Aretha Franklin was an American songwriter, singer and pianist, born in 1942 and died in 2018. She has gone down in history (ha pasado a la historia) as the Queen of Soul and one of the most influential people of all times, not only in music.
Her mother was a gospel* singer and pianist, and her father presided a Baptist church in Detroit, so, she started singing gospel in her father's church. Then, she travelled with his father performing in major cities throughout the country and started being recognized as a vocal prodigy.
When she turned 18 she moved to New York and changed the religious music for soul music and embarked on a musical career, that grew unstoppable and gave her fame and a great reputation.
Aretha Franklin never claimed to be a feminist icon, but decades before the emergence of the feminist movements, the Queen of Soul was a voice for female fans who had experienced abuse, thanks to songs such us Respect or Think. She was the voice for those women who were controlled by men, and for those who fought for equal pay and treatment.
She was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she received the most important awards all over the world.
Now, in 2022 she is an inspiration as a soul singer, as a person, and as a feminist.
Happy 8th of March!! Happy International Women's Day!!
* Gospel: style of popular religious music type born among the black community of the United States, in which the singers decorate the happy and cheerful melodies with shouts and whispers.
* Soul: music style born from the gospel, and sung among the black community of the United States. It was a successful style between 60s and the 80s. Its characterized by its catchy rhythms, the optimistic melodies and the accompaniment of brass instruments.
In May 1968 thousands of people demonstrated (se manifestaron) in the most important cities around the world to protest against the Vietnam War.
One year later, John Lennon, one of the components of The Beatles married Joko Ono, a Japanese conceptual artist, and they both decided to spend part of their honeymoon in a hotel's bed in Canada to "protest against the pain and the violence in the world".
That was a different alternative strategy to the peace movements that were taking place in the rest of the world, and it worked! Many different mass media around the world visited them, so that "demonstration" was the perfect hook to capture the attention of the people.
The song Give peace a chance was recorded by John, Joko and other artists during the time they spent in that bed, and immediately became a mass phenomenon and an anthem against the war.
Many artists have sung this song in complicated moments of our recent history. Last Friday the vast majority of the radio stations of Europe interrupted their programs to play this song.
Today is a good day to remember that we need to GIVE PEACE A CHANCE.
Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer born in 1835 and died in 1921. He studied traditional composition in Paris but he was always enthusiastic for the most modern music.
In 1886 he composed a ‘grand zoological fantasy’ in 14 movements:The Carnival of the Animals. Saint-Saëns was so worried about the harm this funny piece of music might do to his reputation as a serious composer, that after two private performances he placed it under lock and key. Only one part survived and was released (estrenada) on its own: The swam
However, The Carnival of the animals is one of the most extraordinary examples of descriptive music.Through the composition we can imagine and almost see elephants, rats, donkeys and other animals moving and interacting with the nature with joy and freshness.
These are the movements:
1. Introduction and Royal March of the lion: after the introduction, a majestic march begins, with the lion as the king of the jungle. If we pay attntionwe can recognize his roar.
. 2. Hens and roosters: we can "see" them clucking (cacareando) and pecking (picoteando).
3. Wild donkeys: two pianos remind us of two wild donkeys chasing each other in a high speed race.
4. Tortoises: calmness arrives with the turtles and a musical joke. We can visualize the turtles dancing the can-can at their own pace.
5. The elephant: a double bass and a piano with low and heavy music allow us to imagine the movements of an elephant.
6. Kangaroos: Two pianos illustrate the jumps of kangaroos by playing ascending and descending chords. The composer makes us see how the kangaroos stop and restart the jumps modifying the tempo with accelerando and ritardando.
7. Aquarium: Now we dive into one of the suite's highlights, which takes us to an aquarium. Two pianos describe the magical underwater atmosphere. We can almost see the shimmering fishes and the bubbles.
8. Characters with long ears: Two violins take turns imitating brays (rebuznos) by playing very high notes followed by low notes.
9. The cuckoo in the depths of the woods: Two pianos draw the mysterious atmosphere of the forest with soft chords. The clarinet reproduces the cuckoo’s calling.
10. Aviary: A transverse flute which represents the singing of birds while a string quintet imitates the movements of the wings. Two pianos simulate birds in the background wanting to join in.
11. Pianists: Camille portrayed the pianists as one more animal of this carnival, presenting them as piano students practicing scales.
12. Fossils: the author evokes the dinosaurs with a xylophone that suggests the sound of bones. There are also very popular melodies in his time, such as his piece Danse macabre, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and an aria from The Barber of Seville. Is he calling someone old? Maybe.
13. The swan: the elegance of the swan arrive and two pianos with arpeggiated chords represent the swan’s feet moving underwater.
