Topic: MAURICE RAVEL – BOLÉRO AND DIFFERENCES FROM LATER INTERPRETATIONS

Student: 范雪儿

MAURICE RAVEL
1. Music style:
Young Ravel tended to pursue original creative ideas in a scholarly environment, his
development of mental temperament greatly influenced by symbolic poets such as
Mallarme.
During his adulthood, especially after World War I, his compositions became more
coherent and simpler, due to the strong influence of Chabrier and Satie and the influence
of the French clavichord music, Rimsky-Korsakov. With Liszt's passion for orchestral and
piano writing, Ravel switched to a clearer musical language. Therefore, he resolutely
abandoned the ideals of Impressionism, returned to the ancient and purer French musical
tradition, and kept a closer relationship with national folk music, especially the Spanish
folk music, and the establishment of the so-called "French Neoclassical", chord
vocabulary, orchestral timbre, themes and images as well as the bold inclusion of elements
jazz element… enriched the French music scene at that time.
Ravel considers himself a classicist in many ways. He believes in traditional forms and
structures in the expression of his new and creative harmonies. He often concealed
particular parts of the structure of his work with transitions – to disguise the beginnings of
the instrumental. In his chamber music, many of the movements are in sonata-allegro
form, hiding the variation from thematic developments to the recapitulation.
When he uses major or minor, he treats them in a particular way (harmony and
arrangement, in a predetermined order), resulting in almost no dominant tones in his
work. . With melodious melodies, he favors two favorite tunes: the Dorian and the
Phrygian (from ancient Greece). Ravel is also never subject to a particular form, making
extensive use of complex harmonies and fluctuations that go beyond the usual
implementations. Ravel enjoyed the 9th and 11th scales, the harshness of the harmonies
was largely a result of Ravel's preference for inverse notes (listen to Valses Nobles et
Sentimentales). Among Ravel's piano pieces, some are noted for their technical challenge
(such as Gaspard de la nuit) and for their extension of Liszt-style virtuosity. However,
even his most difficult works are marked by elegance and sophistication. He was
fascinated by many different rhythms, in which he was very fond of the minuet. Several

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other rhythms are also used by Ravel as material in his works such as the forlane,
rigaudon, waltz, czardas, habanera, passacaglia and bolero. His harmonies are often
impressive in technique, it is expanded in pitch by using uncommon chords and double
tonalities. His melodies sometimes tend to be modal, with repetitions, progressions, and
transformations used more than normal development techniques
While many music critics have asserted that Ravel was influenced by Debussy, Ravel
firmly denies it. However, it is clear that both Ravel and Debussy are heavily influenced
by Impressionism. But, there are many points that make Ravel different from Debussy.
- He is influenced by many different musical styles in the world: jazz of the
Americas, music of Asia and traditional folk songs of European countries. He has also
stated bluntly that he has not written a single work that has not been influenced by
Edvard Grieg. Ravel was also influenced by Camille Saint-Saëns, Erik Satie and Modest
Mussorgsky. In all fairness, Ravel respects the classical form more than Debussy. His
music is closer to the style of Jean-Philippe Rameau than Jules Massenet.
- In the work "In the style of Borodin", Ravel amazingly imitates while keeping the
original. In A la maniere de Emmanuel Chabrier with greater complexity, Ravel took a
theme from Charles Gounod's Faust to transform it into Chabrier's style. Even when
writing in someone else's style, Ravel's quality is still noticeable and it can be
recognized that considering these works, he is still a composer.

2. Featured works
Maurice Ravel's 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 Piano Solo "Pictures at an Exhibition" into an orchestral suite of
the same name, which made the piece widely spread. Of his purely orchestral works, the
Rapsodie espagnole and Boléro are the best known and reveal his consummate mastery of
the art of instrumentation.
Operas:
- Ravel's first completed opera was L'heure espagnole (premiered in 1911), described as
a "Comédie musicale". It is among the works set in or illustrating Spain that Ravel wrote
throughout his career.
- The second opera, is L'enfant et les sortilèges (1926), a "fantaisie lyrique" to a libretto
by Colette. She and Ravel had planned the story as a ballet, but at the composer's

