Bolero
The
bolero is a type of
dance and musical form.
Bolero is a 3/4 dance that originated in
Spain in the late
18th century, a combination of the
contradanza and the
sevillana . 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.
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" . 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 . 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 . The Cuban bolero traveled almost immediately to Mexico after its conception, where it became part of the repartoire 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.
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.
The "Bolero of Fire" was a song in the popular
Nintendo 64 video game
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
"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"
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# Morales, pg. 120# Morales, pg. 120# Morales, pg. 121# Morales, pg. 121
