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.
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.
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.
Este temazo de los Village People seguro que os encanta. Además lo podemos interpretar con instrumentos Orff. Para acceder al recurso, extraído de mariajesusmusica, haz clic aquí.
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.
Vamos allá con una de las bandas de rock más importantes de todos los tiempos. Guns N´ Roses nació en Estados Unidos en los años 80 del siglo pasado e hizo suya la conocida frase de los rockeros: "sexo, drogas y rock and roll". Sus principales componentes eran el cantante Axl Rose y el guitarrista Slash. Su estilo mezclaba el rock duro con letras agresivas.
Sweet child o´mine es una de sus canciones más famosas. En 2009 los lectores de una revista inglesa la eligieron como la canción con el mejor riff de guitarra de todos los tiempos.
Para responder a las preguntas de la semana debéis consultar dos páginas web:
* ¿Qué es un riff de guitarra? Explícalo con tus palabras. Entra aquí y mira estos vídeos para entenderlo bien: http://www.culturaocio.com/musica/noticia-riffs-mas-famosos-faciles-rock-20131215114502.html
* ¿Con qué otro tema de otro grupo compartió este premio Guns N´Roses? (Debes dar el nombre del grupo y la canción). Para saberlo, haz clic aquí:
Guns N´Roses is one of the most important rock bands of all time. They starting performing in the United States in the 80s of the last century. Their charismatic style mixes hard rock and aggressive lyrics. Two of the most iconic members of the band are Axl Rose (singer) and Slash (guitarist).
Guns N´Roses debut album, 1987, reached number one of the record sales very quickly and has sold approximately 30 million copies worldwide.
One of the most important songs of that album is Sweet Child o´mine. In 2009 the readers of an English magazine chose it as the song with the best guitar riff of all time.
The band still performs nowadays but some of these members have changed.
Ask these questions:
What is a guitar riff? Explain it with your words (look at this link: https://guitargearfinder.com/faq/what-is-a-guitar-riff/)
Jailhouse rock o El rock de la cárcel es un tema conocidísimo interpretado por el rey del rock, Elvis Presley, en una película de 1957 titulada con el mismo nombre.
El compositor inglés Katèlbey es el autor de En un mercado persa, una obra con un gran poder descriptivo. Observa este fabuloso musicograma creado por Musicaeduca mientras disfrutas de la audición.
Gracias a María Jesús Camino disponemos de estas adaptaciones para flauta de algunos de los temas más conocidos de los Beatles. Haz clic aquí para entrar.
Puede hablarse de un auténtico "estallido" de la música en el siglo XX. Los principios más sólidos son los desconocidos, las audacias más extravagantes son intentadas y las escuelas más diversas conviven sin problemas. La música culta o elaborada se intelectualiza y se hace elitista; al mismo tiempo que los grandes medios de difusión alcanzan a todos los públicos, los compositores se alejan de éstos y se refugian en ámbitos creativos cerrados.
La ruptura de la tradición tonal ha abierto a la música caminos insólitos e insospechados. Se encuentran en el siglo XX los últimos brotes del romanticismo como Mahler y Richard Strauss. La preocupación por reflejar la realidad provoca el movimiento verista en la ópera italiana que produce un único compositor, Puccini.
La llamada escuela de Viena rompe con toda la tradición anterior y crea el dodecafonismo, música en doce sonidos básicos, y la música atonal. Este camino, es seguido luego por casi todos los compositores contemporáneos, como por ejemplo Stravinski.
En este siglo de grandes experimentos musicales, mientras en Gran Bretaña se escriben óperas tonales, Stockhausen experimenta con música electrónica y Oliver Messiaen busca inspiración en la música oriental.
