the genocidal terrorism that the State of Israel has
been exercising against the Palestinian People.
On April 14, 1931, the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed.
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The Riego Hymn is the name given to the hymn sung by the flying column of Lieutenant Colonel Rafael del Riego after his insurrection against King Ferdinand VII of Spain on January 1, 1820, in Las Cabezas de San Juan (province of Seville). The lyrics are by Evaristo Fernández de San Miguel and the music is of unknown authorship, although some versions attribute it to José Melchor Gomis . It was used as the national anthem of Spain during the Liberal Triennium (1820-1823), the First Republic (1873-1874), and the Second Republic (1931-1939), which continued to use it even in exile until its own dissolution.
Musically, the anthem falls within the aesthetic of military and patriotic songs of the era, similar to French revolutionary marches (such as La Marseillaise ), but with a more melodic and less martial character. The version we present today is performed by the Prague International Orchestra .
Thomas Arne (1710-1778) was an English composer, best known for his patriotic song "Rule Britannia ," part of an aria from his opera Alfred, and for his musical adaptations for the stage productions of William Shakespeare . He was born in the Covent Garden area of London into a family that had prospered from the tapestry business. He studied at Eton College and was interested in music from a young age. A meeting with Michael Festing gave him the opportunity to indulge his interest, although his father still wanted him to become a lawyer. His sister, Susannah , was a famous contralto who sang in some of his works, including his first opera, Rosamund , composed in 1733. Arne 's operas and masques became very popular, and he even received the patronage of Frederick Louis of Hanover , at whose home, Cliveden House , he composed "Rule Britannia ." Most of Arne 's work is lyrical in nature; his symphonies, overtures, organ concertos, etc., are generally adaptations of his more than 90 operas and masques. Much of this work is lost, destroyed in the fire at Covent Garden Theatre in 1808.
Artaxerxes is an opera by Arne that is particularly noteworthy because it was one of the first serious operas in the Italian style written and performed in English . Until then, Italian operas or ballets and masques predominated in England . Arne succeeded in uniting the Italian form with a British sensibility, both in the declamation and the melody. Its libretto is an English adaptation of Pietro Metastasio 's opera Artaserse . It premiered on February 2, 1762, at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (London) .
As for the aria we present today, “ The Soldier Tir'd of War's Alarms ,” it is the most famous aria in the opera and probably the best known in all of Arne 's work. It is sung by the character Mandane , daughter of King Artaxerxes , in Act III . It is a bravura aria, written in a virtuosic style that demands total control of the voice, and today it is performed by the Australian Joan Sutherland , an outstanding lyric coloratura soprano.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) is considered one of the three giants of musical composition, along with Bach and Beethoven . A child prodigy born in Salzburg , Austria, he mastered the keyboard and violin by the age of six and began composing, prompting his father, Leopold , to exhibit him on grueling tours of various European courts. A prolific composer (more than 600 works written from the age of five until his death), he cultivated all kinds of musical genres: piano works, chamber music, symphonies, concertos, choral works, operas—each and every one a masterpiece of its kind. His operas The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and The Marriage of Figaro are among the ten most frequently performed operas in the world. He died in Vienna at the age of 35.
The piano is a harmonic musical instrument classified as a struck string instrument ; it consists of a soundboard to which a keyboard has been added, by means of which the steel strings are struck with felt-covered hammers, producing the sound. It was invented around 1700 by Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua. The word piano derives from the instrument's original Italian word, pianoforte (piano: "soft" and forte: "loud"); this refers to the piano's ability to produce sounds of varying intensities, depending on the pressure applied to the keys. This characteristic distinguished it from its predecessors such as the zither, monochord, dulcimer, clavichord , and harpsichord , which could only produce a single volume.
Mozart's Turkish March is the popular name for the third and final movement (“Rondo Alla Turca: Allegretto ”) of Piano Sonata No. 11. Its music imitates the sound of Turkish Janissary bands, a style of music that was very fashionable at the time. This is one of Mozart 's most frequently performed and most covered works; on this occasion, we present it in a performance by Canadian pianist Marnie Laird.
