“Boléro” was written by Maurice Ravel in 1928. Everyone’s heard the stories: he wrote it to annoy his wife; he wrote it to annoy his cat; he wrote two melodies and decided he was done; etc. Whether or not any of these are true, it is a fact that the piece is repetitive. It’s essentially 17 runs of the same (-ish) melody or its answering countermelody. It’s mainly in C, though near the end there’s a passage in E that kind of jumps out at you before returning to C for the finale.
It’s also remarkably sexual. I’m sure there have been many scholarly interpretations of this, but I haven’t bothered reading them, so fuck them all. This is my show.
It’s also remarkably sexual. I’m sure there have been many scholarly interpretations of this, but I haven’t bothered reading them, so fuck them all. This is my show.
