a utopia for a greater world – Repeating Islands


In “Silvio Rodríguez y la trova cubana: la utopía de un mejor mundo,” Monse Aguilar (PijamaSurf) writes about this artist’s inventive trajectory and the love and respect he has earned by the many years. [Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention. Visit PijamaSurf to read original article and to listen to a selection of music videos of Rodríguez’s most well-known songs.].

All through his profession, Silvio Rodríguez has been characterised as a humble artist. At his live shows you possibly can all the time see a person with glasses, informal mode of gown, delicate voice, and acoustic guitar. Love and appreciation by the general public have been saved alive all through Latin America.

A lot of it’s because Silvio Rodríguez was a pioneer of Cuban Nueva Trova. This socially aware, literary, folks songwriting motion unfold from the Caribbean to South America within the Sixties. Such was the recognition of his music amongst leftists that in some international locations, like Argentina and Chile, his music was banned by varied navy dictatorships, so for a few years his songs circulated clandestinely on cassettes.

Though it’s troublesome to decide on a favourite music, surely the preferred music in his repertoire is “Ojalá.” The lyrics of this tune summarize the questioning perspective that Silvio has had in the direction of life. Ever since he started composing on his guitar whereas serving within the navy within the Sixties, his songs have captured the doubts, desires, and beliefs of individuals’s inside lives.

He has sung about desires, uncertainties, disappointments, dying, love and hope, feelings that come collectively in an ambiguous sense of longing and justice. For a lot of critics, his music is sort of clear, because of his preparations for guitars (together with the Cuban tres), electrical bass, flute or clarinet, and a light-touch drummer.

An instance of this “lean” musical type is heard within the music “Sinuhé,” a plaintive waltz that imagines legendary figures similar to Sinbad, Ali Baba, or Aladdin wandering by Baghdad. He composed the lyrics after the US bombing: “1001 noches de fuego y codicia/1001 noches sin Dios ni perdón” [1001 nights of fire and greed / 1001 nights without God or forgiveness.]

However extra usually the songs flip to the legendary and metaphorical; for instance, a lover’s kiss that daybreak brings, as in “La gota de rocío” [The Dew Drop]. Being swallowed by a snake that destroys itself from inside, as in “Sueño con serpientes” [I Dream of Serpents]. Or occurring a quest to discover a misplaced blue unicorn, as in “Unicornio” [Unicorn]. His songs are stuffed with seekers looking for inspiration, solutions, love, and causes value preventing for.

Generations of Latin Individuals know “Unicornio” by coronary heart, with its name for anybody who can acknowledge a misplaced blue unicorn to get in contact. Extensively adopted as a metaphor for the seek for utopia, it turned the soundtrack for guerrilla wrestle in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and a problem to navy dictatorships in Argentina and Chile.

Silvio Rodríguez has grow to be one of the vital influential political singers alive. The Cuban singer modified the face of the songs of the twentieth century in Latin America and Spain. And he has achieved that as a result of his songs aren’t solely stuffed with metaphors and allusions to very particular moments in historical past; his music has transcended the years and continues to be legitimate for every era that resignifies his lyrics and reappropriates them to maintain resistance alive.

Lengthy reside the hope, the craving, and the utopia of a extra simply Latin America.

Translated by Ivette Romero. For unique article (in Spanish) see https://pijamasurf.com/2022/06/silvio_rodriguez_el_significado_no_literal_de_sus_mejores_canciones/

[Above: Photo of Silvio Rodríguez at the Zócalo, Melva Navarro / Creative Commons.]



Source_link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d bloggers like this: