Dance of the devils

illions of school children around the world are learning about the „Bolero“as one of the most legendary classics of all time. That would probably surprise no one more than its composer Maurice Ravel. While working on the piece, he wondered if there would ever be an orchestra willing to play it because the “Bolero” is almost grotesquely primitive on paper: a single drawn-out melody, which tips from a sensual C major into a menacingly sinister A minor, repeats itself over a sustained keynote, while around it the orchestra gathers in sinister storm clouds. In Western music history, such demonstrative repetitions, the emphasis on sensual, physical rhythms and the almost orgiastic nature of the finale were strictly frowned upon. Even the eccentric conductor Arturo Toscanini, who was not averse to experimentation,