This Bolero, dedicated to Ida Rubinstein, was brought out by her and danced by her at Paris in November, 1928. Alexandre Benois designed the settings and the costumes to represent a scene that Goya might have painted: a Spanish inn, with the dancer on a trestle table, men surrounding it. At first calm, the actors on the Parisian stage were little by little excited to frenzy as the dancer became more and more animated. Knives were drawn—the woman was tossed from arms to arms, until her partner intervened; they danced until quiet was restored. So was the scene described by French and English reporters.

The first performance in the United States of this Bolero as a concert piece was by the Philharmonic Society of New York, Mr. Toscanini conductor, on November 14, 1929.

Tempo di ballo, moderato assai, 3-4. A drum gives the dance rhythm, which is maintained throughout; a flute announces the theme, which is taken up by the wind instruments in turn; then by groups of instruments. There is a crescendo for about twenty minutes, until there is an explosive modulation—brass and percussion instruments swell the din until at last there is what has been described as a “tornado of sound.”

M. PruniÈres called attention to the fact that Ravel was not the first to repeat a simple, common theme until by the monotony of tune and rhythm the hearer was excited (as are Oriental hearers by the same method). Padilla, the composer of Valencia, had worked this obsession by the repetition of a tune for at least twenty times.