Boleiro

Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), a famous French composer, One of the most outstanding representatives of Impressionist composers. He started learning piano at the age of seven and entered the Paris Conservatory of Music at the age of fourteen. Early Impressionist music was keen on chiaroscuro, mysterious games of light and shadow, and was intoxicated with lengthy impressions; as an Impressionist musician, Ravel greatly developed the expressive power of Impressionist music. He loved to spray out colorful, radiant Dazzling artificial fireworks, fond of poetic and loud sounds. He is not only a master of music form, but also gives music rich colors. In addition, he strictly adheres to the precepts of the Viennese Classical School, and uses these traditional precepts in original ways to form his own unique musical language and work form. Regarding the descriptive nature of music, he advocated not paying attention to the outside of things, but paying attention to the essence and rich colors of things. He believed that real poetry cannot be long poems, but lies in real feelings.

His representative works include the opera "Daphne and Chloe", the ballet "Mother Goose", the violin piece "Gypsy" and the orchestral piece "Bolero". In addition, he adapted Mussorgsky's solo piano piece "Pictures at an Exhibition" into an orchestral suite of the same name, making the piece widely circulated.

1. Gypsy Girl · Matador · "Bolero" In 1928, the Spanish ballerina Ida Rubinstein invited Ravel (1875-1937) to write a dance music for her . Initially, Ravel was unwilling to compose new works for this purpose, but agreed to adapt several piano pieces by the Spanish composer Albéniz (1860-1909) into orchestral pieces. Later, Ravel learned that the orchestration rights of Albéniz’s works belonged to Fernández Albers (1863-1939), who had adapted Albéniz’s works into a dance suite for the dancer Argentina, so Ravel had to compose new orchestral music. He had an orchestration idea brewing in his mind and wanted to write this work as a band etude. The whole song is a huge "crescendo", with two 17-bar melodies played by various instruments repeatedly repeated on the background of the endless three-beat rhythm of the snare drum. Before ending with overwhelming force, the music suddenly slides into E major (melody major), creating a unique effect that is completely incompatible with the simple technique. This unique piece by Ravel is the famous "Boleiro". "Boleiro" was choreographed by Nijinska and premiered in Paris on November 22, 1928. The scene is in a smoky Spanish hotel. Rubinstein is dressed as a gypsy girl, with a comb in her hair and a scarf. She dances on the stage while the audience surrounds her and cheers. The dance became more and more popular, arousing the enthusiasm of the onlookers. Finally, they grabbed her and held her high above their heads. After Bolero was performed in Paris, it attracted the attention of many dancers and choreographers. The Irish dancer Dolin (1904-) used it as his solo dance repertoire and performed it continuously for many years; the Russian dancer Lifar (1905-) performed "Bolero", although it was still treated as a Spanish theme, but Avoid traditional Spanish dances. Because of its fixed melody and rhythm, Ravel's piece has little in common with the real Bolero. The stage design features a white arcade and a blood-red sky. Lifar is dressed as a matador who has just returned victoriously from the bullring and teases a woman who admires him with his funny gestures. His enemy appeared in front of him and snatched the woman away. The matador was so disappointed that he fell to the ground in a daze and was seriously injured. The festive crowd continued their carnival as if nothing had happened. The stage gradually filled up, and the band's final "crescendo" was accompanied by the death of the matador.

2. Children's Suite "Mother Goose" French composer Ravel's "Mother Goose" suite was originally a piano suite for four hands. It is a veritable children's suite - using children's themes, Suites written for and performed by children. Using children's themes - the content is based on the fairy tales of French writers Bellot (1628-1703), Madame Aulnoy (about 1650-1705) and Madame Beaumont (1711-1780); Created for children - this suite was written in 1909 Ravel composed it for the two children of his good friend Gotebsky and dedicated this work to them; for children to perform - in April 1910, this suite was performed at the Société d'Independiente de Musique de Paris During the first performance at the concert, six-year-old Verger and ten-year-old Rami played the piano for four hands. "Mother Goose" is an authentic children's suite, it seems that the only difference is that the composer is not a child. But Ravel told us: "I wrote this suite to evoke the poetry of childhood, so the technique must be simple, and all superficial effects have to be discarded." It can be seen that the composer also created with a childlike heart. .

In 1911, Ravel adapted "Mother Goose" into an orchestral suite. Later, he added two more movements, changed the order of each movement, and used intermezzos to connect them, forming a dance drama. music. The dance drama was written by Ravel based on the story of Mother Goose by Bellot and others, choreographed by Jeanne Hugart, and premiered in Paris in January 1912. This is a children's dance drama with a unique taste. Ravel specially designed a small stage to perform the fairy tale of Princess Florina's Dream, which looks extremely small, exquisite and childlike. Two black boys wearing yellow turbans served as curtain callers and scene changers. The story is based on the story of Sleeping Beauty, a dance at the spinning wheel, in which the princess dances in the garden while her nurse sits by the spinning wheel. The princess fell on the spinning wheel, and the spindle stung her waist. When she was possessed by the Sandman and fell asleep on the couch, the court officials gathered around her and danced the Pavan Dance of the Sleeping Beauty in the Forest. What follows is a series of dreams: accompanied by a slow waltz, a dialogue begins between Beauty and the Beast, and later the Beast transforms into a beautiful prince. Two black children changed the scene to the sounds of an intermezzo. The next dream is of Little Thumb and his little brothers walking through the woods, dropping crumbs as guides on their way home. But while the children were asleep, the bird ate up all the crumbs on the road... The scene below is of a palace furnished with eighteenth-century Chinese antiques, with the Pagoda Queen (the ugly girl) and her lover, the Green Snake. Pentatonic jingles and gongs accompany the dance with an oriental flavour. The prince appears and finds Princess Florina sleeping in the fairy garden. He kissed her and the princess woke up. When the "Mother Goose" dance drama was performed in Britain and the United States, the two movements and intermezzo that Ravel wrote for the dance drama music were often deleted, and the layout of the five movements of the "Mother Goose" suite was completely followed: Pavan Dance - Magic Garden - Little Thumb - The Sleeping Princess - Beauty and the Beast. The play is about the adventures of a little girl in her dream, with her as the protagonist in every movement.