31st December 2023: New Year's Eve

As you all know, in Spain we eat twelve grapes at midnight. The actual countdown is primarily followed from the clock on top of  the Correos building in Puerta del Sol square, Madrid. It is traditional to eat twelve grapes, on on each chime of the clock. This tradition has its origins in 1909, when grape growers in Alicante thought of it as a way to cut down on the large production surplus they had had that year. Nowadays the tradition is followed by almost every Spaniard, and the twelve grapes have become synonimous with the New Year. After the clock has finished striking twelve, people greet each other and toast with sparkling wine (such as champagane or cider).

7 O´Clock News / Silent Night 2023

Recorded on August 22nd, 1966, "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" is the twelfth and final track on "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme", a 1966 album by Simon and Garfunkel. The track consists of an overdubbing of two contrasting recordings: a simple arrangement of the Christmas carol "Silent Night", and a simulated "7 O'Clock News" bulletin of the actual events of 3 August 1966.

Advent 2023

What is Advent? (Reblogged from here and here)

The word Advent comes from the Latin word for “arrival”: adventus. The celebration of Advent, whether with wreaths in church or calendars at home, marks the beginning of the Christmas period. It’s one of the major seasons celebrated by most Christian churches in the Western tradition: Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and many additional Protestant churches mark the roughly month-long period with special observance.

Most Advent calendars start on December 1st, but the actual first day of the Advent season changes every year. In 2023, that day is Sunday 3rd December. The final day is the same every year: December 24th, Christmas Eve — though many calendars run through Christmas Day.

The reason for the shifting start date is somewhat straightforward: as celebrated by Christian churches in the Western tradition (as opposed to Eastern Orthodox churches, which keep a different calendar), the season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and is celebrated on each successive Sunday leading up to Christmas.

Once Advent finishes, the 12 days of Christmas start... It is the period that in Christian theology marks the span between the birth of Christ and the coming of the Magi, the three wise men. It begins on December 25 (Christmas) and runs through January 6th (the Epiphany, sometimes also called Three Kings' Day).

Tambourines on the Terraces: Oliveira dos Cen Anos

Tambourines on the terraces: how Spain’s biggest rapper, C Tangana, wrote a football anthem

Text by Ben Cardew; reblogged from The Guardian.

He used to style himself as ‘the man from Madrid’, but with his hymn for Celta de Vigo, the bestselling star is also winning new fans in Galicia.

When Celta de Vigo start the new season this summer in La Liga, Spain’s top football tier, their fans will have a new club anthem to shake the foundations of their Balaídos stadium: Oliveira Dos Cen Anos by C Tangana, a rapper and singer whose El Madrileño was the bestselling album of 2021 in his native Spain.

From You’ll Never Walk Alone to Seven Nation Army, the crossover between football and popular music is well established. But the new Celta anthem is far from the Three Lions template of big choruses and simple singalongs. The song is the result of intense research and modern pop nous, fusing tradition and modernity to create what might be the most artistically ambitious football anthem ever.

Tangana, real name Antón Álvarez Alfaro, doesn’t actually sing on it, ceding the spotlight to Vigo’s Coral Casablanca choir, tambourine-wielding female vocal group Lagharteiras and Celta supporters’ club Tropas de Breogán. What’s more, the song leans heavily on the folklore of Galicia, the north-western region of Spain where Vigo is located. The song is in Galician – its title loosely translates as “100-year-old olive tree” – and uses the traditional rhythms and lyrics of Galician folk music. The song’s video, meanwhile, highlights the landscape of the Vigo estuary, including the island of San Simón and the Rande Bridge.

Tangana says he saw the song as an opportunity to create something that could transcend popular culture. “What cultural objects can you create that will change – or endure in – our culture?” he asks. “Although this is something local, around a city, that feeling of belonging to the club and the institution it represents, makes it a really strong opportunity for you to influence a lot of people.”

The origins of Celta’s new anthem – a himno in Spanish – were simple. In 2021 Celta used Twitter to ask supporters if anyone would like to compose a new anthem to celebrate the team’s 2023 centennial. Tangana, born in Madrid to a Celta-supporting Galician father and Andalusian mother, replied and the wheels were put in motion.

Composing the new anthem, however, was far from straightforward. Before putting pen to paper, Tangana carried out research with important figures in Galician culture, including writer Pedro Feijoo and folk musicians Rodrigo Romaní and Alfredo Dourado. Tangana says that the opportunity to immerse himself in Galician folklore “was like a gift to myself as an artist”.

