187 results where found for «Today I Sing for the Sake of Singing»

I’m Not from Here - To my Comrade, my Love (No soy de aquí - A mi compañera)

Music piece by:
Facundo Cabral, with lyrics modified by a political prisoner
Testimony by:
Alfonso Padilla Silva
Experience in:
Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, 25 December 1973
Tags:
« The choir of male prisoners sang a piece called 'A mi compañera' (To my comrade, my love) to the music of 'No soy de aquí, ni soy de allá' (I'm not from here, nor from there) by Facundo Cabral. »
[...]
« that you always sing in the afternoon, quietly »
[Read full testimony]

The Little Snail (El caracolito)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1976
Tags:
« I composed this song for a small children’s party we organised in the visitors’ yard of the Valparaíso Jail. I remember how the children had fun that day and enjoyed the play. That was the first time I put down the guitar so that a prisoner who played the accordion could accompany me. »
[...]
« the snail sings to the beautiful night »
[Read full testimony]

Filistoque's Cueca (Cueca del Filistoque)

Music piece by:
Víctor Canto Fuenzalida (lyrics), Efraín Navarro (music)
Testimony by:
Víctor Canto Fuenzalida
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, June 1974
Tags:
« Filistoque is a real-life person in all his mighty height (1.90 metres tall). I always remember him laughing. In Chacabuco, we shared a house for nearly ten months. Around him, you were never allowed to become depressed or get into a stew over our situation. »
[...]
« He radiated happiness and optimism. And even though he was aware that the issue would continue to trouble us, he never stopped talking about the commissions and prosecutors who would be processing our cases. He projected this optimism even beyond the prison camp fences. »
[Read full testimony]

The Little Cigarette (El cigarrito)

Music piece by:
Víctor Jara
Testimony by:
Alfonso Padilla Silva
Experience in:
Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, 25 December 1973
Tags:
« During Christmas 1973, I was one of some 600 men and 100 women prisoners in Concepción Regional Stadium. »
[...]
« Although strictly speaking, the song did not have a social or political message as such, to sing a song by Jara was tantamount to a tribute to him and to his example, and also to all the fallen comrades. »
[Read full testimony]

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:
Recinto DINA, José Domingo Cañas Nº 1367, September 1974
Tags:
« 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. »
[...]
« They began dragging him, and as they passed our room, Rosalía began to quietly sing 'Por llanuras y montañas...' ('Through valleys and over hills'). It was a way to speak to him and to try to give him strength; to tell him we were there and that we were accompanying him. In a sense, it was really his song. We had sung it together many times. »
[Read full testimony]

Melody by Jorge Peña Hen

Music piece by:
Jorge Peña Hen
Testimony by:
María Fedora Peña
Experience in:
Cárcel de la Serena, October 1973
Tags:
« 'Look here, Maria Fedora. I’ve brought you a treasure', it was the voice of my brother Juan Cristián as he crossed the doorway of our mother’s house one morning in January 1983. »
[...]
« I took the tiny piece of paper that had been meticulously folded, on which one could make out snippets of musical staves and some notes. Without opening it, I brought the paper to my nose. Closing my eyes, I breathed in deeply, and I felt my father’s scent permeate my soul. »
[Read full testimony]

Story of the Chair (Historia de la silla)

Music piece by:
Silvio Rodríguez
Testimony by:
Eduardo Andrés Arancibia Ortiz
Experience in:
Cárcel de Santiago, 1990
Tags:
« 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. »
[...]
«  (1946-) Cuban singer-songwriter and leader of the Nueva Trova movement. »
[Read full testimony]

Saint Gregory’s Tonada (Tonada San Gregorio)

Music piece by:
Pedro Humire Loredo
Testimony by:
Pedro Humire Loredo
Experience in:
Tenencia de Carabineros Nueva España, Población San Gregorio, September 1973
Tags:
« 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. »
[Read full testimony]

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:
Campamento de Prisioneros Cuatro Álamos, February - March 1975
Tags:
« According to scientists, memory and music processing are situated in a deep, ancestral part of the brain, where it is zealously guarded. »
[Read full testimony]

The Paper Boat (El barco de papel)

Music piece by:
Julio Numhauser, popularised by the band Amerindios
Testimony by:
Carlos Muñoz
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, 1975 - 1976
Tags:
« 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. »
[Read full testimony]