Collection of music videos

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) was a French composer, harpsichordist, and music theorist, highly influential during the Baroque era, replacing Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera. Rameau 's operatic works constitute the bulk of his musical contribution and mark the height of the French Baroque with his most famous work, the opera-ballet Les Indes galantes . Despite this, his operatic works were largely forgotten until the mid- 20th century , benefiting from the revival of early music; his harpsichord works, however, remained ever-present. Rameau is now considered the most important French musician before the 19th century ; he died in 1764 at the age of 81.

A suite (French) is a musical form composed of several short instrumental movements of a dance-like nature. Its origins lie in the contrasting pairs of dances of the Renaissance (1300-1600). During the Baroque period (1600-1750), it was one of the most important musical forms and is considered one of the first modern orchestral manifestations. By the end of the Baroque period , the suite was already a sophisticated musical form that blended several dances in different keys, contrasting distinct thematic materials and restating them at the end; a structure that ultimately foreshadows the origin of the sonata . Today, the suite is more commonly understood as a symphonic composition freely structured into several episodes of similar character.

Suites of Stage Works. In the 20th and 21st centuries , many conductors have popularized orchestral suites based on Rameau 's operas. These suites bring together the most representative fragments: dances, overtures, ritournelles, instrumental arias, etc., with the typical color of the French style: use of basso continuo, elaborate ornamentation, bright timbres (such as oboes, bassoons, flutes, natural trumpets, etc.) and a very theatrical sense of rhythm and dynamics.

Rameau 's Stage Works Suite No. 1 is a modern compilation of orchestral excerpts from several of Rameau 's operas, making it an excellent introduction to the richness of French Baroque stage opera, with its strong emphasis on dance, color, and drama. Today we hear Stage Works Suite No. 1 performed by Emmanuelle Haïm (1962), a harpsichordist and conductor specializing in Baroque music, former assistant to Simon Rattle , and who has led the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Opera, and the BBC Proms , among other top-tier ensembles. It is she who conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in this performance of the aforementioned Suite .

Rosalía (Barcelona, ​​1992) is a Spanish singer, songwriter, producer, and actress. She has won two Latin Grammy Awards for " Malamente " and five for the album El Mal Querer , making her the Spanish artist with the most awards from the Latin Recording Academy for a single work, and two MTV Video Music Awards . On January 26, 2020, she received the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album in Los Angeles , becoming the first person in history to be nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist with a debut album in Spanish. Rosalía blends traditional flamenco with copla and modern styles such as pop, trap, hip hop, and electronic music.

"Berghain" is the first single from Rosalía 's latest album, Lux . Its title refers to Berghain , the famous Berlin nightclub, although the music itself isn't purely techno . The song departs from the urban/rhythm-pop sound Rosalía had accustomed us to in previous works, leaning instead towards the orchestral , the experimental , and the lyrical , utilizing a string orchestra, a chamber choir, and operatic vocals infused with elements of Baroque and Classical music blended with electronic touches. This single marks a new chapter for Rosalía , following the success of her album Motomami (2022); she now explores a more elevated, orchestral, and spiritual register. Furthermore, collaborating with artists like Björk and Yves Tumor reinforces her commitment to experimentation and transcending the boundaries of urban pop .

Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was a Russian composer who graduated from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and wrote works in various genres, though he achieved his greatest success with his ballets. In 1859, he obtained a civil service position in the Ministry of Justice , which he left after three years to dedicate himself solely to music. His personal life was plagued by continuous crises, beginning with the death of his mother and compounded by his repressed homosexuality, which led him into a marriage that lasted only a few months. He wrote more than 150 compositions, including piano works, quartets, suites, symphonies, concertos, choral pieces, cantatas, operas, and ballets. He died at the age of 53 and is considered one of the greatest composers in history.

An overture is the instrumental introduction to an opera or other dramatic work, musical or otherwise; although some independent instrumental compositions from the 19th and 20th centuries were also called overtures by their composers. The earliest operas, dating from the beginning of the 17th century , did not have overtures but did have an introduction performed by vocalists that summarized the action to follow. Instrumental introductions began to be used regularly in the mid- 17th century ; the German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck was one of the first to use material from his operas for overtures. In this way, they established the emotional tone of the opera that followed.

Romeo and Juliet , the work we offer today, is an “overture/fantasy”, as the author himself subtitles it, based on the homonymous work by William Shakespeare ; in it he portrays the moods of the characters who must live between love and violence, confronted time and time again until the theme of love appears languid and deathly, announcing the suicide of the two protagonists.

