If my more or less regular seven readers, just to have a break in their Christmas celebrations (I won't get to the heart of this matter, now I don't see the need of that) will have the fancy to stop by these virtual pages, maybe they will be pleasantly intrigued by an historical curiosity.
In a way it's suitable for this time of the year, even though I decided to avoid carefully all dissertations about the presumed lost spirit of Christmas and the fact that Santa, how he's iconically shown, is a relatively recent invention of Coca Cola Company.
We'll speak about music and in particular a very world famous song, which you can hear clicking here below.
In a way it's suitable for this time of the year, even though I decided to avoid carefully all dissertations about the presumed lost spirit of Christmas and the fact that Santa, how he's iconically shown, is a relatively recent invention of Coca Cola Company.
We'll speak about music and in particular a very world famous song, which you can hear clicking here below.
It's " Auld Lang Syne". Probably many know that the lyrics are actually a poem by Robbie Burns, whom is called 'The Bard' in his Scotland. I think (but my so well educated seven readers, all of English mother tongue, will surely correct me) that 'Auld Lang Syne' means something like 'old long-ago'. This is not the point. I'd like to investigate about the melody, the music, not the lyrics, of which we know practically everything.
Burns in 1788 set his poem to the tune of a traditional folk song which was 200 years older. The composer of this melody, oddly, is an Italian. A very interesting character, Davide Rizzio (or Riccio…who knows exactly? The right orthography of a foreign name could be so easily misspelt in Scotland in 16th century…and not only then).
He had a rather adventurous life and maybe one of these days I'll tell you something more about him. He was born in a small village, Pancalieri, near Turin, in Northern Italy. He had a certain talent as musician, composer and singers and a sure inclination to adventure and actually he ended to Scotland where he became a favourite of Queen Mary Stuart, no less! It seems he composed that music, which reminded him of an older folk song of his homeland and was very appreciated among Scots.
He came to a very bad, awful end, but maybe I'll tell it to you another time, because it's another story….
Burns in 1788 set his poem to the tune of a traditional folk song which was 200 years older. The composer of this melody, oddly, is an Italian. A very interesting character, Davide Rizzio (or Riccio…who knows exactly? The right orthography of a foreign name could be so easily misspelt in Scotland in 16th century…and not only then).
He had a rather adventurous life and maybe one of these days I'll tell you something more about him. He was born in a small village, Pancalieri, near Turin, in Northern Italy. He had a certain talent as musician, composer and singers and a sure inclination to adventure and actually he ended to Scotland where he became a favourite of Queen Mary Stuart, no less! It seems he composed that music, which reminded him of an older folk song of his homeland and was very appreciated among Scots.
He came to a very bad, awful end, but maybe I'll tell it to you another time, because it's another story….
RSS Feed