14. Finale: The carnival comes to an end remembering some of the themes of the composition.
Para escribir esta entrada me he servido del extraordinario trabajo del blog Laboratorio de Sonidos https://artlejandra.blogspot.com/2021/06/carnaval.html
Chuck Berry (Missouri, United States, 1926- 2917) was a singer, songwriter and one of the pioneers of the Rock and Roll. Nicknamed as the "father of rock and roll", he developed the style and created distinctive songs.
His parents were the grandchildren of the black people that was taken from Africa to America to work as slaves. The family didn't have an easy life: they lived in a segregated neighborhood to black people, and the first time Chuck met a white person he was three years old. In addition while he was in the high school he was convicted of arm robbery and served three years in a reformatory.
After his marriage he started playing the guitar with some friends and then was offered to take part in a jazz band. Chuck revitalized the band and introduced some country and pop numbers as well as he developed his guitar style. His break was when he contacted the owner of a record label and was offered to record a song "Maybellene" that sold over a million copies and reached nº 1 of the charts. After that -and being imprisoned again- he wrote many other famous songs.
Some music experts and important music composers and singers say that Chuck Berry was the musician who most closely captured the essence of rock and roll. He is a legend: the father of rock and roll.
Here, with Bruce Springsteen performing Jonny B. Good
La trompeta es uno de los instrumentos más antiguos. Ya los egipcios la tocaban, muchos años antes de nuestra era. Hoy en día son muy comunes en las bandas de jazz. A estas las llamamos Big Bands.
En este vídeo podemos ver la Big Band de un instituto austríaco interpretando una versión de Gonna fly now, tema central de la película Rocky.
Quizás no hayáis visto la película, pero reconoceréis el tema nada más empiece a sonar.
Ennio Morricone es un compositor y director de orquesta italiano conocido por haber compuesto la banda sonora de más de 500 películas y series de televisión. Recibió un Óscar Honorífico en 2006.
Sergio Leone, el director de la película El bueno, el feo y el malo, se puso en contacto con Morricone para hacer la banda sonora de esta y otras dos películas anteriores, las tres del género del Far West. El compositor optó por utilizar instrumentos como guitarras, violines, faltas, trompetas, ocarinas y otros instrumentos de viento, así como sonidos característicos de las películas del oeste como silbidos, disparos, golpes y gritos del tema principal.
COMENTARIO DE LA AUDICIÓN
· . Autor e información general. Da algo de información sobre el autor y la obra
· . Género: di si es una obra popular o culta / religiosa o profana /
descriptiva o pura / vocal, instrumental o mixta. Si sabes por qué es cada cosa, explícalo (es una obra descriptiva porque...)
· - Tipo de formación vocal o instrumental: di si es un dúo, un trío, cuarteto, quinteto,
orquesta de cámara, orquesta sinfónica o coro.
· . Tipo de melodía ¿cómo crees que es la melodía? Elige una de las opciones de debajo
·Melodía plana: apenas hay variaciones de altura
·Melodía ondulante: la melodía sube y baja,
haciendo graves y agudos progresivos sin ser muy contrastante
·Melodía en zigzag: la melodía hace agudos muy
acusados y a continuación graves muy contrastantes.
·Instrumentos: ¿qué instrumentos aparecen?
·¿Qué instrumentos aparecen?
·¿Destaca algún instrumento?
·¿Hay ruidos procedentes de objetos que no sean
instrumentos?
·Intensidad
· ¿La melodía tiene la misma intensidad (volumen) o
va cambiando?
·¿Hay cambios bruscos de intensidad?
·¿Hay subidas o bajadas progresivas de
intensidad?¿En qué momento?
·Ritmo
·El ritmo de la obra ¿es rápido o lento?
· ¿Hay variaciones en cuanto al ritmo o se mantiene constante?
·Sensaciones musicales
·¿Te ha sugerido algo la música? ¿el qué? ¿por
qué?
Queen es una banda británica de rock (una de las más importantes de todos los tiempos) formada en los años 70 del siglo pasado. Estaba formada por Freddie Mercury (cantante), Brian May (guitarrista), así como por un baterista y un bajista. Cuando Freddie Mercury murió, la banda siguió tocando, aunque ya no con el gran éxito anterior. Queen es uno los grupos más importantes de todos los tiempos, hasta el punto de que su primer álbum recopilatorio, de 1981, es aún hoy el disco más vendido de la historia del Reino Unido. Por otra parte, el grupo ha sido considerado por varios expertos como el grupo británico más importante de todos los tiempos. La canción que vamos a escuchar, Bohemian Rhapsody, fue un gran éxito comercial en 1975, y tiene una estructura poco usual, puesto que no tiene estribillo y estrofa, sino que se divide en seis secciones: una introducción a capella, una balada, un solo de guitarra, un fragmento operístico, una sección de rock y la conclusión final (que se parece de nuevo al comienzo de la obra).
