Mediterranean Music

Maleth said:
Okayyyy, I can understand the similarity:). Something new to me. I love it, thou the vocals are expressed in a more refined mode. The typical 'Ghana' (aana) is sang in a very crude manner but the concept is very much the same!

Here is a quick rough translation for you

No music can rest my heart
No note can comfort me
No word can ease me
No kiss will make me forget


I was born only to love
only in it I find all beauty
Music art and all the other
without it everything all life willwither


with love everything looks morebeautiful
It transforms life to a symphony
all the creation that surrounds us
is transformed into poetry


because love is there to bond us
its a force that will never end
where there is no love there are no arts
and all will ebb to the lowest levels


Great work of arts are onlyaccomplished
with much love and dedication
and where there is its mark
you find only the best productions


and the biggest love around us
is the one that keeps us united
where its missing there is hate
and results in broken nations


this love is given to all creations
like the love between lovers
where it does not rein
there is no joy but only misery


and when this life will end
It will still rein in the heavens
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The vocals are more refined only because he was a professional singer recorded professionally. The lyrics of this Maltese song are far more profound than most of the stornelli I've heard, and the music is more melodic. I really love it. If there are other songs of this caliber, it's a pity there aren't younger performers who can carry the tradition forward and present it in a more professional way for wider audiences. It can be done...look at the resurgence Corsican polyphony has had.
 
Angela said:
The vocals are more refined only because he was a professional singer recorded professionally. The lyrics of this Maltese song are far more profound than most of the stornelli I've heard, and the music is more melodic. I really love it. If there are other songs of this caliber, it's a pity there aren't younger performers who can carry the tradition forward and present it in a more professional way for wider audiences. It can be done...look at the resurgence Corsican polyphony has had.
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Im glad you like it. I agree with you and the local school of music should do its utmost to keep it alive. As far as I know its big on classic and brass, but nothing on folk.:confused:
 
This is my favorite interpretation of Core 'ngrato...Ungrateful Heart

These are the lyrics: (Catari is the dialect version of Caterina or Catherine)
Catarì, Catarì,
why do you tell me
only words of bitterness,
why only things
that torment me, Catarì?
Don't forget
that once I gave you my heart,
Catarì, don't forget!
Catarì, Catarì, why do you
say these things
that make me suffer?
You never think of my pain,
you never think of it,
you don't care.
Ungrateful heart,
you wrenched my life from me
and now it's all over,
you no longer think of me!
 
Pizzica-folk dance of southern Italy, as interpreted by the beautiful Laura Boccadamo...

 
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Mediterranean music and dance rhythms have also crossed to the New World. Tango is a prime example.


This is a "modern", wonderful, in my opinion, example of the Tango. NOT from Dancing With The Stars. This is from The Gotan (an inversion of tango) Project. Their music has been used in numerous movies and television shows.
 
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From the impulse toward new life, to the acceptance of the fact that it will end...

This is a fabulous performance of a piece called Passacaglia della Vita, Homo Fugit Velut Umbra, (Man Flees Like a Shadow, by the Italian Baroque composer Stefano Landi.

This is a translation:
Oh how wrong you are to think that the years will never end. We all must die.
Life is a dream, that seems so sweet, but joy is all too brief. We all must die.
Of no avail is medicine, of no use is quinine, we cannot be cured. We all must die.
Worthless are lamentations, threats, bravado produced by our courage. We all must die.
No learned doctrine can find the wordsto calm this boldness. We all must die.
There is no means to untie this knot, it is useless to flee. We all must die.
It is the same for everyone, a wily man cannot shield himself from the blow. We all must die.
Cruel Death is unfaithful to all, and shames everyone. Die we must.
And yet, o madness o ravings, it seems like lying to oneself. Die we must.
We die singing, we die playing the cittern, the bagpipe, yet die we must.
We die dancing, drinking, eating; with this carrion, die we must.
Youths, children, and all men must end in dust. We all must die.
The healthy, the sick, the brave, the defenceless, must all make an end, We all must die.
And when you are least thinking of it, in the midst of your breath, all comes to an end. We all must die.
If you do not think of this, you have lost your senses, you are dead and you can say:
We must die.
 
Angela said:
From the impulse toward new life, to the acceptance of the fact that it will end...

This is a fabulous performance of a piece called Passacaglia della Vita, Homo Fugit Velut Umbra, (Man Flees Like a Shadow, by the Italian Baroque composer Stefano Landi.

This is a translation:
Oh how wrong you are to think that the years will never end. We all must die.
Life is a dream, that seems so sweet, but joy is all too brief. We all must die.
Of no avail is medicine, of no use is quinine, we cannot be cured. We all must die.
Worthless are lamentations, threats, bravado produced by our courage. We all must die.
No learned doctrine can find the wordsto calm this boldness. We all must die.
There is no means to untie this knot, it is useless to flee. We all must die.
It is the same for everyone, a wily man cannot shield himself from the blow. We all must die.
Cruel Death is unfaithful to all, and shames everyone. Die we must.
And yet, o madness o ravings, it seems like lying to oneself. Die we must.
We die singing, we die playing the cittern, the bagpipe, yet die we must.
We die dancing, drinking, eating; with this carrion, die we must.
Youths, children, and all men must end in dust. We all must die.
The healthy, the sick, the brave, the defenceless, must all make an end, We all must die.
And when you are least thinking of it, in the midst of your breath, all comes to an end. We all must die.
If you do not think of this, you have lost your senses, you are dead and you can say:
We must die.
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awesome! thanks for posting
 
The great Portuguese Fado singer, Ana Moura...
 
