Bolero

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Bolero (disambiguation).

The bolero is a type of dance and musical form.

Contents 1 Spain 2 Cuba and Mexico 3 American Style ballroom 4 Boleros in popular culture 5 Notes 6 References

Spain

Bolero is a 3/4 dance that originated in Spain in the late 18th century, a combination of the contradanza and the sevillana ^[1]. It is danced by either a soloist or a couple. It is in a moderately slow tempo and is performed to music which is sung and accompanied by castanets and guitars with lyrics of five to seven syllables in each of four lines per verse. It is in triple time and usually has a triplet on the second beat of each bar. A number of classical composers have written works based on this dance: Frédéric Chopin wrote a bolero for solo piano, and Maurice Ravel's Boléro is one of his most famous works, originally written as a ballet score but now usually played as a concert piece.

Cuba and Mexico

In Cuba, the bolero developed into a distinct dance in duple time which eventually spread to other countries, while the dance itself gradually disappeared from Cuba, leaving behind what author Ed Morales has called the "most popular lyric tradition in Latin America" ^[2]. The modern Cuban bolero song tradition originated in Santiago in the 19th century. The travelling, storytelling trova (or canción) tradition was major basis for the Cuban bolero, influenced by a variety of European musical styles. The trova was usually accompanied only by a guitar, and had a rootsy, Spanish sound ^[3]. Some musicologists also trace an influence from the traditional son music of the Mexican state of Yucatan; this is actually quite plausible, as the traditional music of this region sounds very much like the bolero, having many similarities in melody, tempo, and vocal style. Though some scholars date the bolero to the early 19th century, Ed Morales dates it to José Pepe Sánchez's Tristeza, in 1885, which popularized the term bolero and is now considered the first classic in the field ^[4]. The Cuban bolero traveled almost immediately to Mexico after its conception, where it became part of the repertoire of Mexican traditional music. In fact, some of the bolero's most prominent composers have come from Mexico, an example being the great Mexican composer Agustín Lara.

In the 1950s, sung boleros became extremely popular and have enjoyed enduring popularity as a popular song form throughout Latin America.

American Style ballroom

Another kind of Bolero is the American Style ballroom dance popular in the United States. It is a unique dance style combining the patterns of Rumba with the rise and fall technique and character of Waltz and Foxtrot. The music is 4/4 time, and is danced to the slowest rhythms of the Latin ballroom dances (the spectrum runs Bolero, Rumba, ChaChaCha, Mambo). The basic rhythm of steps in patterns, like Rumba, is Slow-Quick-Quick.

Boleros in popular culture

• The "Bolero of Fire" was a song in the popular Nintendo 64 video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
• "Running Scared" and "The Crowd" are among many Bolero-type songs written by Roy Orbison, who is credited with bringing the musical form to Rock music.
• "Beck's Bolero" was a song written by Jimmy Page and performed by the Jeff Beck Group on the album Truth.
• Second part of "Lizard" suite from Lizard album by King Crimson was called "Bolero: The Peacock Tale"
• "Casi un Bolero" was sung by Ricky Martin in the 1990's
• "Bolero" is the title of the song played during the ending credits of the movie Moulin Rouge!.
• British post-punk band Bloc Party's second album will feature a song called "A Prayer to the Lord", which takes its inspiration from the bolero. It will be centered around hand-claps and foot-stomps.
• "Aishū no Bolero" is the ending theme of popular anime Excel Saga. It is sung from the perspective of Menchi, a puppy whom the heroine keeps as emergency rations. The song is vocally interpreted into Japanese by an unnamed woman.
• Emerson, Lake & Palmer recorded a track called Abaddon's Bolero on their 1971 album, Trilogy.
• 603 no borero (Bolero of the 63rd) is a track on the soundtrack for the CG-animated series Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO.
• British ice skating couple Torvill and Dean danced to Ravel's Bolero in the 1984 Ice Skating championships at Sarajevo, scoring maximum marks.

Notes

References

• Morales, Ed (2003). The Latin Beat. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81018-2.
• Video example of ballroom bolero dance basic movement