“It is an anthem for a centennial,” he says. “Each element has to have the same weight: a centennial weight.”

From the various traditional ideas incorporated into the song, Tangana highlights the importance of the pandeireteiras and cantareiras (both groups of female singers, with the former, such as Lagharteiras, using tambourines). “This combination of female voices, always in a choir, almost never as soloists, playing percussion, all together, for me is the most moving thing there is musically in the whole world,” he says.

He himself is not fluent in Galician and writing a song in the language was a challenge. But he says it was important to stretch himself. “In the globalised world in which we live, with this obsession that everyone has to be the same, express ourselves in the same ways, make the same gestures […] cultural expressions that are very local for me have great value,” he says.

Tangana’s decision to write an anthem for RC Celta de Vigo initially caused confusion in Spain, with the artist closely linked to Madrid – El Madrileño translates as “the man from Madrid” – but the club’s fans were won round after the rapper explained his links to the club. What’s more, Tangana says he sees writing Oliveira Dos Cen Anos as part of the same process of fusing folk culture with modern production that he explored on El Madrileño, where flamenco music met Latin folk, rock, hip-hop and R&B, and on his hugely successful 2021 Tiny Desk performance for National Public Radio in the US, where he was joined by family members and musical collaborators for a performance that buzzed with the raw energy of a flamenco show.

“When I started to do international tours, spending a lot of time in the US and Latin America, I started to realise that I was missing something,” he says. “That made me turn towards the culture of Spain, towards cultural elements that had shaped my childhood and adolescence, and that I had given up on because I was looking at a screen or listening to music that came from other places.”

Galician vocal group Lagharteiras, who feature on Oliveira Dos Cen Anos.
Photograph: Rocío Aguirre

In this, Tangana’s music is part of a wider trend in Spanish culture, where musicians are combining elements of musical folklore – from Rosalía’s use of the flamenco palmas to Maria Arnal i Marcel Bagés’ take on Catalan folk – with 21st-century production. “The music I listened to as a child, the records that my parents liked and my family listened to, who was singing at a fiesta, what you eat in a normal day in Spain, where you hang out, the way you interact with alcohol, parties, family, all that helped to shape El Madrileño,” Tangana says. “Finally I feel like I have an artistic identity that is related to me.”

Oliveira Dos Cen Anos is also firmly in the Spanish football tradition, whereby clubs commission local musicians to create bespoke anthems – such as FC Barcelona’s Cant del Barça – which are then taken up by fans.

Tangana says it is for RC Celta supporters to decide whether they want to sing Oliveira Dos Cen Anos on the terraces but the response so far has been very warm. And if they do sing his song when the first game of the new season kicks off in August? “I am a bit nervous,” Tangana says with a smile. “But to hear it in the stadium, in front of so many people, will be incredibly powerful.”

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Coming Up Roses

 

Keira Knightley sings "Coming Up Roses" in a scene of the 2013 movie "Begin Again".

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Blue Monday 2023

Hi there, Labor Students.

Next 16th will be Monday,  not just any Monday, but... Blue Monday!

Blue Monday is a name given to the third Monday in January, thought to be the most depressing day of the year as part of a 2005 publicity campaign by Sky Travel.

The concept is considered pseudoscience with its formula derided by scientists as nonsensical.

31st December 2022: New Year's Eve

As you all know, in Spain we eat twelve grapes at midnight. The actual countdown is primarily followed from the clock on top of  the Correos building in Puerta del Sol square, Madrid. It is traditional to eat twelve grapes, on on each chime of the clock. This tradition has its origins in 1909, when grape growers in Alicante thought of it as a way to cut down on the large production surplus they had had that year. Nowadays the tradition is followed by almost every Spaniard, and the twelve grapes have become synonimous with the New Year. After the clock has finished striking twelve, people greet each other and toast with sparkling wine (such as champagane or cider).

7 O´Clock News / Silent Night 2022

Recorded on August 22nd, 1966, "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" is the twelfth and final track on "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme", a 1966 album by Simon and Garfunkel. The track consists of an overdubbing of two contrasting recordings: a simple arrangement of the Christmas carol "Silent Night", and a simulated "7 O'Clock News" bulletin of the actual events of 3 August 1966.

