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SEQUENZA21/
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Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019

Tuesday, April 11, 2006
El pueblo unido

Last night I was listening to NPR, and heard this report on protestors in Atlanta demonstrating against the proposed immigration legislation:

". . .A sea of marchers in white shirts winding through neighborhoods on the northeast side of the city. Many carried American flags and chanted as they marched. This chant (chanting in background) 'yes we can' was a popular one today, as was this one (interview subject:) 'El pueblo unido jam�s ser� vencido'" translated that means "the people united will never be defeated."'"
My thoughts went immediately to Frederic Rzewski, whose 36 piano variations on the original song by Sergio Ortega has become something of an icon of virtuosity and scale in the modern piano literature. Ortega composed "El pueblo unido" during a dinner party at his house in 1973, three months before Pinochet overthrew the Chilean government and he and the Unidad Popular were forced into exile. The first line, "El pueblo unido jam�s ser� vencido," was a popular protest chant at the time, and Ortega says that after hearing it chanted in the street "the text unfurled itself quickly and fell, like falling rocks, upon the melody." Rzewski was commissioned in 1975 by Ursula Oppens to write a companion piece for Beethoven's "Diabelli Variations," and he took it as an opportunity to work out his ideas of political music and to explore "form in which existing musical languages could be brought together." If you don't know the piece, you can hear Steve Drury's performance of the first section here.

Somehow I doubt that Condi and the Condettes will be adding "The People United" to their repertoire any time soon. But it seems to me incumbent on some Patriotic (tm) young composer to take inspiration from Rzewski and write a set of variations on John Ashcroft's 2002 hit ""Let The Eagle Soar."
posted by Galen H. Brown 4/11/2006



 
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