In the far-off 1917, Brazilian musician José Gomes de Abreu (Zequinha de Abreu) wrote a tune and named it "Tico-Tico no Farelo", which is translated from Portuguese as ‘a sparrow in the bran’. The composer could not imagine, back then, that his song would spread all over the world in various interpretations and would be so loved by musicians dozens of years after his death.
The present-day title of the song appeared in 1931 after it turned out that a guitar player from Brazil known as “Canhoto” had a piece under the same title, to avoid confusion. At the same, the Portuguese lyrics were written for the song by Aloysio de Oliveira. In less than 10 years, the catchy choro tune sneaked into the wider world and got first international popularity thanks to the recordings by The Andrew Sisters, Carmen Miranda and Ethel Smith. The English version of the lyrics was officially recorded by Ervin Drake.
Of course, most recordings of the light-hearted tune were made by the representatives of the Latin music world. But European and American musicians also paid their tribute to the Brazilian gem. There are recordings of “Tico-Tico No Fubá” by Charlie Parker, Klaus Wunderlich, Berliner Philharmoniker and Dalida, for example. Speaking of the most recent appearances of the composition, we can recall the 2016 Olympic Games where the song was played at the closing ceremony.
Numerous contemporary composers keep writing their own modern arrangements of “Tico-Tico No Fubá”. There are various versions for piano, string quartet, guitar, orchestra. And on the video below, this sweet piece id performed on world’s largest flute – the subcontrabass.
 |
| Tico-Tico No Fubá (a sparrow in the cornmeal) |
Of course, most recordings of the light-hearted tune were made by the representatives of the Latin music world. But European and American musicians also paid their tribute to the Brazilian gem. There are recordings of “Tico-Tico No Fubá” by Charlie Parker, Klaus Wunderlich, Berliner Philharmoniker and Dalida, for example. Speaking of the most recent appearances of the composition, we can recall the 2016 Olympic Games where the song was played at the closing ceremony.
Numerous contemporary composers keep writing their own modern arrangements of “Tico-Tico No Fubá”. There are various versions for piano, string quartet, guitar, orchestra. And on the video below, this sweet piece id performed on world’s largest flute – the subcontrabass.
No comments:
Post a Comment