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suggestion Colette turned it into an opera libretto. It is more uncompromisingly modern in
its musical style than L'heure espagnole.
Other vocal works:
- Ravel's songs often draw on vernacular styles, using elements of many folk traditions
in such works as Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, Deux mélodies hébraïques and
Chants populaires. Among the poets on whose lyrics he drew were Marot, Léon-Paul
Fargue, Leconte de Lisle and Verlaine. For three songs dating from 1914 to 1915, he wrote
his own texts.
Orchestral works:
- For all Ravel's orchestral mastery, only four of his works were conceived as concert
works for symphony orchestra: Rapsodie espagnole, La valse and the two concertos. All
the other orchestral works were written either for the stage, as in Daphnis et Chloé, or as a
reworking of piano pieces, Alborada del gracioso and Une barque sur l'ocean, (Miroirs),
Valses nobles et sentimentales, Ma mère l'Oye, Tzigane (originally for violin and piano)
and Le tombeau de Couperin.
- In some of his scores from the 1920s, including Daphnis et Chloé, Ravel frequently
divides his upper strings, having them play in six to eight parts while the woodwind are
required to play with extreme agility. His writing for the brass ranges from softly muted to
triple-forte outbursts at climactic points. In the 1930s he tended to simplify his orchestral
textures, the lighter tone of the G major Piano Concerto follows the models of Mozart and
Saint-Saëns, alongside use of jazz-like themes.
- Ravel made orchestral versions of piano works by Schumann, Chabrier, Debussy and
Mussorgsky's piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. Orchestral versions of the last by
Mikhail Tushmalov, Sir Henry Wood and Leo Funtek predated Ravel's 1922 version, and
many more have been made since, but Ravel's remains the best known.
Piano music:
- Ravel's earliest major work for piano, Jeux d'eau (1901), is frequently cited as
evidence that he evolved his style independently of Debussy, whose major works for piano
all came later.
- Ravel's regard for his predecessors is heard in several of his piano works: Menuet sur
le nom de Haydn (1909), À la manière de Borodine (1912), À la manière de Chabrier
(1913) and Le tombeau de Couperin all incorporate elements of the named composers
interpreted in a characteristically Ravellian manner.

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 Chamber music:
- Apart from a one-movement sonata for violin and piano dating from 1899, unpublished
in the composer's lifetime, Ravel wrote seven chamber works. The earliest is the String
Quartet (1902–03), dedicated to Fauré, and showing the influence of Debussy's quartet of
ten years earlier, it differs from the more monumental quartets of the established French
school of Franck and his followers, with more succinct melodies, fluently interchanged, in
flexible tempos and varieties of instrumental colour.
- Ravel's four chamber works composed after the First World War are the Sonata for
Violin and Cello (1920–22), the "Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré" for violin and
piano (1922), the chamber original of Tzigane for violin and piano (1924) and finally the
Violin Sonata (1923–27). The two middle works are respectively an affectionate tribute to
Ravel's teacher, and a virtuoso display piece for the violinist Jelly d'Arányi.
Recordings:
- Ravel's interpretations of some of his piano works were captured on piano roll between
1914 and 1928, although some rolls supposedly played by him may have been made under
his supervision by Robert Casadesus, a better pianist. Transfers of the rolls have been
released on compact disc. In 1913 there was a gramophone recording of Jeux d'eau played
by Mark Hambourg, and by the early 1920s there were discs featuring the Pavane pour une
infante défunte and Ondine, and movements from the String Quartet, Le tombeau de
Couperin and Ma mère l'Oye.
- Recordings for which Ravel actually was the conductor included a Boléro in 1930, and
a sound film of a 1933 performance of the D major concerto with Wittgenstein as soloist.
*Bolero (1928) – Maurice Ravel:
- The whole piece is a huge "crescendo", with two 17-bar melodies played by various
instruments constantly repeating on the background of the endless three-time rhythm of the
snare drum. Before reaching the coda with overwhelming force, the music slides suddenly
into the key of E major (melodic major), with a unique effect not at all commensurate with
the mere technique.
- To avoid creating a boredom, the orchestra mobilizes more and more musicians and
instruments, gradually increasing the volume of the crescendo to finally draw the listener
into an endless vortex.
- The first melody, flexible, gentle, carries a bit of the sound of the land of a thousand
and one nights with the main sound of the flute. As for the second mélodie, Ravel sows the

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influences of jazz music that he imported from the US and here the author has mainly
exploited the most typical instruments of the jazz village such as the saxophone or the
high-pitched trompette in the music copper set.
- Those two main melodies are interwoven by Ravel with a glue is the ostinato element,
which is repeated over and over in a simple, regular, almost boring rhythm. That is the red
thread that runs through the Boléro that Ravel gave the small drum- caisse claire to
complete the task.
- To make the whole Boléro like a very long breath, without interruption, with
increasing volume, Ravel uses a powerful orchestra, the orchestra's staffing towards the
end, the denser and more diverse. The relatively slow but attractive music along with the
art of glissando sounds like drawing listeners into an unknown place.

