Music Man

You know Ravel's Bolero - yes, of course you do!  Torvill and Dean?  Dudley Moore and Bo Derek in the film 10?  Well, it's now out of copyright so I imagine we'll be hearing far more of it - or snippets of it - in adverts and such.  Ravel himself didn't rate it that highly, referring to it as "A simple experiment with a theme which is not developed..." But surely that's its charm?  The hypnotic repetition of the tune as Ravel passes it round the sections of the orchestra, the slow crescendo, the unexpected change of key, and then the feeling of almost sexual release as it returns to the "home" key in triumph.  Truly a case of less is more - a little masterpiece.