This video is a performance of the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra. I have included the video simply because everyone needs a little Bernstein in their life...especially when performed like this.
And now for the more "traditional" somewhat "cool" videos.
This is a video of, yes, about one-thousand Charangos. I could not resist including this video. I had no idea that there were gatherings with this many Charangos. Since the video title is not in English, I have included an English translation that I found online. Thankfully, most of the Charangos seem to be more "modernly" made, so judging by that I would say that perhaps a few armadillos were saved in the making of this video...maybe.
| Viva mi patria Bolivia una gran nación por ella doy mi vida también mi corazón. Esta canción que yo canto la brindo con amor a mi patria Bolivia que quiero con pasión. La llevo en mi corazón y le doy mi inspiración. Quiera mi patria Bolivia como la quiero yo. | Long live my homeland Boliva a great nation; for her I give my life as well as my heart. This song I sing I dedicate with love to my homeland Bolivia which I passionately love. I bear her in my heart and give her my inspiration.May you love my homeland Boliva as I love her. |
This video is a bit of a jump forward to the Blues. I thought this was really cool that the instrument is a hand-made guitar, made from a cigar box. I especially love the true "bluesy" sound that the instrument produces.
This next video is of a arpero, without the golpeador. Since most of the clips that we watched in class, or listened to, seemed to have both aspects of the Imbabura I thought I would include a video that features only the arpero. This video is of a performance at the Latin American Harp Festival.
Kudos on the Bernstein, and I found it entertaining how everyone cheered and bassoons and trombones alike went into the air as the conductor approached the podium.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the video of the 1000 Charangos. The set-up reminded me of Drum Corps competitions when the corps gather together on the field at the end and play some standard piece.
Anyway, the video made me think of how, for all our conventions and workshops, how often do instrumentalists just sit down and play music together without regard to sounding absolutely stellar? This video looks like such fun, with people gathering just because they share an inclination toward an instrument and respect toward their country.
The blues guitar is great...it reminded me of my childhood when my sister and I would make guitars out of tissue boxes and rubber bands. Our method was slightly less advanced than this one. :)
I found a Venezuelan Orchestra playing Beethoven and found it absolutely astonishing! These videos are great!
ReplyDeleteThe video of the Charangos was great! I really enjoyed watching so many people play at the same time.
The Blues video reminded me of making guitars out of random items around the house.
The Venezuelan Orchestra was amazing, I wish I had had an opportunity like that.
ReplyDeleteThe charango video was so much fun, I was impressed that they all mangaged to stay together while being so far apart.
My favorite thought was the blues handmade guitar, It was neat how he managed to make it and I agree that it did have a very unique bluesy sound to it.
I loved the youth orchestra! They sound like professionals! That was definitely my favorite video. And who knew that that many charangos could be played in one place at the same time? I hope you're right in saying that some armadillos were saved in the making of that video.
ReplyDeleteDesi, thank you so much for these videos--I LOVE them. I've been absolutely amazed and envious of Venezuela's La Sistema--you know that Andrea Profili is now doing a course of study through Boston University on how La S works and how to go about implementing some of it's aspects in the US music ed system? I'm envious of that, too!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, all the others are wonderful as well. The 100 charangos makes me think of the finale to every Double Reed conference, where you usually have 100+ oboes+bassoons playing something really loudly.