CHARLES MUNCH
Charles Munch was a talented conductor, best known for his works by French
composers, Charles Munch extended the glory years of the Boston Symphony Orchestra,
which was followed from Serge Koussevitzky until the early 1960s.
Munch presents himself as an easygoing and open-minded conductor than
Koussevitzky. For him, as a conductor, it's about collaborating with musicians, not
standing on a podium and conducting them. Autocratic conductors often have a few trusted
musicians in the orchestra to support them and gain control of the orchestra, but Munch
never does. He always got along with everyone. Musicians can meet Munch in his office
and talk about any topic, including outside of music.
Munch's basic philosophy while working with the orchestra is that every musician is
talented and a master of his or her instrument. Otherwise, they would not have been
members of the orchestra. Munch doesn't waste time on short verses, but pays attention to
the overall spirit of the piece. This method has proved particularly effective with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. In every Munch
performance, there is a certain amount of "calculated risk". That's because the orchestra is
never completely sure that everything will go perfectly, so they are always ready, alert, and
sensitive to the conductor's instructions. This is in contrast to the style of conductors like
Bruno Walter or Fritz Reiner, who always practice thoroughly before going on stage,
sometimes creating boredom for the musicians. This is what makes him different from
Maurice Ravel, while Ravel is a person who always pays attention to the rigor and

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meticulousness of each note, Charles Munch emphasizes improvisation in his
performances. With Munch, he was not a perfectionist and believed in orchestral
improvisation. Therefore, he and his musicians always enter the performance with the
most comfortable mood and let emotions lead, creating unexpected uplifting moments on
stage, making the audience extremely excited. He is able to immediately realize the ideas
that arise in his mind. Munch has an exemplary ability to communicate with the orchestra
through the conducting wand. Munch can correct balance, intonation and tempo issues
simply through gestures without the need for a word to the orchestra.
Even if he was the first French conductor to be considered as a great interpreter of the
German symphonic repertoire, he nevertheless remains a reference interpreter of romantic
and modern French music, notably Berlioz, Saint Saëns, Franck, Chausson, Ravel,
Debussy , without forgetting Roussel and Dutilleux, whom he has always defended.

HERBERT VON KARAJAN

Herbert von Karajan is hailed as the greatest conductor of the 20th century. He has been
gone for almost two decades, but music lovers around the world still remember him as a
musical saint, a giant monument giant, a mighty king.
His outstanding talent plus a very distinctive leadership style made everyone admire.
He leading with his eyes closed and without a score no matter how complicated the piece,
even in his 80s, Karajan has a rare intellect, the strong conducting style and the authority
exuded from a transcendent intelligence made the orchestra and listeners regard him as a
lord, even that is partly reflected in everyday life. The most famous artists feel honored to
perform with him, they revolve around him like planets revolve around the sun.
He has been with the Berlin Philharmonic for 32 years, longer than any other
conductor. During those years, Karajan and his orchestra did amazing things. Under his
direction, the Berlin Philharmonic proved to the world that it was one of the best
orchestras, every piece was performed with a very unique sound, an unprecedented
perfection and virtuosity. Music listeners around the world have been completely
captivated not only by the sheer number of pieces that the orchestra with Karajan have
performed and recorded, but also by their astonishing perfection.
Many consider that one of Karajan's most powerful, even decisive, personality traits is
his authoritarianism. On the performance stage, he was a king without a throne, there was
a supreme authority in him, this is most clearly confirmed in the field of opera.

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 One of Karajan's most impressive skills as a conductor is his ability to refine and
extract the most delicate sounds from any orchestra, what attracts the most attention is the
beauty and perfection of the sound. The smallest, softest pianissimo grabs the listener's
attention, the crescendo hits the right climax the exact moment in the music, the transitions
are done neatly, without any edges.

VALERY GERGIEV
Valery Gergiev as an elite who grew up in the music training system of the former
Soviet Union, Gergiev's conducting style is in line with that of the older generation of
conductors such as Mravinsky of the former Soviet Union. His music rhythm is majestic
and powerful, and he emphasizes the big dynamic contrast.
Gergiev usually control with bare hands, his slender fingers and slightly nervous
trembling movements have absolute control over the orchestra, especially when he directs
the musicians of his Kirov Opera House to perform Russian style The ballet works are
even more incisive and vivid, and can give the audience a very special musical enjoyment.
Most conductors use a baton to sway notes, but the conductor Gergiev from Russia does
the opposite and takes a toothpick control.
Although Gergiev mainly conducts Russian ballet works, he can accurately interpret the
musical characteristics of Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and other schools of music.
Especially worth mentioning It is Prokofiev's works (including his most famous ballet
"Romeo and Juliet" and symphony works) under the command of Gergiev, which is
currently recognized as a classic version. In addition, he has also collaborated with the
London Symphony Orchestra, the group cooperated to conduct Mahler's complete
symphony also received good reviews.

