With the Classic genre in Taiko slowly drying up, most of the latest songs introduced are actually composed by Ravel. All of the Ravel songs currently in Taiko were put into console games first before ported to the arcade, one by one. (with the exception of Bolero, which came out on AC11 first)
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Boléro (ボレロ)| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x2 (108) | x5 (181) | x4 (294) | x7 (385) |
Taiko 11, 11 Asian, Taiko DS 2, Taiko Wii U 3, Taiko +
64.2~85
none
clsblrOriginally composed as an accompanying music for ballet -commissioned by the Russian ballerina Ida Rubenstein- and premiered in 1928, Boléro is Ravel's most famous musical composition. After a dominant production of ballads and piano compositions, Ravel successfully achieved writing music for a large orchestra, though Ravel himself has said before that he did not prefer Bolero to be an orchestral piece.
The music is built over an unchanging ostinato rhythm played on one or more snare drums that remains constant throughout the piece. A lot of musical instruments follows both the snare drums and quarter-eight note's rhythm with an impressive number of musical instruments: two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, cor anglais, two B-flat clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, a piccolo trumpet in D, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, two saxophones, timpani, two snare drums, a bass drum, one piece/pair of orchestral cymbals, tamtam, celesta, two harps and strings. Interest is maintained by constant reorchestration of the theme, leading to a variety of timbres, and by a steady crescendo.
Ravel said in an interview that the piece lasts 17 minutes, but obviously that length is too much for Taiko, and so we have an extract from the first parts of this famous orchestral work. Various minor BPM shifts occur along the slow song, with a simple waltz beat. Because of the extremely low BPM (one of the lowest in the entire series), the notes appear as if they were scrolling at half-speed, inching very slowly to the target, which may throw off players used to standard speed and is one of the only songs where using double speed is common practice.
Le Tombeau de Couperin (クープランの墓)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 14, all console | x5 (161) | x7 (235) | x8 (460) | x9 (651) |
| Taiko 0 onwards | x4 (161) | x7 (235) | x8 (460) | x8 (651) |
Taiko 14, 0, Taiko DS 3, Taiko Wii 4, Taiko 140 none clscprComposed between 1914 and 1917, Le tombeau de Couperin is a suite for solo piano, which follows the past patterns of the French Baroque style (The name Couperin alludes to the baroque composer François Couperin).
But the suite wasn't just for revival of ancient melodies; the French word tombeau is actually a musical term popular in the 17th century and meaning "a piece written as a memorial". In fact, Le Tombeau de Couperin is divided into six different movements, and each of those is dedicated to the memory of various friends of the composer who had died fighting in World War I. Ravel himself was an army driver during the war!
The modern Taiko rearrangement by Masubuchi Yuuji (who is usually the one responsible for classic song remixes) is focused on two different movements of the suite: the Prélude and the Forlane, composed in memory of the Lieutenants Jacques Charlot and Gabriel Deluc. While the song performs the whole Prélude, the section between the second and third Go-Go times evokes the Italian folk style featured in the Forlane. Also, the original 12/16 beat stanzas are recreated under the classic 1/16 stanza division to make rhythmical sense while playing, while the beat patterns are the same mixed spacing previously seen on the Bòlero, but with a faster speed. Two difficult streams stand out on this song, both made up of long chains of 1/12 and 1/24 notes.
Alborada del Gracioso (道化師の朝の歌) | Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko Wii 3 | x5 (126) | x7 (235) | x8 (361) | x8 (529) |
| Taiko 0 onwards | x5 (126) | x7 (235) | x7 (361) | x8 (529) |
Taiko 0, Taiko Wii 3, Taiko 3DS 1, Taiko Wii U 3, CD Donderful 150~158 none clsdokThe last unlockable classic song in Taiko Wii 3 comes from one of Ravel's first complex suites. Alborada del Gracioso (translatable as "The Gracioso's Aubade") is the fourth movement of the piano suite Miroirs, composed between 1904-1905 and dedicated to a few members of Les Apaches, the French Impressionist group and to Michel Dimitri Calvocoressi, a music writer of Greek descent.
In musical terms, an Aubade is a love song performed in the early morning (as opposed to a serenade, which is done in the evening), while a Gracioso is a clown or jester in Spanish comedy of the 16th century, typically labeled as a stock character, the tricky slave. Ravel wanted to link some Spanish musical themes to an aubade, explaining the complicated melodies.
This playful melody was remixed for Taiko no Tatsujin by Yukiko Yamamoto (山本由貴子) using xylophones and other whimsical clanking instruments. The main feature of this 8* Oni song lies in its unconventional beat stanzas. We can find several variations within each of them from 2 to four beats per stanza, and 3 note clusters fill nearly the entire notechart. Unlike many other classic songs, Alborada del Gracioso actually has a rather stable BPM, only speeding up towards the end of the song. The scroll speed changes twice, going faster and faster towards the end with the intuitive clusters contributing to a very fun scoregrinding chart.
This song was used in the boss battle against Zebubu, the housefly representing Gluttony in the story mode of Taiko 3DS, and is one of the two Classic genre songs to be used in boss battles in that game (the other being Wrath of Requiem).
Pavane for a Dead Princess (亡き王女のためのパヴァーヌ) Kimi no Kodou (～きみのこどう～)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko PSP DX | x3 (121) | x5 (194) | x5 (297) | x7 (383) |
| Taiko 0, Taiko Wii 5 | x3 (121) | x5 (194) | x5 (297) | x6 (383) |
Taiko 0, Taiko PSP DX, Taiko 3DS 2, Taiko Wii 5, Taiko +, CD Donderful 96~137 none clspvnThis is a restyled version of one of Ravel's first piano compositions. The Pavane pour une infante défunte was written in 1899, when the French composer was studying at the Conservatoire de Paris. An orchestrated version of the Pavane was also released in 1910. A typical performance of the piece lasts between six and seven minutes; if you want to hear it click on this link.
Ravel described the piece as "an evocation of a pavane that a little princess might, in former times, have danced at the Spanish court". The pavane was a slow processional dance that enjoyed great popularity in the courts of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
This time, the slow, original piano rhythms are not recreated in Taiko, but instead remixed, given a faster rhythm and song and with a touching female vocal added to the song. The singer is Ayano Yasuda (安田彩乃), whose track record includes the wonderfully sweet Namco Original, Kimi no Akari. The song's subtitle literally means "Your drum beat", with a double meaning of drum beats and heartthrob.
The mild rhythms of the Pavane is full of repetitive note clusters (like
) and plain note stacking. It has many long drumrolls especially towards the end, and even as a medium difficulty Oni, it is possible to score all the way up to 1.2 million points because of them. 
Pavane for a Dead Princess (亡き王女のためのパヴァーヌ) Kimi no Kodou (～きみのこどう～)| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x8 (612) |
Taiko 0 S, Taiko Wii 5, Taiko 3DS 2, Taiko + 96~137 none ex_clspvnPavane for a Dead Princess is the second song by Ayano Yasuda after Kimi no Akari, and like the former song, also gains a new Ura, and also on Wii. Predictably, it is at the same ballpark of difficulty as Kimi no Akari Ura with simple clusters everywhere, though there are rest areas throughout the song. Just like its regular Oni, Pavane Ura's notechart is plain with repetitive patterns.
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