Today we can see it performed by Sian Edwards (1959), an English conductor who began her career primarily in opera, becoming the first woman hired by the Royal Opera House , Covent Garden, and returning the following year. She has worked with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic , the Berlin Symphony Orchestra , the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra , the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic , the London Sinfonietta , and many more.

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) was a Brazilian conductor and composer whose music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and European classical music. He received some musical instruction from his father, and by 1899, the year of his father's death, Villa-Lobos had begun to pursue music professionally. He performed as a café musician playing the cello, although he was also an occasional performer on guitar, clarinet, and piano. Villa-Lobos also had a second career as a music educator in his country, designing a comprehensive system of musical instruction based on Brazil 's rich musical culture. He composed choral music for large school choirs of children, often based on adaptations of folk material. Villa-Lobos was a notoriously prolific composer whose music is widely disseminated throughout the world through recordings and concerts. His legacy consists of works for guitar, works for piano, 17 string quartets, 9 Bachianas brasileiras and 15 Choros for different musical formations, 12 symphonies, 18 concertante works, 4 operas, 2 film soundtracks and numerous works of different kinds that include several ballet scores.

“ Floresta do Amazonas ” (The Amazon Rainforest) is a work for solo soprano, male chorus, and orchestra, composed in 1958 by Heitor Villa-Lobos . It is based on the book “ Mansiones Verdes ” (Green Mansions) by the Argentinian Guillermo Enrique Hudson , published in 1904, and incorporates elements of pre-Columbian Amazonian indigenous legends and mythologies. The protagonist of the story is Rima , a bird-girl who lives in a place in the rainforest sacred to the indigenous people and possesses supernatural powers. She is considered a goddess by both animals and humans, who both worship and fear her.

The music of " Floresta do Amazonas " transports us to the magical universe of Amazonian culture, where reality and fiction, the natural and the supernatural, intertwine in a score where the most vigorous and dramatic moments alternate with lyrical and sentimental ones, in perfect harmony. " Floresta do Amazonas " includes four songs with lyrics by Dora Vasconcelos , which are usually performed independently in recitals and have frequently been adapted for different instruments. These are "Veleiro," "Cair da Tarde," "Canção do Amor," and "Melodía Sentimental ." (Comment excerpted from the article published by El Blog de Atticus)

Structure . I (0:04) Opening .-. II (2:29) To the forest .-. III (5:07) Dança dos índios .-. IV (6:58) In the middle of the forest .-. V (9:14) Pássaro da floresta - song I .-. VI (11:23) Dança da natureza .-. VII (13:34) Pássaro da floresta - song II .-. VIII (16:29) Canto da floresta I .-. IX (17:09) Conspiracy and warrior dance .-. X (19:34) Veleiros .-. XI (21:51) On the way to the hunt .- . XII (24:43) Pássaro da floresta – canto III .-. XIII (26:37) Cair is late .-. XIV (30:07) Pássaro da floresta - song IV .-. XV (32:49) Caçadores de Cabeça .-. XVI (34:52) Song of love .-. XVII (39:16) Sentimental melody .-. XVIII (42:45) O fire in the forest .-. XIX (46:37) Epilogue

Samba is a musical genre with African roots that originated in Brazil , from which a type of dance derives. It is one of the main expressions of Brazilian popular culture and a symbol of national identity. (It should not be confused with Zamba , a completely different musical genre of Argentinian origin). While in some countries the feminine form is used (la samba), in Brazil and in some countries like Argentina and Uruguay , the masculine form is used ( el samba ). Among its characteristics is a style where the dance is accompanied by a string of melodic cigars and anonymously created choruses, typical of samba de roda , a rhythm and dance originating in the Recôncavo Bahiano , a geographical region around the Bay of All Saints in the state of Bahia . Samba de roda is one of the foundations of samba carioca and was designated a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2005.

