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Joseph-Maurice Ravel
(1875 – 1937) was a French composer and pianist generally considered to be one of the major composers of the 20th century.
Ravel's Bolero is a one-movement orchestral piece originally composed as a ballet. It premiered in 1928 and is arguably Maurice Ravel's most famous musical composition. It was commissioned by the dancer Ida Rubinstein, who asked Ravel to create a ballet score with a Spanish character.
Ravel purported to be somewhat embarrassed that a composition which was, in his words, "without music", should become so well known. Apparently, at the premiere of the ballet, a woman declared that Ravel was mad. When told about this, Ravel remarked, "Aha! She understood the piece!"
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| The guitar arrangement |
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What I play in the video is a modified version of an arrangement by Jason Waldron. The original version can be found in "Popular Classics of the Great Composers. Volume 1". I only play the first of two parts in the video. See Book Review below.
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Progressive Popular Classics Volume 1 (Book/CD) Publisher: Koala Publications (CP-18320) |
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Popular Classics of the Great Composers. Volume 1 This is where I learned Ravel's Bolero.
This is the first of 6 books in this series. For the beginner to intermediate guitarist.
This book contains 35 of the world's most popular melodies by the greatest classical composers of all time arranged brilliantly for classical guitar. They include well known masterpieces by Mozart, Brahms & Bach. Teachers will also benefit greatly by virtue of being able to substitute teaching pieces written by Carulli, Sor, Giuliani etc, by the well known music of Chopin, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Ravel. The CD contains all examples shown within this book. It's a great buy for anyone who wants to play some easily recognizable tunes and at the same time develop solid classical guitar technique. You may not recognize the titles but you are sure to know the melodies from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons and vintage movies. I recommend you buy this book and have a bit of fun with these great arrangements.
Jason Waldron is one of Australia's most prominent classical guitarists. Initial studies in Adelaide with John Della-Torre were followed by advanced tuition with Dr. Peter Calvo at the Sydney Spanish Guitar Centre and master classes with Oscar Caceres, Turibio Santos, Alirio Diaz and John Williams.
Jason also happens to be a friend of mine and has been my guitar mentor for many years. I was one of his first students when he was started teaching in downtown Adelaide.
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