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904), born in Nelahozeves , then Bohemia and now the Czech Republic , is considered one of the great masters of the second half of the 19th century and a leading figure in Czech nationalism. In 1847, he entered the primary school in his village, where he received his first musical instruction. During the 1860s, he played viola in the Orchestra of the Bohemian Provisional Theatre , conducted from 1866 by Bedřich Smetana . In 1873, he was lauded with numerous prestigious international awards for his collection of Slavonic Dances . Throughout his life, he composed a wealth of vocal, chamber, symphonic, and operatic music. His New World Symphony is a world-renowned work, and its themes have been widely used in folk music.
" Song My Mother Taught Me " is a song for voice and piano written in 1880 by Antonín Dvořák . It is the fourth of seven songs in his cycle "Gypsy Songs ," a series of Gypsy songs set to poems by Adolf Heyduk in both Czech and German. This particular song has achieved great fame and has been recorded by several prominent singers, including Victoria de los Ángeles, Joan Sutherland, Paul Robeson, Frederica von Stade, Edita Gruberová, Angela Gheorghiu, Magdalena Kožená, and Renée Fleming . The song has also been transcribed for various instrumental combinations, as in this performance by Tanja Sonc on violin, accompanied on piano by Božena Hrup .
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Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) was an Italian composer born near Naples . As a child, he entered the Musical Institute of Santa Maria di Loreto, where he remained for eleven years. At the age of 23, he presented his first work, a comic opera entitled Le Stravaganze del Conte , which was well received. Following this came other similar works that led him to reside in Rome, Naples, and Florence, where he composed comic and serious operas, cantatas, and sacred compositions. In 1787, Empress Catherine II invited him to Saint Petersburg , where he wrote numerous short works. At the invitation of Leopold II , he moved to Vienna, where he wrote his masterpiece, the comic opera Il Matrimonio segreto , and other works, all of which were met with great success. He died in the Austrian capital in 1801.
Domenico Cimarosa 's Concerto for Two Flutes is a piece in the late Classical style , a representative example of Italian classicism , with influences from Haydn and early Mozart . The work combines formal clarity, a balanced dialogue between the soloists, and a strong operatic melodic vein, a common characteristic of opera composers of the period.
Structure . The Concerto is articulated in three movements, following the typical scheme of the classical concerto : I (0`28``) ALLEGRO. A movement of a bright, light and energetic character, written in classical sonata form (exposition – development – recapitulation), where the two flutes constantly dialogue, alternating imitative and parallel passages and the orchestra maintains a role. II (11`40``) LARGO / ADAGIO. Of an expressive and cantabile character, in contrast to the vivacity of the first movement, and written in the form of a ternary lied (A–B–A), in which the flutes intertwine in long and ornamented phrases emphasizing the lyricism and the balance between both solo voices. III (15`30``) RONDO – ALLEGRO / ALLEGRETTO. Cheerful, dance-like, and full of vitality, its form is that of a classic rondo (A–B–A–C–A) with a very catchy main theme based on repetitions and variations, while the flutes alternate in the spotlight and perform imitative interplay. Its lively ending reflects the theatrical and light style typical of Cimarosa .
Today it is offered to us by flautists Jo Conquest and Jane Bevan accompanied by the Helix Ensemble .
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), along with Bach and Mozart, forms part of the trio of giants of Western music. Born on December 16, 1770, in Bonn , his Flemish father attempted to showcase him as a second Mozart , though this proved a notable failure. Despite this, from the age of nine, the organist Christian Gottlob Neefe captivated him with the study of Bach , whose influence he would always hold dear. In 1787, he moved to Vienna intending to study with Mozart , but his mother's death forced him to return to Bonn a few days later. After five years, he returned to Vienna, where he was able to study with Haydn and Salieri . However, his career as an excellent pianist was cut short by the deafness that struck him the following year, leaving him completely unable to play.
The catalogue of Beethoven's works . There are 138 musical works composed by Beethoven , arranged by numbers known as opus ("work" in Latin) or its abbreviation op. , assigned by the composer's publishers during his lifetime. In addition, there are another 205 works without opus numbers that were published after the composer's death. These works were assigned WoO numbers (Werke ohne Opuszahl, "works without opus numbers"). This catalogue was first compiled by Georg Kinsky and Hans Halm (Das Werk Beethovens) in 1955.
