375 results where found for «To Sing by Improvising»


Dreams of my Imprisonment (Sueños de mi encierro)

Music piece by:
Mario Patricio Cordero Cedraschi
Testimony by:
Mario Patricio Cordero Cedraschi
Experience in:
Cárcel de Valparaíso, Winter of 1975
« I’d spent two years in prison and there was no end in sight for my time in jail. I observed during visiting hours that many prisoners had children, a wife, family. »
[...]
« This concern became a nightmare and led to these verses that turned into a song and filled the last page of my prison songbook, where I’d written down a number of ballads sung by other prisoners. »
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Futuristic Anthem (Himno futurista)

Music piece by:
unknown
Testimony by:
Patricio Polanco
Experience in:
« In 1973 and 1974, Pisagua was characterised by the harsh and cruel treatment of political prisoners. Singing was mandatory for prisoners, who were guarded by Army platoons, and it was also a means to avoid beatings and collective mistreatment. »
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Story of the Chair (Historia de la silla)

Music piece by:
Silvio Rodríguez
Testimony by:
Eduardo Andrés Arancibia Ortiz
Experience in:
« This was one of the songs Silvio Rodríguez sang to us the day he visited the political prisoners in Santiago’s Public Jail in 1990. »
[...]
« No less important are the memories of visits by Joan Manuel Serrat and the concert given to us by Illapu, deploying a full technical array. During my long stretch in prison, I also became acquainted with a cantata by the political prisoners, an anecdote of resistance in the face of the oft-repeated ban of our subversive songs. »
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Return, Return (Volver, volver)

Music piece by:
Fernando Z. Maldonado. Popularised by Vicente Fernández
Testimony by:
Jorge Montealegre Iturra
« At the Chacabucan artistic shows, Hugo sang tangos, including 'Volver' (Return) by Gardel and Le Pera. »
[...]
«  (1908-1973) Socialist president of Chile from 1970 to 1973. He was overthrown by Augusto Pinochet’s military forces in 1973. »
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Casida of the Dark Pigeons (Casida de las palomas oscuras)

Music piece by:
Federico García Lorca (words), Paco Ibáñez (music)
Testimony by:
Luis Alfredo Muñoz González
Experience in:
« According to scientists, memory and music processing are situated in a deep, ancestral part of the brain, where it is zealously guarded. »
[...]
« “No, they won’t kill you”, I told her. “That will be me, not you”. I told her this almost without thinking. After a long silence, La Jovencita said: “I feel very sad and very lonely. Would you sing to me … that song you sang the other night, the one about the doves?”. She was referring to 'Casida de las Palomas Oscuras', a poem by García Lorca with music by Paco Ibañez. »
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The Paper Boat (El barco de papel)

Music piece by:
Julio Numhauser, popularised by the band Amerindios
Testimony by:
Carlos Muñoz
Experience in:
« One of the most important songs in the detention centres. Impossible to count how many times we sang it. Every time someone was released from a detention camp or there was credible information that a person would be sent into exile, a gigantic chorus would sing this song, in a powerful unison. No one could possibly forget it. Especially significant at Tres Álamos, as this was the “exit” camp. »
[...]
« If freedom was decreed when the prisoner was at another camp, the prisoner would be transferred to this detention centre. In the version sung in the camps, the verse that goes, 'se va, se va, se va y regresará' ('going away, going away, going away and will come back') was replaced by 'se va, se va, se va y no volverá' ('going away, going away, going away, never to come back'). »
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Creole Mass – Gloria (Misa criolla - Gloria)

Music piece by:
Ariel Ramírez
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November – December 1973
« As far as I remember (and there may be other versions), Los de Chacabuco band was founded by Ángel Parra in response to a request by the Army chaplain Varela, who asked for assistance for the Mass he celebrated for both prisoners and soldiers. »
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Zamba of my Hope (Zamba de mi esperanza)

Music piece by:
Luis H. Profili
Testimony by:
Edgardo Carabantes Olivares
« Horacio Carabantes Olivares, my brother, was locked up in January 1975 at the Maipo regiment of Valparaíso, with a large group of male and female prisoners, all arrested by the DINA. »
[...]
« Some of the survivors have told this story, stressing the significance of that action by Horacio, who in the midst of interrogation and torture did not lose his nerve but took the opportunity to give his comrades a sign of hope. »
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Little Doctors (Doctorcitos)

Music piece by:
unknown. Folk tune from the Andes highlands
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January - February 1974
« Agreeing to a suggestion from Ricardo, Los de Chacabuco learned and arranged this tune. In the Andean high plateau, the tune is a satirical reference to lawyers and, by implication, to civil servants. It is performed at carnival time. »
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Neither Fish nor Fowl (Ni chicha ni limoná)

Music piece by:
Víctor Jara
Testimony by:
Joaquín Vallejos
Experience in:
« I was arrested at home together with a childhood friend who they’d gone to pick up first. My family thought he’d stitched me up, which was not true. »
[...]
« To me, that song sung by many female comrades from university, by housewives and female workers, epitomises Chilean women: strong, feisty, committed, rebellious, but also coquettish, feminine and affectionate. »
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