Boléro
One drum rhythm, repeated for about fifteen minutes, and it just keeps getting louder. Opening the Inside the Classics 2 module, this lesson takes apart Maurice Ravel's Boléro (1928): a snare ostinato that never lets go, one continuous crescendo from very quiet to full orchestra, the same tune passed from instrument to instrument so that only the color and the volume change, and a sudden lurch from C major into E major near the very end before the crash back to C. Tap the ostinato, build your own crescendo, and play the lurch.
In this lesson you'll
- Hear and tap Boléro's snare ostinato (simplified): one two-bar rhythm in 3/4, repeated the whole time, often counted as 169 times.
- Follow the one continuous crescendo (about 15 minutes, very quiet to full orchestra) and hear how orchestration changes the color of the same notes: a different recipe of overtones, a different timbre.
- Catch the sudden lurch from C major into E major (four sharps at once, the scale turning four steps on the circle of fifths), then the crash back to C, and play it along with the snare.
Music in this lesson
- BoléroMaurice Ravel · 1928
Remember
An ostinato (Italian for stubborn) is a pattern repeated again and again: Boléro's snare repeats the same two-bar rhythm the whole time, often counted as 169 times.
Boléro is one continuous crescendo, about 15 minutes long; the melody repeats too, passed from instrument to instrument, so only the color (orchestration) and the volume change. Ravel called it a piece for orchestra without music.
The harmony stays in C major until, near the very end, it suddenly lurches into E major, then crashes back to C and collapses: no development, no new themes, just repetition and growing intensity.