A pesar de las muchas historias que rondan alrededor de esta canción, sin duda la más aceptada es que se trata de una adaptación de Fausto de Goethe. Un hombre que después de asesinar a un hombre vende su alma al diablo para salvarse de su condena. No obstante, al no recibir respuesta, la noche de su ejecución llama a Dios en árabe —Bismillah— para que éste le ayude a recuperar su escancia
Queen is a British rock band, one of the most important of all time, formed in the 70s of the last century. It was made up of Freddie Mercury (singer and pianist), Brian May (guitarist), Roger Taylor (drummer) and John Deacon (bass guitarist). When Freddie died the band went on performing until the present with only two of the original members (Brian May and Roger Taylor) with a new singer.
Queen is so important that their first album, recorded in 1981, is still today the best-selling album in history of United Kingdom. In addition, Queen is considered by experts as the most important British group of all time.
We are going to listen Bohemian Rhapsody, that was a commercial success in 1975. The structure of the song is unusual, because it doesn't have verse and chorus. It has six sections: A) a cappella intro, B) a ballad, C) a guitar solo, D) an operatic fragment, E) a hard rock part and F) a conclusion (that looks like the beginning of the song).
Chuck Berry ha fallecido este fin de semana a los 90 años. Fue un compositor, intérprete y guitarrista estadounidense. Su fama se debe a que fue uno de los primeros compositores e intérpretes de Rock and Roll, un estilo nacido de otro anterior, el Rithm and Blues. Su importancia fue tan grande que le versionaron, le admiraron o se inspiraron en él artistas posteriores tan importantes como The Rolling Stones, The Beatles o Bob Dylan. Uno de sus temas más famosos es Jonnhy B. Goode, que tiene uno de los riff de guitarra más famosos de la historia y que podemos disfrutar en el vídeo de arriba.
Y ahora la pregunta de la semana:
¿Qué es un riff de guitarra?
Busca algunos otros dos ó tres riff de guitarra famosos y escribe las canciones en las que salen
Imaginaos lo importante que tiene que ser un músico para que le den un premio literario. Y no un premio cualquiera, el más importante, ¡el premio Nobel! El merecedor de este privilegio es Bob Dylan, del que hablaremos ahora.
Robert Zimmerman, que es como se llama Dylan en realidad,es un cantautor nacido en EEUU en los años 40 del siglo pasado.
Bob Dylan es famoso por crear un estilo propio gracias a recuperar y reinventar la música folk de su país, a la que añadió letras reivindicativas. Por eso se convirtió en un líder para la juventud más crítica de su país. Además del folk, también compone música rock.
Son famosísimas algunas canciones suyas como Knocking on heaven´s door, Blowing in the wind y la que veréis
a continuación, Like a rolling stone.
Imagine how important a person has to be to win a literary award. And not just any award, the most important one, the Nobel award!! The person who deserved that privilege was Bob Dylan.
Robert Zimmerman, his real name, is a singer and song-writer born in the United States in the 40s of the last century.
He is famous for creating a new and personal style thanks to recover and reinvent the folk music of his country, to which he added vindictive lyrics. That's why he became a leader for the most critical youth of his country. Besides country he also composes rock music.
Many of his songs are very famous, such as Knocking on heaven´s door, or Blowing in the wind. This time we are going to listen to Like a rolling stone.
Estos dos chicos llegaron a la final del programa Tú si que vales hace cuatro años. Lo que vais a escuchar son fragmentos de bandas sonoras de películas como El padrino, Grease, Indiana Jones... Mirad qué bien lo hacen.
Esta es una versión de la conocida canción de Adele Rolling in the deep. Está interpretada por un violín, un violonchelo y un contrabajo. No os despistéis con el violonchelo (el que toca el chico de barba) porque algunas veces lo toca de pie.
This is a different version of Rolling in the Deep, the song of Adele. It is played by a violin, a cello and a double bass. Sometimes the cellist (the boy with the beard) is standing.
Qué bien escuchar "I feel good", ¿verdad? Pues es el título de una de las canciones más famosas de James Brown.
Como muchos otros, James Brown (1933-2006), nació en un barrio marginal y tuvo una vida muy humilde hasta que ingresó en un grupo de gospel y poco a poco fue componiendo temas que le fueron llevando a la fama. Uno de sus primeros conciertos fue en el célebre teatro Apollo de Nueva York, muy famoso por dar la oportunidad de actuar a nuevas figuras musicales.
Hoy se le conoce como "el padrino del soul". El soul es un estilo surgido del gospel entre los habitantes americanos de origen africano, en los años 50 del siglo pasado. Se caracteriza por tener ritmos pegadizos y una estructura de pregunta-respuesta entre el cantante y el coro.
Aquí os dejo con una actuación en directo del gran James Brown. Es de 2005. Mirad qué ritmo tenía tan solo un año antes de morir.