Christmas Carols & Songs 2022

O Come All Ye Faithful 

The text to the carol O Come All Ye Faithful was originally written in Latin (Adeste Fideles) and was intended to be a hymn, it is attributed to John Wade, an Englishman. The music to O Come All Ye Faithful was composed by fellow Englishman John Reading in the early 1700s. The tune was first published in a collection known as "Cantus Diversi" in 1751. In 1841 Rev. Frederick Oakley is reputed to have worked on the familiar translation of O Come All Ye Faithful which replaced the older Latin lyrics "Adeste Fideles".

We wish you a Merry Christmas. 

The author and composer of We Wish You a Merry Christmas cannot be traced however it is believed to date back to England in the sixteenth century. The tradition of carollers being given Christmas treats for singing to wealthy members of the community is reflected in this Christmas song - We Wish You a Merry Christmas! Over the years the fashion for figgy puddings mentioned in We Wish You a Merry Christmas has faded. But for the curious, the recipe consisted of the most important ingredient which was of course figs together with butter, sugar, eggs ,milk, rum, apple, lemon and orange peel, nuts, cinnamon, cloves and ginger! Not dissimilar to the modern day Christmas Puddings!

Auld Lang Syne. 

Although not strictly a Christmas song this section would not be complete without the inclusion of the lyrics of Auld Lang Syne. The song Auld Lang Syne is traditionally sung by most of us on the stroke of midnight each New Years Eve. However in Scotland, where Auld Lang Syne originates it is also sung on Burns Night, January 25th, to celebrate the life of the author and famous poet Robert Burns. The lyrics of Auld Lang Syne actually consist of five verses. The words 'Auld Lang Syne' literally translates from old Scottish dialect meaning 'Old Long Ago' and is about love and friendship in times past. The lyrics in the song Auld Lang Syne referring to 'We'll take a Cup of Kindness yet' relate to a drink shared by men and women to symbolise friendship. Happy New Year!!!

No copyright infringement intended. For educational non-commercial purposes only.

Merry Christmas 2022

Labor English Zone wishes Merry Christmas

At Labor English Zone we know what present we want for Christmas!

Advent 2022

What is Advent? (Reblogged from here and here)

The word Advent comes from the Latin word for “arrival”: adventus. The celebration of Advent, whether with wreaths in church or calendars at home, marks the beginning of the Christmas period. It’s one of the major seasons celebrated by most Christian churches in the Western tradition: Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and many additional Protestant churches mark the roughly month-long period with special observance.

Most Advent calendars start on December 1st, but the actual first day of the Advent season changes every year. In 2022, that day is Sunday November 27th. The final day is the same every year: December 24th, Christmas Eve — though many calendars run through Christmas Day.

The reason for the shifting start date is somewhat straightforward: as celebrated by Christian churches in the Western tradition (as opposed to Eastern Orthodox churches, which keep a different calendar), the season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and is celebrated on each successive Sunday leading up to Christmas.

Once Advent finishes, the 12 days of Christmas start... It is the period that in Christian theology marks the span between the birth of Christ and the coming of the Magi, the three wise men. It begins on December 25 (Christmas) and runs through January 6th (the Epiphany, sometimes also called Three Kings' Day).

God Save the King

 

‘God Save the King’: British national anthem changes lyrics after queen’s death

(by Andrew Court, reblogged from New York Post)

The lyrics of Britain’s national anthem have been changed following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The long-reigning monarch, 96, died Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, with her eldest child, Charles, now ascending the throne. In honor of the UK’s new royal ruler, the national anthem has been tweaked from “God Save the Queen” to “God Save the King.” The content of the song will remain the same, with the word “queen” simply being swapped out for “king,” and the she/her pronouns changed to he/him.

The national anthem was written in 1745 and was originally titled “God Save the King” in honor of then-ruler King George III. The song did not become the country’s anthem until the early 1800s. Since then, the anthem has switched back and forth between “God Save the King” and “God Save the Queen,” depending on the sex of the monarch.

On Thursday, many Britons took to Twitter to say it would be “weird” to hear the changed national anthem after 70 years of “God Save the Queen.”

“I suppose Britain’s national anthem switches back to God Save the King — that’s gonna be weird for a while,” one stated.

Meanwhile, another chimed in saying the country would subsequently alter in a myriad of other small ways, too.

“I cannot emphasize enough how much Britain will change in the coming year,” they wrote. “New monarch. New money. New national anthem. New stamps. It will change in a thousand seemingly minor, but major ways.”

The death of the queen came Thursday evening British time, just hours after Buckingham Palace said that her doctors had been “concerned for Her Majesty’s health.” Charles released a statement after the death was announced, mourning his late mother:

“The death of my beloved mother, Her Majesty, the queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family,” the 73-year-old said.

