mf@cornell.UUCP (mf) (02/08/85)
This is the second and last article on the origins of this piece. The material for this and the previous articles comes from the recently- published memoirs of Divine Albaret (``En attendant et entendant Maurice'', Sorbonne University Press, 1985, 788pp), sister of Celeste (Proust's devoted maid), whose simple but enlightening text sheds light on the history of the works of Ravel. She used to wait for instructions in the kitchen and would listen carefully to every noise coming from the living room (whence the title of her book). In the chapter "Birth of the Bolero," from which the last article was excerpted, she speaks as follows of its thematic material: "Maurice R. composed with great anguish; the conception of each new piece was likened by him to child-bearing pains (``les douleurs de l'accouchement''), in much the same way as Flaubert suffered when writing. [...] For the Bolero, he was more nervous than usual, pounding his pencil on the piano, nervously tapping his foot on the ``parquet cire'' (more work for me), silently smoking stinking cigarettes. After days and days, he suddently snapped to attention, and listened to the rhythmic pattern that his pencil was creating. This is how the Bolero was born."