ended up turning to art as her means of expression. And she developed what the study called a fascination with Ravel, which progressed to the point where she painted a piece translating – you guessed it – Bolero onto a visual medium. The study in “Brain: A Journal of Neurology” can be found here:
https://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/awm270v1
It’s honestly fascinating reading. And can I reiterate my uncomfortable parallel with said patient? I feel the odd need to start painting Bolero myself… 🙁
Heh… some have said that Bolero was proof of Ravel’s deteriorating mental health, that it’s obsessive repitition was “an exercise in compulsivity, structure and perseveration…” (this quote from a neurologist studying the progress of a different patient’s degenerative brain disease). NPR even did a story on this hypothesis.
Personally, I like the piece. A lot. That obsessive, continual reiteration of the opening phrase is both funny and gorgeous. Everybody who discusses it makes reference to it’s sexuality, probably because of it’s association with a certain Dudley Moore movie (heh!), but I sense an aesthetic above and beyond that to the piece. It just immerses itself, as well as the listener into that one melodic stretch over and over and over and OVER, making it feel like you just took a bath in the emotion it paints. It’s lovely.
Also, about the same time I rediscovered and decided I liked Bolero, I found my own mental processes deteriorating. That can’t be coincidence, now can it? 🙂
Anyway, going back to that neurologist’s quote: The study of his patient makes for some fascinating reading. She was a mathematician and research scientist who, in the throes of her own disease, ended up turning to art as her means of expression. And she developed what the study called a fascination with Ravel, which progressed to the point where she painted a piece translating – you guessed it – Bolero onto a visual medium. The study in “Brain: A Journal of Neurology” can be found here:
https://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/awm270v1
It’s honestly fascinating reading. And can I reiterate my uncomfortable parallel with said patient? I feel the odd need to start painting Bolero myself… 🙁
All I see is “Allegro Non Troppo”, where this music is set to the
march of evolution – keeps me from feeling inappropriate when
the music is played. Especially because I was playing euphonium
in the band when we performed this in the 80s 🙂
All I see is “Allegro Non Troppo”, where this music is set to the
march of evolution – keeps me from feeling inappropriate when
the music is played. Especially because I was playing euphonium
in the band when we performed this in the 80s 🙂
Andre Rieu…yum. I wouldn’t mind playing in an orchestra with him conducting…then again, I had this one conductor in Kentucky once…he was foreign and gorgeous. Darko was his name…
This is, of course, as any string player’s favorite pieces go, in my top 20.
Andre Rieu…yum. I wouldn’t mind playing in an orchestra with him conducting…then again, I had this one conductor in Kentucky once…he was foreign and gorgeous. Darko was his name…
This is, of course, as any string player’s favorite pieces go, in my top 20.
My second favorite piece of music. It gives me cold chills every time I hear it and makes me remember the first time I heard it – and with whom. This was an excellent production; I was struck by the look of pleasure on the musician’s faces. It really is beautiful music.
My second favorite piece of music. It gives me cold chills every time I hear it and makes me remember the first time I heard it – and with whom. This was an excellent production; I was struck by the look of pleasure on the musician’s faces. It really is beautiful music.