Samba was brought to Rio de Janeiro after the abolition of slavery in 1888 by enslaved Africans who gradually migrated to what was then the capital of the Brazilian Empire. Despite its presence in various Brazilian regions in the form of diverse regional rhythms and dances of African origin, especially in the states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Maranhão, Minas Gerais , and São Paulo , as a musical genre it is considered an urban musical expression of the city of Rio de Janeiro , where this particular style of samba was born and developed between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was in Brazil 's former capital that the dance practiced by freed slaves came into contact with and incorporated other musical genres, acquiring a unique character: polka, maxixe, lundu, xote , among others. Thus, while other regional forms of samba exist in Brazil , it was Carioca samba that achieved the status of a symbol of Brazilian national identity during the 1930s. From 1917 onward, urban Carioca samba began to spread throughout Brazil , associated with Carnival and later carving out its own niche in the music market. In the following years, samba branched out in many directions, from the elegant samba-canção to the drum orchestras that accompanied the Carnival parades. One of these new styles was bossa nova , initially created by middle-class people of European descent. Bossa nova gained worldwide popularity through the work of João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim , among others.

Werenoi was a French rapper, whose real name was Jérémy Bana Owona (born January 30, 1994, in Melun, France ). He debuted in 2021 with the single " Guadalajara " and quickly gained notoriety with tracks like "La League" and "Scarface." He avoided the media spotlight, focusing on his music and maintaining an enigmatic image. In June 2022, he released his first EP, Telegram , which was certified gold; it included the track " Solitaire ," which achieved diamond certification. His first studio album, Carré (March 2023), debuted successfully and became the best-selling album in France that year (over 342,000 copies), surpassing artists like Hamza and Ninho . In 2023 and 2024 he was the artist with the highest album sales in France , thanks to Carré (2023) with 342,200 copies and Pyramide (2024) with 345,000 copies.

He died suddenly at the age of 31, after being admitted to La Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in critical condition. A heart attack is suspected, although the exact cause has not been officially confirmed. Of Cameroonian descent and raised in Montreuil , on the eastern outskirts of Paris , Werenoi embodied a powerful and authentic style, with lyrics that reflected urban realities, intense emotions, and carefully crafted melodies. His music resonated particularly with young people critical of the status quo , interpreting everyday and social experiences with a sincere and emotive voice.

Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) was an Italian composer and a leading figure in violin virtuosity. A child prodigy, his father forced him to spend long hours practicing the violin from a very young age; so much so that by the age of fourteen, his teachers declared themselves unable to continue teaching him. As a violin soloist, he toured extensively throughout Italy, Vienna, Prague, Warsaw, Berlin, Paris , and London . Admired for his astonishing technique, he received high praise from Liszt and Berlioz , among others. His technique was so remarkable that it was said he had made a pact with the devil. He wrote numerous works for violin, as well as for guitar, viola, and bassoon. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 58.

Satanella (also known as Le Diable amoureux ) is a ballet in three acts written by the French dancer and choreographer Joseph Mazilier (1801-1868) with music by Napoléon Henri Reber (1807-1880) and François Benoist (1794-1878), musically based on Paganini 's Carnival of Venice . Today we present several numbers from this ballet performed by Eugenia Obraztsova, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Mariinsky Ballet , and Alexander Sergeyev , principal dancer, also of the Mariinsky Ballet .

A chirigota is a carnival-style choral musical group that sings primarily in the streets, offering humorous songs to the city. The songs performed by these choral groups are also generically called chirigotas . Chirigotas are short, recitative verses and monologues with very simple musical forms derived from the pasodoble, rumba, tanguillo, seguidilla, jota, isa canaria, and other genres. The lyrics, written specifically for the group, are adapted to this music and cover a wide range of topics, focusing mainly on current events, including politics and celebrity gossip. In many carnivals around the world, competitions are held where groups vie for various prizes, with three main aspects being judged: costumes or presentation, vocal quality, and the wit of the lyrics. The main objective of a chirigota is to make the audience laugh through satirical and humorous commentary.

The chirigota from Cádiz consists of a maximum of 12 members and a minimum of 7, who perform the repertoire in at least two-part harmony. The tenor voice, which carries the melody, is the most common. This voice is accompanied by second voices, such as the second (baritone), contralto, third (a descendant of the second), octavilla, and sometimes bass voices. The chirigota's musical accompaniment includes a bass drum, a snare drum, two guitars, and güiros. The repertoire performed by the chirigotas (satirical singing groups) participating in the Official Carnival Groups Competition consists of an introduction (not necessarily with original music) related to the group's theme (costume), two pasodobles (with original music by the group), two cuplés (with original music), a refrain (sung at the end of each cuplé and also original) related to the group's theme, and a medley (divided into four-line stanzas) that also refers to the theme in a burlesque and humorous way. In chirigotas , unlike comparsas (carnival groups) and choirs, the two cuplés plus the refrain are what award the group the most points.