Beethoven 's musical legacy comprises 32 piano sonatas, numerous works for chamber ensembles, piano and violin concertos, incidental music, sacred music, and, above all, nine symphonies that occupy the zenith of music history . To better understand this legacy, we can divide it into three stages of continuous renewal and refinement: A) Up to 1802. Classical period . This period includes his first ten piano sonatas, the first six string quartets, the septet, the first two symphonies, and the first two piano concertos. B) 1803-1814 . Romantic period . At the height of his artistic maturity and with absolute control of formal structure and lyricism, he composed the symphonies from the 3rd to the 8th, his opera Fidelio, his piano concertos 3rd, 4th, and 5th, the violin concerto, the triple concerto, the piano sonatas "Moonlight" and "Appassionata," the Kreutzer violin sonata , and more. From 1815 until his death , he innovated with a more intense musical language, employing bolder harmonic and structural treatments: five final piano sonatas and five final string quartets, Symphony No. 9 with the addition of soloists and chorus, the Missa Solemnis, and others.
Ludwig van Beethoven 's Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97 , is a piano trio composed in 1811, one of the masterpieces of the composer's chamber music repertoire and a high point of Viennese Classicism in transition to Romanticism. It is commonly known as the Archduke Trio , as it was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf of Austria , the youngest of the twelve children of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor . Rudolf was an amateur pianist, patron, friend, and composition student of Beethoven , to whom he dedicated about a dozen compositions. The Archduke Trio was written at the end of Beethoven's so-called "middle period"; he sketched the draft in the summer of 1810 and completed it in March 1811.
Structure . It follows the traditional four-movement form, although it gives greater prominence to the piano than in previous compositions. I (0'12") ALLEGRO MODERATO. This first movement is in the main key of B-flat major and in sonata form . The first two bars present a five-note motif that is used throughout the trio in various altered forms. The main theme remains piano until the coda , where it returns with a fortissimo marking. II (13'44") SCHERZO (ALLEGRO). Also in the main key of B-flat major , the second movement consists of a fast scherzo and a trio , instead of the traditional slow movement. The triad used as motivic material in the first movement is presented here as scales in the second. III (24'38") ANDANTE CANTABILE, MA PERÒ CON MOTO. The third movement is in the key of D major , follows the variation form , and is approached attacca to the final movement. There has been some debate about the specific tempo Beethoven intended, as well as about the authenticity of the inclusion of " con moto " in the score. IV (38' 23') ALLEGRO MODERATO. This final movement is in the main key of B-flat major and employs a free interpretation of the rondo-sonata form structure: ABA' BA' (Coda). The rhythmic similarities between the four movements culminate here, where Beethoven progressively shortens the rhythmic values before the bar lines. During the extended Coda , there is a tonal variation that reaches A major and E-flat major , before returning to B-flat major at the end. Beethoven himself indicated during a rehearsal of the piece that it should not be played softly, but with great energy and force.
Today it is offered to us by the Grier Trio made up of Savitri Grier (violin), Indira Grier (cello) and Francis Grier (piano).
Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755–1824) was an Italian violinist, composer, and pedagogue. The son of an instrumentalist, Viotti received his early lessons from his father, who played the horn. Recognized as a violinist from a young age, he was taken under the patronage of the Dal Pozo della Cisterna princes, who arranged for him to study with Antonio Celoniat . In 1782, he was appointed soloist to the court of Marie Antoinette . He later devoted himself to teaching, composing, and organizing concerts, and in 1794 was appointed artistic director and conductor at the King's Theatre in London . Four years later, he returned to Paris , and three years after that, he returned to London, where he died in 1824. During the last two decades of the 18th century , he was considered the finest violinist in Europe . As a composer, he championed the Italian instrumental tradition of the Rococo period while remaining open to Romanticism.
" La Marseillaise" has been the official national anthem of France since July 14, 1795. Originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin " ("War Song for the Army of the Rhine"), the anthem was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle , a captain of engineers in the Strasbourg garrison, as a patriotic song for revolutionary France in its war against Austria. Parisians embraced it with great enthusiasm and christened it " La Marseillaise ." It was banned during the Empire and the Restoration and was reinstated during the Third Republic . From 1940 to 1945, it was banned again, and singing it was considered a symbol of resistance to the German occupation and the Vichy collaborationist regime.
