Here is a video of me playing La Cumparsita. For more information on this song, please click here.

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Gerardo Matos Rodríguez

La Cumparsita is a very recognizable tango song. It was written in Uruguay by Gerardo Matos Rodriguez in 1917. He was approximately seventeen when he composed it, so he wouldn’t have realised how famous his song would get. ‘La Cumparsita’ means ‘The Little Parade’. Gerardo first played his tune in a coffee shop called Confitería La Giralda in Montevideo, Uruguay. Some seven years later, Gerardo found himself in Paris and found out that his song was a massive hit. He also found out that Enrique Maroni and Pascual Contursi, two lyricists, had added different lyrics and renamed the tune ‘Si Supieras’. Gerardo Rodriguez spent a long time afterwards in courts, trying to gain the original author’s rights to the music. He eventually did, but there are still debates on whether his version or Enrique Maroni and Pascual Contursi’s version were the actual hits.

La Cumparsita is considered to be the anthem of Tango, and it is almost always used as the tango music in tango dance scenes in movies. There have been many different versions, some simplified, some with different instruments, and I find that two different versions can sound completely different.
Here is what it should sound like in general played on the piano:

La Cumparsita

Audio from here. Image from here:

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Dion and the Belmonts is an American vocal group formed in the late 1950′s. The group consisted of Dion DiMucci, Carlo Mastrangelo, Freddie Milano, and Angelo D’Aleo.
Dion DiMucci is from an Italian-American family in the Bronx. He would gather local singers to sing and he also sang in local clubs. In early 1957, he auditioned for Bob and Gene Schwartz, from Mohawk Records. They recorded him with the Timberlanes and the single ‘The Chosen Few’ was released.

Left to right: Carlo Mastrangelo, Freddie Milano, Dion DiMucci, Angelo D'Aleo

It was a minor regional hit. The Belmonts was a group of doo-wop vocalists. They got their name from Belmont Avenue in the Bronx. The Belmonts first recorded with Mohawk Records, where singer Dion was also recording. Dion joined the group as lead singer and it was then known as ‘Dion and the Belmonts’ in 1957. The new group signed to Laurie Records and their first real breakthrough was from their single: ‘I Wonder Why’, and for the first time, they appeared on American Bandstand. Their success won them their first major tour in 1958. This tour was followed by ‘The Winter Dance Party’, with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. There was a special plane for the performers of The Winter Dance Party, but there was a fee of $36, and Dion couldn’t and wouldn’t pay it. After a first show in Clear Lake Iowa, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper headed to the airport and took their special plane to Fargo, North Dakota. Unfortunately, their plane crashed and all three singers, including the pilot, were killed. The tour still continued with replacements. In March 1959, a next single was released by Dion and the Belmonts. ‘A Teenager in Love‘ made #5 in the Billboard Hot 100 and #28 in the UK Singles Chart. This was followed by their first album, ‘Presenting Dion and the Belmonts‘ as well as their biggest hit, ‘Where or When‘, which was #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. In early 1960, Dion was administered to hospital for heroin addiction, apparently since his mid teens. He also had musical and financial disputes with the Belmonts. In October 1960, Dion quit and started a solo career. The Belmonts continued recording, but with less success. The group tried reuniting in 1966, but separated again when their album, ‘Together Again’, was unsuccessful. They sang together again in 1972, for a once-off show, which was recorded and released as a live album. In 2000, Dion and the Belmonts were integrated into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

In ‘Peggy Sue got Married‘, there are many references to Dion and the Belmonts. It shows actual footage of Dion and the Belmonts performing ‘A Teenager in Love’, while two characters watch part of the live show on television. There is also a girl saying “Wow! Charlie can really sing! (other girl) Yeah, Maybe he’s gonna be the next Dion and the Belmonts!”, and during that same scene, Charlie sings ‘I Wonder Why’ with his friends, reenacting almost the same performance that the actual group did.

