 Marcelle Lender in ''Chilperic'', 1895]]  '''Bolero''' is a form of slow-tempo Latin music and its associated dance and song. There are Spanish, and Cuban forms, which are both significant, and which have separate origins.Carpentier, Alejo 2001 [1945]. ''Music in Cuba''. Minniapolis MN.   The term is also used for some art music. In all its forms, the bolero has been popular for over a century, and still is today.  == Spain == .Blatter, Alfred 2007. ''Revisiting music theory: a guide to the practice''. p28 ISBN 0415974402.]]  The bolero is a 3/4 dance(see Time signature and meter (music)) that originated in Spain in the late 18th century, a combination of the contradanza and the sevillana.Morales, p120 Dancer Sebastiano Carezo is credited with inventing the dance in 1780.[ Journal of the American Musicological Society] '''24''', (Autumn, 1971), p. 480 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.  == Cuba == In Cuba, the bolero is perhaps the first great Cuban musical and vocal synthesis to win universal recognition.Acosta, Leonardo 1987. ''From the drum to the synthesiser''. La Habana. p121 In 2/4 time, this dance music spread to other countries, leaving behind what Ed Morales has called the &quot;most popular lyric tradition in Latin America&quot;.Morales, p120   The Cuban bolero tradition originated in Santiago de Cuba in the last quarter of the 19th century;Cristobal Diaz offers 1885: &quot;el bolero, creado aproximadamente para 1885&quot;. Diaz Ayala, Cristobal 1999. ''Cuando sali de la Habana 1898-1997: cien anos de musica cubana por el mundo''. 3rd ed, Cubanacan, San Juan P.R. p24-25 it does ''not'' owe its origin to the Spanish music and song of the same name.Carpentier, Alejo 2001 [1945]. ''Music in Cuba''. Minniapolis MN. In the 19th century there grew up in Santiago de Cuba a group of itinerant musicians who moved around earning their living by singing and playing the guitar. Probably, this kind of life had been going on for some time; but it comes into focus when we learn about named individuals who left their marks on Cuban popular music.  &quot;Pepe&quot; Sanchez (born José Sánchez at Santiago de Cuba, 1856&amp;ndash;1918) is known as the father of the ''trova'' style and the creator of the Cuban bolero. Untrained, but with remarkable natural talent, he composed numbers in his head and never wrote them down. As a result, most of these numbers are now lost, but two dozen or so survive because friends and disciples wrote them down. He was the model and teacher for the great trovadores who followed.Orovio, Helio 2004. ''Cuban music from A to Z.'' p195.Orovio, Helio 1995. ''El bolero latino''. La Habana.  The Cuban bolero traveled to Mexico and the rest of Latin America after its conception, where it became part of their repertoires. Some of the bolero's leading composers have come from nearby countries, most especially the great and prolific Puerto Rican composer Rafael Hernández; another example being Mexico's Agustín Lara. Some Cuban composers of the bolero are listed under Trova.Loyola Fernandez, Jose 1996. ''El ritmo en bolero: el bolero en la musica bailable cubana''. Huracan, Rio Piedras P.R.Orovio, Helio 1992. ''300 boleros de oro''. Mexico City.Restrepo Duque, Hernán 1992. ''Lo que cantan los boleros''. Columbia.Rico Salazar, Jaime 1999. ''Cien años de boleros: su historia, sus compositores, sus mejores interpretes y 700 boleros inolvidables''. 5th ed, Bogotá.  === Bolero fusions === José Loyola comments that the frequent fusions of the bolero with other Cuban rhythms is one of the reasons it has been so fertile for such a long period of time: :&quot;La adaptación y fusión del bolero con otros géneros de la música popular bailable ha contribuido al desarrollo del mismo, y a su vigencia y contemporaneidad.&quot;Loyola Fernandez, José 1996. ''El ritmo en bolero: el bolero en la musica bailable cubana''. Huracan, Rio Piedras P.R. p249  :(The adaptation and fusion of the bolero with other types of popular dance music has contributed to their development, and to its validity and modernity)  This adaptability was largely achieved by dispensing with limitations in format or instrumentation, and by an increase in syncopation (so producing a more afrocuban sound). Examples would be: *Bolero in the ''danzón'': the advent of lyrics in the danzón to produce the ''danzonete''. *The ''bolero-son'': long-time favourite dance music in Cuba, captured abroad under the misnomer 'rumba'. *The ''bolero-mambo'' in which slow and beautiful lyrics were added to the sophisticated big-band arrangements of the mambo. *The ''bolero-cha'': many Cha-cha-cha lyrics come from boleros.  