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL
Gustavo Dudamel is driven by the belief that music has the power to transform lives, to
inspire, and to change the world. Through his dynamic presence on the podium and his
tireless advocacy for arts education, Dudamel has introduced classical music to new
audiences around the globe and has helped to provide access to the arts for countless
people in underserved communities.

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 Not only does he have a wand, curly black hair and musical notes, but he also has a
passionate conducting style. Before the music starts, he always holds the wand with his
fingertips and raises it above his head, with a wave of both hands, he jumps up, swings and
rotates just for a moment, the music is under the effect of magic It will make you excited.
Dudamel’s advocacy for the power of music to unite, heal, and inspire is global in
scope. What he communicates is just a pure love of the music. He brings patience,
humour, good grace and hilarious, is an incredibly talented and astute musician, which is a
rarity in itself. But then he’s also got something that just seems to make everybody happy,
the ability to make things fun while at the same time taking them incredibly seriously is a
talent that Gustavo has more than anybody else. Gustavo’s strengths is always adapt to the
piece at hand. He’s physically confident in how he translates his emotions and very
musically true. For Gustavo, the social application of music is a logical extension of
orchestral music everywhere.

BOLERO PERFORMED BY SERGIU CELIBIDACHE

Each composer has his own view of his performance style, just like when you look at a
painting, you can't force others to see the picture the way you want. Personally, this tempo
inspires me more than Karajan's version, too cold, or Barenboim's, too fast. There's no
denying that Dudamel's version is actually very good, but to me it's so perfect that it's
nothing special. If all composers were to stick 100% to the original tempo, it would be
boring.
Sergiu Celibidache's Bolero is very light and slow, like what Ravel want.Maurice Ravel
wanted a slow tempo, which Sergiu Celibidache, who has conducted this piece many
times, perfectly reproduced, always perfectly mastering the conduct of the orchestra.
Sergiu Celibidache have a great style to conduct the orchestra, with rotations of the
arm, never seen in other conductors. The drama that he imprints in this stellar performance
of Bolero brings one to the limits of perfection. His slowness, combination of wind, strings
and percussion give this piece a purity and energy that no other conductor can
restore.Celibidache demanded intense concentration of his musicians to the point of
exhaustion, just as he did with himself. Therefore, Bolero performed by him will go down
in music history as something unmatched.
This slowness in the tempo allows us to appreciate all the instrumental nuances of this
great work. The simplicity of its two melodies make this work an exceptional exercise in

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the art of harmonizing the winds with the strings. Celibidache has been able to print the
spirit that animated the work of the great master Ravel. These few notes are repeated
endlessly, without changing the melody in a crescendo that seems to have no end, there is
no intention to vary a long melody, no acceleration, there is no change of pace, just a
progressive increase in instrumental mass. What is surprising and innovative is the
grandiose character of the work with so little musical material. Beyond the extreme care
that Ravel accorded to the melody itself, it is worth noting the harmonic refinement of the
writing with its wonderful, extremely simple sequences based, for the most part, on steps,
thirds or common notes.
The great directors of all time want to put forth their best effort in interpreting the
points of view, the preferences change according to the criteria of the artist. But for Sergiu
Celibidache, Bolero reached the hypnosis of interpretation, elevating the individual's spirit
for a small moment close to deep meditation.
Celibidache managed to bring this work to the pinnacle of sublimeness thanks to his
epistemological conception of music, coherent and without falling into the trap of purely
emotional but rather embracing the content of the music, sticking to the purity of the text,
the musicality. Feel like a liberator rather than an emotional maker.

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 INDEX
MAURICE RAVEL 1

1. MUSIC STYLE: 1
2. FEATURED WORKS 2
*BOLERO (1928) – MAURICE RAVEL: 4

CHARLES MUNCH 5

HERBERT VON KARAJAN 6

VALERY GERGIEV 7

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL 7

BOLERO PERFORMED BY SERGIU CELIBIDACHE 8

REFERENCES MATERIAL

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maurice-Ravel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ravel#Music
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0712315/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_von_Karajan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valery_Gergiev
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Munch_(conductor)
https://www.gustavodudamel.com/about
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Dudamel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGy2BB87gug

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