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Here is me playing France’s national Anthem on the piano. For more information on the origins and history of La Marseillaise, click here. For the music sheet click here.

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La Marseillaise is the French national anthem although it wasn’t always so. This song wasn’t even composed to be a national anthem, but to be a war song. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle wrote and composed it in Strasbourg on April 25th 1792. It was originally called ‘Chant de Guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin‘ (War Song for the Army of the Rhine). It was written to reflect the invasion of Prussia and Austria, which was an ongoing war when the song was written. A young patriot from Montpellier named François Milleur sang it at a patriotic gathering in Marseille, and the people greatly liked it. When volunteers from Marseille came to Paris to revolt in the French Revolution, they sang it in the streets of Paris. The song became known as the ‘Marseillaise‘, due to fact that people from Marseille first sang it in Paris. It became the Revolutions calling card and the Convention accepted it as the National Anthem on July 14th 1795. It was later banned successively by Napoleon I, Louis XVIII, and Napoleon III, who did not seem to like it. In 1879, ‘La Marseillaise‘ was restored as France’s National Anthem and it has remained there ever since.

‘La Marseillaise’ Instrumental

The music from ‘La Marseillaise‘ was also used in many other things. In Russia, in 1875, Peter Lavrov, wrote Russian lyrics to the tune (not a translation) and it was used as revolutionary song. The Beatles used it as an introduction to their song ‘All you need is love‘. Frank Sinatra partly used it in his song ‘Foreign French Legion‘. Different versions of the tune are also used as themes for numerous rugby and football teams. It has been used in cartoons, games, movies and even featured in Monty Python sketches.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Marseillaise

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Chopin’s ‘Funeral March’ simplified music sheet plus me playing it. For more information on Chopin click here.

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Frédéric Chopin (1st March 1810 – 17th October 1849) was born in the Duchy of Warsaw, Poland. His father was French and his mother was Polish. He was considered a child piano prodigy. In 1830, at the age of twenty, he moved out of Poland and made his way to Austria, and then later to Italy, followed by France. He settled in Paris and made a comfortable living as a pianist and composer. Although he was a Polish patriot, due to problems with papers, he became a French citizen. While in France, he had a relationship with George Sand, a French author. George Sand was a pseudonym for the feminist Amandine Aurore Lucille Dupin. In the winter of 1838, they travelled to Majorca, along with Sand’s two children. Chopin’s piano got stuck in customs and he had to pay 300 francs (half the first demanded amount) to release it. During this holiday, Chopin’s health was very bad and they made their way back to Paris stopping by Barcelona and Marseille to recover. When they returned to Paris, Chopin moved out of his apartment and moved in with Sand in her house. In 1842, the four of them moved in to adjacent buildings in an other part of Paris (Square d’Orléans).

As the composer grew more sick every day, Sand was less and less a lover, and became more of a nurse. When she had problems with her daughter, she couldn’t stand Chopin anymore and in 1847, she published a novel called ‘Lucrezia Floriani’. The main characters are a rich actress and a prince in poor health. The prince was not loved in the novel and it is easily recognised as Sand and Chopin. Chopin knew of the afflictions on him as he helped Sand edit the book. This ended their relationship in 1847, which had lasted ten years. Chopin became less popular and he moved to London, where he made his last performance as background music at a party. In 1848, he moved back to Paris and was now very sick. He stopped performances and classes because of the pain it caused him but he continued composing. He died of pulmonary tuberculosis in his apartment on the morning of the 17th of October, 1849.

Chopin had a fear of being buried alive, and in his last Will and Testament he stated he want to have his heart cut out and preserved (probably in brandy) and it was to be sealed in a pillar in his church in Poland. It still remains there to this day.

Chopin is most known for his waltzes, and most of his compositions are for solo piano.

Chopin Waltz

Almost all composers wrote a Funeral March, but I think Chopin’s one may be the most known.

Funeral March – Chopin

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frédéric_Chopin

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