It is fantastic to listen "I feel good", don't you think? This is the title of one of the most famous songs of James Brown.
As many other artists, James Brown (1933-2006) was born in a poor neighborhood of a big city and had a humble life until he started singing in a Gospel group and started composing some songs that catapulted him to fame.
One of his first concerts was in the renowned Apollo theatre in New York, famous for giving a chance to perform to new artists.
Today James Brown is known as The Godfather of Soul and he is also a legend. The Soul is a style that became from the Gospel. Both styles arose among the African American people in the 1950s of the past century. There are characterized by their catchy beat and the question/answer form.
Here you have a James Brown live performance in 2005, only one year before he died.
And here a performance of Sex Machine, in 1971.
Y aquí con algunas imágenes del teatro Apollo, en el barrio de Harlem en Nueva York.
And here there are some pictures of the Apollo Theatre, in Harlem, New York.
Vamos con una nueva canción, esta vez del folclore mexicano, que podemos interpretar con los instrumentos de clase. Seguro que os gusta mucho. Para acceder, haz clic aquí.
Who said opera is boring? Opera is a form of theatre, with a plot, in which the actors are singers, and everything is sung. The plots can be intriguing, exciting, fun...
In this case we will watch a fragment of an opera called Turandot, released in 1926, two years after his composer, Puccini, died.
The plot of Turandot
Turandot is a beautiful but cruel Chinese princess and she doesn't want to get married, so decides she will only marry to the man who guess the three enigmas she suggests. The enigmas are very complicated, of course. If the pretender doesn't guess them, he will die. But if the pretender guess them, se will have to marry him.
One after another, all the pretenders fail and die and Turadont enjoys showing that spectacle. But, suddenly, one day a misterious man called Calafarrives and solves the enigmas.
Turandot is afraid of marrying a stranger. Calaf who is a good person and is conscious of Turandot's suffering, decides to suggest her a challenge: if Turandot guess his name before the sunrise, she will be free and won't be forced to marry him, and he will die. But if she doesn't guess it, she will marry him.
As you can suppose, the cruel princess orders no one in the kingdom sleep that night until the stranger´s name is discovered. Citizens, soldiers, farmers, young people, children... are forced to get out of their homes and try to discover Calaf´s name.
During the night, Calaf and Turandot, that doesn't know his name yet, spend some time alone, and Calaf falls in love with Turandot. He feels pity for her, because she is nervous and scared, so he decides to tell her his name. Now, he knows that she has won and he will die.
The next morning, Turandot has to decide what to do. She knows Calaf´s name, but no one in the kingdom has discovered it, so she could hide the secret, order Calaf´s death, and live calm and happy. But, when she is asked about the name of the stranger by a member of her government, she finally says: "His name is Love and he is going to live because I've fallen in love with him".
The fragment you can see beyond is an aria of the opera Turandot called "Nessum Dorma" (nadie duerma) sung by Calaf the night she orders nobody in the kingdom can sleep.
You can watch two videos: the first one is a performance of Pavarotti, and the second one is a fragment of the opera sung by Plácido Domingo, a well known spanish tenor.
¿Quién dijo que la ópera era aburrida? La ópera es una representación con argumento enteramente cantada, y muchas veces esos argumentos son intrigantes, emocionantes o divertidos.
En este caso veremos un fragmento de una ópera llamada Turandot, estrenada en 1926, dos años después de que su compositor, Puccini, muriese.
El argumento de Turandot
Turandot es una bella pero cruel princesa china que decide que solo se casará con aquel que adivine los tres enigmas que ella propone. Si el pretendiente no los adivina, morirá. Uno por uno, todos los pretendientes fracasan y mueren hasta que llega el príncipe Calaf, que para sorpresa de Turandot, resuelve los tres enigmas.
Turandot se aterra ante la certeza de tener que casarse con un desconocido, y Calaf, al verla asustada, decide proponerle un reto: si Turandot adivina su nombre antes de que amanezca, podrá librarse del matrimonio y Calaf morirá. Si no lo averigua, deberá casarse con él. Por eso, Turandot ordena que nadie en el reino duerma esa noche, a fin de averiguar el nombre del príncipe.
Turandot, que aun no sabe el nombre, y el príncipe, se quedan solos, ante lo que éste decide besarla, para intentar aplacar su crueldad, momento en el que le susurra al oído su nombre.
A la mañana siguiente, cuando el pueblo le pregunta si ha averiguado el nombre del príncipe, ella dice "se llama Amor". Y es con el amor entre ambos como termina la ópera.
El fragmento en concreto es un aria de Turandot titulado Nessun Dorma (nadie duerma) que es lo que canta Calaf ante el mandato de Turandot.
Os dejo con dos vídeos, uno de una interpretación del gran Pavarotti en y un fragmento de la ópera con un Calaf muy conocido para nosotros: Plácido Domingo.