“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.”

Charles’ coronation is not expected to take place for months, as the country enters a prolonged period of mourning. 

His wife, Camilla, 75, will be called the queen consort.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

2022 Carnival Dance: Waterloo, by Abba

 ESO Students,

Waterloo, by Swedish legendary pop band ABBA, is the song you will be dancing at the school carnival this year, to be held next Friday 25th February.

Meanwhile, watch this video, practise the steps, movements, sequences and patterns in this dance. If you learn the lyrics and sing along, you will enjoy it even more. 

Have fun and remember: practice makes perfect.

My, my

At Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender

Oh, yeah

And I have met my destiny in quite a similar way

The history book on the shelf

Is always repeating itself

Waterloo

I was defeated, you won the war

Waterloo

Promise to love you forever more

Waterloo

Couldn't escape if I wanted to

Waterloo

Knowing my fate is to be with you

Wa-Wa-Wa-Wa-Waterloo

Finally facing my Waterloo

Blue Monday 2022

Hi there, Labor Students.

Next 24th will be Monday,  not just any Monday, but... Blue Monday!

Blue Monday is a name given to the Monday of the last full week of January, thought to be the most depressing day of the year as part of a 2005 publicity campaign by Sky Travel.

The concept is considered pseudoscience with its formula derided by scientists as nonsensical.

31st December 2021: New Year's Eve

As you all know, in Spain we eat twelve grapes at midnight. The actual countdown is primarily followed from the clock on top of  the Correos building in Puerta del Sol square, Madrid. It is traditional to eat twelve grapes, on on each chime of the clock. This tradition has its origins in 1909, when grape growers in Alicante thought of it as a way to cut down on the large production surplus they had had that year. Nowadays the tradition is followed by almost every Spaniard, and the twelve grapes have become synonimous with the New Year. After the clock has finished striking twelve, people greet each other and toast with sparkling wine (such as champagane or cider).

7 O´Clock News / Silent Night 2021

Recorded on August 22nd, 1966, "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" is the twelfth and final track on "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme", a 1966 album by Simon and Garfunkel. The track consists of an overdubbing of two contrasting recordings: a simple arrangement of the Christmas carol "Silent Night", and a simulated "7 O'Clock News" bulletin of the actual events of 3 August 1966.

Christmas Carols & Songs 2021

A carol is a song of praise or joy, especially for Christmas. But it is also an old round dance often accompanied by singing.  The word was probably from Old French, derived from Latin choraula, which means "choral song".

Enjoy a selection of traditional Christmas carols and songs in English. Lyrics are included, so you can learn how to sing them!

Merry Christmas 2021

Labor English Zone wishes you the 

Season's Greetings

At Labor English Zone we know what present we want for Christmas!

Advent 2021

What is Advent? (Reblogged from here and here)

The word Advent comes from the Latin word for “arrival”: adventus. The celebration of Advent, whether with wreaths in church or calendars at home, marks the beginning of the Christmas period. It’s one of the major seasons celebrated by most Christian churches in the Western tradition: Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and many additional Protestant churches mark the roughly month-long period with special observance.

Most Advent calendars start on December 1st, but the actual first day of the Advent season changes every year. In 2020, that day is November 29th. In 2021, it will be November 28th. The final day is the same every year: December 24th, Christmas Eve — though many calendars run through Christmas Day.

The reason for the shifting start date is somewhat straightforward: as celebrated by Christian churches in the Western tradition (as opposed to Eastern Orthodox churches, which keep a different calendar), the season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and is celebrated on each successive Sunday leading up to Christmas.

Once Advent finishes, the 12 days of Christmas start... It is the period that in Christian theology marks the span between the birth of Christ and the coming of the Magi, the three wise men. It begins on December 25 (Christmas) and runs through January 6th (the Epiphany, sometimes also called Three Kings' Day).

I Wanna Be Viral

 

Our Music teacher, Carlos Gil, has created this wonderful song describing faithfully what social networks seem to be about for many people, leading to much frustration and insatisfaction.

But his main aim has really been to let students at Labor School know that all of them can be independent creators and composers. Nowadays, thanks to free apps and software, any of you reading this can make up your own songs independently right from beginning to end, from composing the song to uploading and publishing it on different music platforms. Why don't you give it a try?

I WANNA BE VIRAL 

See me

Hear me

Share me

Help me out