Hive Music Festival | Week 93 round 3 | "Azucena" by Franciso Cortesía

▶️ Watch on 3Speak

To finish my performances for this cycles, I wanted to do something that's been long due. One of my grandfather's cousins was a musician. And he was one of those popular composer in town. He wrote many interesting pieces. I had the chance of meeting him around 2019. Unfortunately, he passed away a year ago and I had the pending task of learning one of his songs to play as a kind of homage.

I remember we used to play one of his at the college's orchestra. The name of the song is Azucena. This is a kind of flower better know as the Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum). I don't know exactly if the song has anything to do with the flower since it's an instrumental composition. However, the delicate melody is similar to a flower. Maybe that's the connection.

In this performance, I also had the chance to show another of the improvisations that follow the Joropo Oriental. In previous attempts, I have shown the change of measurement from 3/4 to 6/8. The 6/8 parts is usually called Estribillo and it is an improvisation of a fixed number of chords going from a VI - I - V7 - I. This pattern repeats until the piece is over. Golpe de Arpa is another form of improvisation that is added to the end of the songs. The difference from Estribillo is twofold. First, it remains on a 3/4 measure. Second, the harmony goes on VI - V7 -V7 - I pattern. And it is an imitation of the forms of Joropo that come from the Venezuelan Plains.

It was quite a challenge to learn this piece and add my own improvisation. I hope that the cousin listens to this wherever he might be and like this little homage from a distant relative.

And I hope you enjoy it as well!

• Photos and Video 📹 📷: taken by me (Redmi Note 13)

• Thumbnail 🖼️: by me, created with Canva.

• Editing 🎬: by me, made with Adobe Auditio CS6, Filmora X.

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