The Bolero

What do 18th Century Spanish dancers, symphony orchestras, and rock & roll bands all have in common?

They all perform(ed) The Bolero.

What is the Bolero?

The Bolero is a stately, slow-ish latin dance of Spanish origins in the late 18th Century. Think castanets! It is in 3/4 time and contains 16th-note triplets. More about the Spanish dance, the Bolero

In its usual form, the beat goes like this:

Ravel’s Bolero

The Bolero inspired many classical pieces, as listed in the Wiki link above. The most famous of those is Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. The piece starts with the snare drum playing the beat, as written above, and gradually builds from beginning to end. Here is more about Ravel’s Bolero.

Here’s the London Symphony performing it. They do it a little slower than I’ve usually heard it, but it is an excellent performance and video:

Here’s a fun Ravel’s Bolero youth orchestra flash mob performance:

Frank Zappa even put his stamp on it with his own quirky (of course!) arrangement:

Which leads us to….

The Bolero in Rock

Numerous rock bands over the years have borrowed the Bolero beat (usually a 4/4 version of it) to use most often in dramatic unison, to deliver quick punches of intensity at the climax of the song. (In contrast to the much more gradual and subtle build-up of Ravel’s Bolero.) However, a handful of these actually base part or all of their composition on the beat.

These are just some of the many instances of the Bolero in Rock music:

The Bolero dance beat in latin/jazz music:

For a listen to how the Bolero might sound in a dance setting in relatively recent times, here Bobby Sanabria demonstrates a 4/4 version of the Bolero, in more of a latin/jazz setting:

Extra

I’ll close by pulling out one of the rock examples to feature. Here’s Jeff Beck’s Bolero:

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