Today we offer Viotti 's Tema e variazioni in Do maggiore , which is a set of theme and variations on La Marseillaise , performed by the Camerata Ducale with maestro Guido Rimonda as soloist and director.
Unsuk Chin (Seoul, July 14, 1961) is a South Korean composer of Western classical music, who lives in Berlin . She studied composition at Seoul National University with Sukhi Kang and later in Hamburg with György Ligeti . Ligeti 's teaching has contributed significantly to the development of her own style, more so than Korean influence. While still a student of Ligeti , she received the prize in the 1985 Gaudeamus International Competition for Composers. She employs both traditional and electronic instruments in her works. In her own words, "virtuosity fascinates her," which explains the devilish difficulty of her violin concerto , for which she won a Grawemeyer Award in 2004, and her double concerto for piano, percussion, and ensemble from 2002. Her best-known piece, Akrostichon-Wortspiel , for soprano and ensemble (1991/1993), is an ideal illustration of her style, characterized by highly exaggerated instrumental and vocal refinement, yet simultaneously playful and accessible. The piece evokes, through a text composed entirely of onomatopoeia, the world of childhood.
Unsuk Chin 's opera Alice in Wonderland is one of the South Korean composer's most remarkable and ambitious works, representing a brilliant fusion of fantasy literature, absurdist humor, and contemporary sound experimentation. It is an opera of exuberant orchestral colors, electronic elements, surreal humor, and complex polyphonic structures. Chin eschews linear storytelling: the work does not faithfully follow the original plot, but rather fragments and reinterprets emblematic episodes ( the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts , etc.) in a kind of "musical dream." The music combines extreme vocal virtuosity (especially for the soprano who plays Alice ) with extravagant timbral effects, inspired by both the world of childhood and the logical absurdity of Carroll 's story; more than recounting the tale, the opera seeks to recreate the sense of strangeness, curiosity, and disorientation of Carroll 's universe. Alice finds herself in a world where the rules of language, logic, and identity dissolve; Chin explores this chaos through music that shifts rapidly in style and texture, at times almost cinematically. The result is an intense, dreamlike sensory experience, closer to a “sound journey” than a traditional narrative.
Alice in Wonderland premiered on June 30, 2007 at the Bavarian State Opera under the direction of Kent Nagano , who is also the conductor of the video we are presenting today.
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June Christy (1925-1990) was an American jazz singer. She rose to fame as a singer with the Stan Kenton Orchestra before launching a successful solo career in 1954, which led her to be recognized as the most representative voice of Cool Jazz in the 1950s. She moved to Chicago in the early 1940s, where she joined a group led by Boyd Raeburn as a vocalist. In 1945, she joined Stan Kenton's orchestra. When Kenton 's orchestra disbanded in 1948, Christy worked the nightclub circuit until rejoining Kenton in 1950. From 1972 onward, she began participating in more jazz festivals. In 1977, she recorded her last album, Impromptu , and in 1988, she gave her final performance, sharing the stage with Chet Baker .
Urtz is a Basque rock band formed in 1988 in Pasajes (Gipuzkoa) that plays pop rock and heavy metal . Their debut album, Ekaitzaren garrasia ("The Cry of the Storm"), released in 1992, was a huge success and became a classic of Basque rock . Hautsa astinduz was released in 1994 and was also a hit, featuring the song Kaixo!, which became the band's signature song. The album Hain urrun appeared in 1996 and Lur gazian ametsak ereinez in 1998; however, they didn't achieve the same level of fame as their earlier work. Aingeru (2001) was their fifth album, marking a change of record label and a shift in several band members' focus to pop music. The team disbanded in October 2003, although in 2013 Urtz returned to the stage and in 2020 released the album Bizitzarekin dantzan, a compilation of his entire musical career, and in 2024, the album we offer today, Esnatzean .
Beyoncé (1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress who rose to fame as the lead singer of the girl group Destiny's Child , one of the best-selling female groups of all time. After leaving the group, she embarked on a new phase in her career, identifying herself as a contemporary feminist . She made her solo debut with the album Dangerously in Love. Her self-titled song earned her five Grammy Awards. In 2010, her third album , I Am...Sasha Fierce , which we are featuring today, received six Grammy Awards. In 2016, her album became the best-selling album worldwide. Throughout her 20-year career, she has won 24 Grammy Awards and is currently considered one of the greatest pop singers of all time.
