375 results where found for «To Sing by Improvising»


Partisan Anthem (Himno guerrillero)

Music piece by:
anonymous Russian melody. During the Russian Revolution, several lyrics with different ideological content circulated. This version is based on 'Makhnovtchina', attributed to Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary.
Testimony by:
Julio Laks Feller
Experience in:
« In late September 1974, the Soviet partisan’s song was intoned softly but with an awe-inspiring force in the José Domingo Cañas torture centre. »
[...]
« Perhaps a dozen of us, holding hands, with our eyes blindfolded, all began to sing, in whispers. The young sentry who guarded us appeared to be so paralyzed by the collective power released by our voices that he did not even try to shut us up. »
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I Can Trust the Lord (Puedo confiar en el Señor)

Music piece by:
Unknown
Testimony by:
Sigifredo Ramos Vásquez
Experience in:
Cárcel de Temuco, September - December 1973
« My experience during our captivity can be summed up in this personal observation. Protest songs were forbidden, so we had no other option than to sing religious songs. »
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Candombe for José (Candombe para José)

Music piece by:
Roberto Ternán
Testimony by:
Sara De Witt
Experience in:
« We were in Tres Álamos barracks in September 1976. I don’t recall how many of us women were imprisoned there. I believe there were close to a hundred of us. »
[...]
« We stood in the barracks yard and began to sing in unison. We sang the “Ode to Joy” and another song of which I remember just one verse: “se va, se va, se va hacia la libertad” (going away, going away, going away towards freedom). »
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Saint Gregory’s Tonada (Tonada San Gregorio)

Music piece by:
Pedro Humire Loredo
Testimony by:
Pedro Humire Loredo
« This tonada recalls the horrible situation I was subjected to in the cells of the police station in the San Gregorio district in southern Santiago. »
[...]
« I looked towards the policemen to see if any of them had it. I then realised that the policeman who had arrested me at the school was telling another to single me out for a beating, because of the way I was looking at them. »
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After the War (Después de la guerra)

Music piece by:
Sandro
Testimony by:
Nelly Andrade Alcaino
« The military officials in charge of the Tejas Verdes camp made us sing. They gave us just one day to select the songs and rehearse. »
[...]
« Then I remembered Sandro’s song "Después de la guerra" and made the following argument: “All of us are prisoners of war, so everyone can relate to this song”. I recited the words and everyone agreed to sing it, so we rehearsed it all day long. »
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The Letter (La carta)

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
Testimony by:
Paicavi Painemal
Experience in:
« We set up a band with a group of fellow prisoners. They were young, university students. One of them had a guitar. »
[...]
« The gendarmes forbade us to sing and sometimes wanted to take the instruments. But we controlled the situation and sang anyway. We were in charge there. »
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The Internationale

Music piece by:
Eugène Pottier (lyrics) and Pierre Degeyter (music). Popularised by Quilapayún in Chile in the 1970s.
Testimony by:
Ana María Jiménez
Experience in:
Villa Grimaldi, April 1975
« In April 1975, the triumph of Vietnam was celebrated. We heard about it through a comrade who went to the bathroom and found a piece of the week’s newspaper. It was so beautiful for us to be there, having shouted so often for Vietnam at demonstrations. »
[...]
« So a group of prisoners from the Tower decided to sing a bit from 'The Internationale'. And we sang all together. »
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Alfonsina and the Sea (Alfonsina y el mar)

Music piece by:
Félix Luna (lyrics) and Ariel Ramírez (music). Popularised by Mercedes Sosa.
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Villa Grimaldi, January 1975
« It was not easy to endure being locked up in one of Villa Grimaldi’s miserable cells, which resembled vertical coffins. It was even harder in the high temperatures of the summer months of the Andes foothills in Peñalolén. I was inside one of those cells, blindfolded, my feet and hands in chains. »
[...]
« One day it occurred to me to sing a beautiful song I had heard and learned by heart a short time before my arrest, at one of the safe houses that hid me from my persecutors. The song was called 'Alfonsina y el mar'. »
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Free (Libre)

Music piece by:
José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.
Testimony by:
Marianella Ubilla
Experience in:
« I was taken prisoner on 23 November 1973, at the University of Concepción. In the Regional Stadium of Concepción, we had to sing the National Anthem every day. »
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Three White Lilies (Tres blancos lirios)

Music piece by:
Unknown composer. This song probably relates to European early-years pedagogy.
Testimony by:
Domingo Lizama
Experience in:
« They arrested me at my workplace in October 1973 . I was 31 years old and worked as a porter at a logging business in Chumpullo, near Valdivia. »
[...]
« The warden liked the choir a lot. Afterwards, he wanted the choir to sing for some official ceremony or event to receive authorities. We refused to sing for those purposes. »
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