Thursday, May 1, 2008

Ravel, Bolero

Just downloaded this piece of music, sound recording. It's been a long time since I played in this piece that I forgot all the details. What I always remember is the way to do pizzicato near the end -- strumming the strings, both ways, on the violin. The high tension of violin strings and the lack of any strumming piece makes this a rather painful exercise.

However, the rest of the piece is an excellent example of show-casing the various instruments. It is also very useful to teach students the different tone quality, color, of the various instruments. Snare-drum, flute, clarinet, saxophone, euphonium, etc. And the type of harmony when there are parallel movements, like parallel 5ths.

A wonderful piece. If anyone has not heard it yet, it is time to listen, at least once.

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