Ay Carmela is a song originally composed in the early 19th century and performed by Spanish soldiers fighting against the French invasion during the Spanish War of Independence (1808-1814). It was later revived under various names by Republican soldiers as an anthem of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The melody was also used by the Francoist side, specifically by the Falangists and Requetés, under the name " Por el río Nervión" (Along the Nervión River ).
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Il Giardino degli Amanti (The Lovers' Garden). This is a suite created by the Roman choreographer Massimiliano Volpini for La Scala in Milan , using fragments of Mozart 's compositions, specifically a selection of quartets, quintets , and other chamber ensembles . The work is set in the garden of a Baroque villa. There, a chamber orchestra performs Mozart 's music while a dreamlike scene unfolds, where characters from Mozart 's operas mingle with two "visitors" (a man and a woman) who get lost, find each other, and are transformed. The choreography aims to "do something new" not by inventing entirely new steps, but by presenting the classical language through a different staging.
Roberto Bolle (1975) is an Italian classical ballet dancer who has performed with the world's most renowned ballet companies. In 2003, he was named étoile of La Scala and in 2009, principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre . Nicoletta Manni (1991) is a principal dancer with the Ballet of La Scala.
Bollywood is the name used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , India 's most populous city. The term, coined in the 1970s, is a play on words combining " Bombay " and " Hollywood ," the center of the US film industry. Bollywood , along with films in languages such as Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, and Malayalam , forms the core of India 's film industry, with Bollywood playing a fundamental role.
The most distinctive feature of Bollywood films is their musical scenes; typically, each film includes traditional Bollywood songs and dances mixed with quirky Western pop choreography. Today we offer a selection of these scenes. 00:00 Daiya Daiya Re; 04:35 Chamma Chamma; 07:22 Lat Lag Gayee; 11:17 Husnn Hai Suhaana; 15:14 Dhating Naach; 17:36 Dekha Jo Tujhe Yaar; 21:15 Khwab Dekhe; 24:11 Ishq Kameena; 29:34 Ishq Di Galli Vich; 33:21 Chamma Chamma; 39:11 Ramta Jogi; 44:48 Rangeela Re; 50:16 Gore Gore Mukhde Pe; 52:36 UP Wala Thumka; 57:09 Zara Zara Touch Me; 01:01:04 Aashiqui Mein Teri.
The Bourrée à deux temps is a lively, folk-style traditional French dance that originated in the central and southwestern regions of France , particularly Auvergne , though it is also found in Berry, Limousin , and Bourbonnais . The bourrée emerged around the 16th and 17th centuries and was originally a peasant dance. Over time, it was adopted by the nobility and even made its way into courtly salons (for example, Jean-Baptiste Lully composed bourrées for the court of Louis XIV ). Several forms exist, but the Bourrée à deux temps (two-beat) and the Bourrée à trois temps (three-beat) are the most well-known.
The Bourrée à deux temps is danced in duple meter (2/4 or 2/2). The rhythm is lively and bouncy, with a particular accent on the second beat. It usually has a raised foot entry (lifting the foot before the start of the measure), which gives it its light and energetic character. Traditionally, it is danced in pairs, sometimes in a circle or a line. The basic steps include short steps and light jumps, with constant eye contact between the dancers. The movements are precise yet joyful, with a playful and flirtatious air. At traditional festivals, it is accompanied by instruments such as the bagpipe (cabrette), the violin, the diatonic accordion, or the hurdy-gurdy.
The Argentine National Folkloric Ballet is an Argentine folk dance company based in Buenos Aires . Founded in 1990, it comprises 40 dancers and is supported by a technical team of specialists in costumes, lighting, and sound. Its mission is to perform choreographies and stage sets based on the legends and customs of the various regions of Argentina.
The Cosquín National Folklore Festival is the most important folklore festival in Argentina ; it is celebrated in the city of Cosquín , province of Córdoba , in the last week of January for nine consecutive nights, coinciding with the novena of the Virgin of the Rosary , patron saint of the city.
Today we offer the gala held in 2016.
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Various Wikipedia articles and relevant information on Artificial Intelligence were used to prepare these texts.
The texts of Videomusicalis are written in Basque, Spanish and English.