The lyrics of the bolero can be found throughout popular music, especially Latin dance music. This gives the creations of a former time a kind of perpetual life. The old trovadores lived close to their people, and their songs reflected the loves, lives and concerns of the people. It has proved surprisingly difficult for present-day musicians to do better. The bolero is a great survivor.  If the bolero does have limitations for non-Latin audiences (for whom the lyrics are mostly unappreciated), its place in Latin music and dance is more or less permanent.  == Ballroom dance == === International ballroom === A version of the Cuban bolero is danced throughout the Latin dance world (supervised by the World Dance Council) under the misnomer 'rumba'. This came about in the early 1930s when a simple overall term was needed to market Cuban music to audiences unfamiliar with the various Cuban musical terms. The famous ''Peanut Vendor'' was so labelled, and the label stuck for other types of Cuban music.Diaz Ayala, Cristobal 1981. ''Música cubana del Areyto a la Nueva Trova''. 2nd rev ed, Cubanacan, San Juan P.R.Sublette, Ned 2004. ''Cuba and its music: from the first drums to the mambo''. Chicago. Chapter 27 The Peanut Vendor.  In Cuba, the bolero is usually written in 2/4 time, elsewhere often 4/4. The tempo for dance is about 120 beats per minute. The music has a gentle Cuban rhythm related to a slow ''son'', which is the reason it may be best described as a bolero-son. Like some other Cuban dances, there are three steps to four beats, with the first step of a figure on the second beat, not the first. The ''slow'' (over the two beats four and one) is executed with a hip movement over the standing foot, with no foot-flick.Lavelle, Doris 1983. ''Latin &amp; American dances''. 3rd ed, Black, London.  === American Rhythm === In the dance known as  Bolero is  one of the competition dances in American Rhythm ballroom dance category. The first step is typically taken on the first beat, held during the second beat with two more steps falling on beats three and four (cued as &quot;slow-quick-quick&quot;).  In competitive dance the music is in 4/4 time and will range between 96 to 104 bpm.  This dance is quite different from the other American Rhythm dances in that it not only requires cuban motion but rises and falls such as found in waltz and contra body movement.W.D. Eng, Inc. dba Dance Vision 2003. ''American Style Rhythm Bronze Manual'', Las Vegas, Nevada. Popular music for this dance style need not be latin in origin. Lists of music used in competitions for American Rhythm Bolero are available. List of Songs used in America's Ballroom Challenge  == In art music == There are many so-called boleros in art music (i.e., classical music) that may not conform to either of the above types.  * Ravel's ''Boléro'' is one of his most famous works, originally written as a ballet score for his patron Blanche Lapin or commissioned by Ida Rubinstein, but now usually played as a concert piece. It was originally called ''Fandango'' but has rhythmic similarities with the Spanish dance form as described in this article, being in a constant 3/4 time with a prominent triplet on the second beat of every bar.  * Chopin wrote a bolero for solo piano (Op. 19), but its rhythms are more that of the polonaise.  He was a close friend of Pauline Viardot, the daughter of the famed Spanish tenor Manuel García, who had introduced the bolero to Paris * Debussy wrote one in ''La Soirée dans Grenada'' * Bizet wrote a bolero in ''Carmen'' * Saint-Saëns wrote a bolero, ''El desdichado'', for 2 voices and orchestra * Moszkowski's first set of Spanish Dances (Op. 12) ends with a bolero. * Lefébure-Wély wrote ''Boléro de Concert'' for organ * The bolero from Hervé's ''Chilpéric (operetta)'' has been immortalized in Toulouse-Lautrec's famous painting (above).  * Friedrich Baumfelder wrote a Premier Bolero, Op. 317, for piano.  In some art music boleros, the root lies not in the bolero but in the habanera, a Cuban precursor of the tango, which was a favourite dance rhythm in the mid-19th century, and occurs often in French opera and Spanish zarzuela of the 19th and 20th centuries.Loyola Fernández, Jose 1997. ''En ritmo de bolero: el bolero en la musica bailable cubana''. Huracan, Rio Piedras P.R. p29  == In popular music == The bolero form is used in the following instrumentals:  * &quot;Beck's Bolero,&quot; from the 1968 album ''Truth'' by Jeff Beck. * &quot;Chunga's Revenge,&quot; from the 1970 album of the same name by Frank Zappa. * &quot;Bolero: The Peacock's Tale,&quot; part of the &quot;Lizard&quot; suite from the 1970 album ''Lizard'' by King Crimson. * &quot;Abaddon's Bolero,&quot; from the 1972 album ''Trilogy'' by Emerson, Lake &amp; Palmer. * &quot;Tenth of Nisan,&quot; from the 1989 album ''One of Several Possible Musiks'' by Kerry Livgren.  == Notes ==   