I find the rhythm very pleasant. It dosen't say how old this tune is or who wrote it.

 
Now that the festa season is open, here is a composition by Charles Camilleri, turning the typical brass band sound heard in Village celebrations into a classical composition. There is an obvious Spanish element in it. Brass bands in parishes were a phenomena that took off at the end of 20th Century and now some villages have up to two rival band clubs (Normally holding the Blue or Red Colours) that regularly perform in the Town or village festas and other occasions.

 
Maleth said:
Now that the festa season is open, here is a composition by Charles Camilleri, turning the typical brass band sound heard in Village celebrations into a classical composition. There is an obvious Spanish element in it. Brass bands in parishes were a phenomena that took off at the end of 20th Century and now some villages have up to two rival band clubs (Normally holding the Blue or Red Colours) that regularly perform in the Town or village festas and other occasions.

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Very nice, Maleth. We have village bands too, but there isn't this sort of culture of competition between them.
 
Angela said:
Very nice, Maleth. We have village bands too, but there isn't this sort of culture of competition between them.
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Im glad you like it Angela. Rivalry has its good and bad sides. Some celebrations were cancelled in the past because of hooliganism, (although that has improved a lot these days) otherwise on a positive note, like any other completion it stimulates the bands to be more active and give better performances. Actually some Italian immigrants during the civil war have helped to boost the band culture too besides the colonial initiatives.
 
As we've been discussing languages/dialects, I thought I'd add a dialect song (in Zenese, the dialect of Genova) by Fabrizio de Andre. He caused quite a tumult when he released an album of songs in the dialect of the area. This is perhaps the most famous one.

It's called Creuza de Ma', which means Alleyways to the Sea, and is about the life of the fishermen and seamen of Genova. This clip provides on screen English subtitles. They're not very good, however, at capturing the 'tone', the vulgarity, if you will, of the actual dialect lyrics. These men do brutally hard work, often far away from home, and their language is not that of upper class drawing rooms.

The piece is also notable, as are the others on the album, for the use of ancient, "home-made" instruments.

Spezzino, the Ligurian dialect with which I'm most familiar, is much more Emilian than this, so I needed Italian subtitles to get the whole meaning.


There seems to be a problem...the whole screen doesn't appear, so here is the direct link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBevfffdqVA
 
I can't believe that I've never posted a Sardinian song on this thread. This achingly beautiful song is sometimes called the "inno" or "anthem" of Sardegna. I don't know about that, but it's perhaps the most famous Sardinian song. It started out as a love poem which was only later put to music.

This is the translation...

No Potho Reposar-I cannot rest
I cannot rest, love of my heart
I’m thinking of you all the time,
Don’t be sad, golden jewel,
Nor in pain nor worried,
I assure you that I desire only you
because I love you so much,
I love you, I love you
If it were possible I would take
the invisible spirit of the angel,
I would steal the sun from the sky,
and the stars in all their shapes,
and I would create a beautiful world for you
to be able to give you every good thing.
I can't live with the bitterness of living
So far from you, beloved heart.
What good are the beauties of nature
If I don't have you near me, my treasure
To console me and bring me back to life?
Beloved heart, more loved than God
I desire only you because I love you so much
I love you, I love you, I love you

This version has the benefit of some beautiful visuals of Sardegna:
 
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That's a lovely song, and a lovely landscape. But the landscape has a sort of otherworldly quality to it, IMO.
 
Aberdeen said:
That's a lovely song, and a lovely landscape. But the landscape has a sort of otherworldly quality to it, IMO.
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The Costa Smeralda is now dotted by high end resorts, yacht marinas and golf courses, but thankfully, its spectacular beauty hasn't been ruined, and you can still get away from the development and see the Sardinia of yesteryear...a land that, for long centuries, time forgot.

costa-smeralda2-500x375.jpg


This is how Sardinian music is described by one of their own...
Paolo Fresu
Parigi, Dicembre 2010
English Translation:
"The history of Sardinian voices is extremely ancient: a tradition rich in polyphonies but originally constructed of silent and magic monodies underlining the life in the island, telling of births, loves and journeys. They were sweet lullabies (called ‘duru duru’), love songs and death laments performed by expert ‘attitos’, (women paid to sing and cry at funerals) as in the ancient matriarchal society only women could sing those songs. Perhaps those ancient songs traced an imaginary link among the multitude of dialects in the island of Sardinia."


This is a very well known Sardinian folk singer, Maria Carta:

Moon, that looks at my spring,
Listen to this song of grief.
The earth is covered with every manner of flower,
But I don't find anywhere a sincere soul.
It wasn't love you felt, but a cloud of vapor
In an instant, you robbed me of every good thing,
Of love, of life itself.
Oh memories that rip open my wounds,
That scorch the heart.
 
Spanish guitar by Benise. (My apologies to purists, but I think he's highly entertaining, and he's bringing a whole new audience to Spanish music, as his Emmy Award winning show for PBS proves.)

This particular clip is from his PBS show called "Spanish Guitar". It was filmed in the oldest bull ring in Spain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4DPEEQZagM
 
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