Jon Gallant <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>Someone suggested that the harmonic repetitiousness of Ravel's Bolero
>ought to make it a "mediocre" piece.  Well, yes, it IS a mediocre piece.

Is it?  I continue to be totally baffled by this dismissive judgement
of Ravel's chef d'oeuvre!

Like many obstinately memorable, truly popular classics, it is only
"mediocre" if listened to with our ears the wrong way round.  Maybe we
should try putting all the usual harmonic/contrapuntal criteria on hold,
and giving Bolero the respect of listening to it for what it is - i.e.
a daring essay in Spanish-Moorish "alhambrismo" concentrating on one
emotional state and brooding on it obsessively, a virtuoso demonstration
of the sensual power of sound timbres, rather than a finely wrought
compositional essay in the mainstream Western tradition.

It's allied to similar off-message pieces such as Holst's "Beni Mora"
and "Saturn", most of Glass's "Akhnaten" or the opening of Handel's
"Zadok the Priest", all of which rely for their explosive impact on
similar techniques.

Heard in this mode, I would say (as a diehard Ravelian myself) that it
is far and away the most *profound* and sensual - as opposed to witty,
charming, elegant, insouciant, sophisticated, gently touching etc.  -
piece he ever wrote.  The one moment of harmonic movement in Bolero when
it finally arrives remains emotionally shattering.  At least it still
is for me after living with the piece for more years than I care to
remember!

The broader point: just because we don't happen to "get" a particular
piece or composer does not mean that they are "mediocre".  It is more
usually down to our personal inability to listen to that piece or composer
in the appropriate way, which is our loss and no criticism of them.  In
this case, I suspect "sophisticated" judgement on the piece (as with
Dvorak's New World Symphony) is occasionally seasoned with snobbery.

Christopher Webber, Blackheath, London, UK
http://www.zarzuela.net
"ZARZUELA!" The Spanish Music Site