Description

Maurice RAVEL – Fragment from Bolero – for THREE CELLOS (also possible with Cello Orchestra), arranged by David Johnstone

Download Contents or Instructions:

PDF 1 – General Score (13 pages in all)

PDF 2 – All cello parts (12 pages in all)

Boléro is a one-movement orchestral piece by the French composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937). Originally composed as a ballet commissioned by Russian actress and dancer Ida Rubinstein, the piece, which premiered in 1928, is Ravel’s most famous musical composition. Boléro epitomizes Ravel’s preoccupation with restyling and reinventing dance movements. While on vacation at St Jean-de-Luz, Ravel went to the piano and played a melody with one finger to his friend Gustave Samazeuilh, saying “Don’t you think this theme has an insistent quality? I’m going to try and repeat it a number of times without any development, gradually increasing the orchestra as best I can”.

The composition was a sensational success when it was premiered at the Paris Opéra on 22nd November 1928, with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska and designs and scenario by Alexandre Benois. The orchestra of the Opéra was conducted by Walther Straram.

Boléro became Ravel’s most famous composition much to the surprise of the composer, who had predicted that most orchestras would refuse to play it. It is nowadays played as a purely orchestral work, only very rarely being staged as a ballet. According to a possibly apocryphal story from the premiere performance, a woman was heard shouting that Ravel was mad – when told about this, Ravel is said to have remarked that she had understood the piece!

The piece gained new attention after it was prominently featured in the 1979 romantic comedy “10”, co-starring Dudley Moore and Bo Derek. This resulted in massive sales, generating an estimated $1 million in royalties and briefly made Ravel the best-selling classical composer some 40 years after his death. The ice dancing pair ‘Torvill and Dean’ danced to a six-minute version of the work in winning the gold medal in ice dancing at the 1984 Winter Olympics, receiving perfect 6.0s for artistic merit. This piece’s copyright expired on 1st May 2016 for many countries, but not worldwide; however it is now public domain in the European Union.

Johnstone’s ‘version’ is merely a fragment of some three rounds of the melody, each featuring a different cello part on the melody whilst the accompaniment is varied each time. As a little miniature it might serve as a fun concert piece, or for events like weddings, receptions etc. It is of medium (or perhaps medium-to-difficult) standard, but is fully playable….

Enjoy the music !

BRIEF EXAMPLE FROM SCORE:

ENGLISH

Welcome to Johnstone-Music! A big Anglo-Spanish web for MUSICIANS and especially CELLISTS – original music scores for orchestral instruments and keyboard. Plus articles, audios, videos, resources, catalogues, news etc. Official web of the professional cellist David Johnstone, principal cello Navarre Symphony Orchestra (Spain), chamber musician and soloist in many premieres. Hundreds of cello arrangements in the web for a symbolic charge per download or for free.

The following have taken his work onboard, sometimes with special collaborations as composer-arranger-performer: the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi, Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela, Orchestre Nouvelle Generation de Montreal, the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon), Orchestra da Camera del Locarnese (Suiza), The Zagreb Soloists, the Saint Petersburg Musical Theatre “Zazerkalye” Chamber Orchestra, the Wroclaw Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum (Poland), Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra (New Zealand), Camerata Cambrensis (Basque country), Ensemble Metamorphosis of Belgrade (Serbia), with Ara Malikian (Non Profit Music Chamber Orchestra – Madrid), and a long etc.. Currently, many courses, conservatoires and music schools, university String departments etc. use his repertoire; there are dozens of his arrangements on ‘You Tube’ …

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