La Música de Al-Andalus

Ensemble Awtar-Tilimsem

There is a very significant fragment of the poem written by Ismá'il b. Bard when he asked 'Abd al-Hamid b. Basil for a lute, and was given an old instrument:   You were very generous to send me a lute that belonged to the family of al-Waid. Generation after generation mended it with their hands. It is Co me like a lute of mosaic. The spiders wove over it for they thought it a vestige of a building in ruins. This lute is like effaced lines, like the remains of the ink of beautiful calligraphy.   (AI-Kattáni (1029): Kitab al-tasbihiát mi...+ info

Yo que soy contrabandista

Ernesto Palacios

THE SONGS OF MANUEL GARCIA Manuel del Pópulo Vicente García can only be considered a legend in his own time. A nineteenth century legend in the widest sense of the word. A century and a half ago, the stars of the Italian bel canto (both composers and singers), the German symphonic and Polish and Bohemian piano schools were highly revered and it was in Paris that they consummated their international acclaim. However in the Paris of the 1830's, Spanish music was also revered, and, in general, all that originated in Spain's period of fiery Romanticism. Paris was also where the Sev...+ info

Rollos de Pianola

PIANOLA: PORTRAIT OF A MUSICAL WONDER   Its ancestors For centuries; the ability to enjoy music without the effort of learning the associated necessary techniques has been a chief motivation for many inventors, inspiring them to create different forms of music mechanization. The treatise La Tonotechnie ou l'art de noter les cylinders, written in 1775 by the Augustinian monk Domingo Engranelle, shows evidence of this motivation. His work served as a theoretical fundament for several subsequent inventions, including the mechanical instruments that preceded the pianola. Several of t...+ info