I apologize for my tardiness in posting this piece. I hope everyone is enjoying Merry Making as you hopefully are spending time with those you hold dear.
I associate this piece with the pairs Ice Dancing Gold of the 1984 Olympics.
I love the slowness of the tempo, the repetitive/calming of the snare, tympani and brass. The tune is haunting, majestic, and as the tonic modulates I too am transformed.
In order to fully appreciate the build-up in this piece you have to listen to the whole thing(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZDiaRZy0Ak) and the wiki page gives a good outline to guide you in the listening (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bol%C3%A9ro#Maurice_B.C3.A9jart). This is the Avengers equivalent of an orchestra, that is, every section gets its own spotlight.
ReplyDeleteAfter listening to the whole piece, I would love to hear some input from someone who has played this piece. I can only imagine how easy it would be to get lost in the monotony of the piece and how quickly one would become tired of playing the same melody over and over.
I like this piece. Here's a good video to follow the melody throughout the piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJRE1y5uxOM. You also realize the unique instrumentation used (saxophones?). I know some Ravel piano pieces, but Bolero sounds nothing like them to me.
ReplyDeleteI found the sheet music to the snare part on IMSLP. Seems like a torture to have to play.
Sorry for missing out on the first post! This was a fun piece, however. I did imagine myself playing, and, although my part would be fairly uneventful, that was one of my favorite parts of playing orchestral pieces - having the ability to be sucked into the melodies and other parts being played, because my part was simple. The timpani and low brass are also essential to this piece, even though what swept me up was the high brass. The ending of this video also allowed the trombones to do what they do best - play out of tune when compared to the rest of the band. Just kidding, they were wonderful :)
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