Portuguese Fado Song Book
Fado Portugues: Songs from the Soul of Portugal by Donald Cohen
(song book with CD, 144p., $36.95 + shipping--see below)
It gives me great pleasure to be able to offer you this fine book and CD. While it is a softcover book it is printed on very good paper stock. The book includes the written music (melody and guitar charts) for 26 famous fados and a CD with original recordings by famous Portuguese singers. It also includes wonderful photos of Lisbon and of a number of fado personalities. Each song has the original Portuguese words and a very nice English translation. And, each song is accompanied by an informative essay which puts the song in context and tells about the fadista.
This book was written by Donald Cohen who has had a long time love with fado music. I have known about Donald's interest in the fado for a number of years because I had heard him speaking about it on the radio a few times and because we had a mutual friend, Aniceto Batista, the great Portuguese guitarista who lived in Northern California. Shortly after this book was published I had a 45 minute phone conversation with Donald in which he shared his enthusiam for fado.
I especially recommend this book for singers because they can hear the songs and then see the words and written music. When I listened to the songs I compared the key of the written music and, for the songs I checked, it was the same key--this is very convenient for the singer and instrumentalist.
While the written music includes chord charts they are for the Spanish (standard international) guitar not for the Portuguese guitar. I would have loved to have received a book which has arrangements for the Portuguese guitarra but that time has not yet arrived. Despite the lack of written music for the Portuguese guitar in this book I still strongly recommend it.
Here are the pieces in the book with the singers:
1. Lisboa Antigua, Amália Rodrigues
2. Coimbra (April in Portugal), Amália Rodrigues
3. Ai, Mouraria, Amália Rodrigues
4. Por Morrer uma Andorinha, Carlos do Carmo
5. O Embuçado, João Ferreira-Rosa
6. A Rosinha dos Limões, Max
7. Vinte Anos, Celeste Rodrigues
8. E Foi-se a Mocidade, Carlos Ramos
9. Meu Bairro Alto, Nuno da Camara Pereira
10. Valeu a Pena, Carlos Ramos
11. Rosa Enjeitada, Maria Teresa de Noronha
12. Fado Hilário, Luis Goes
13. Da Janela do Meu Quarto, Tristão da Silva
14. A Moda das Tranças Pretas, José da Camara & Don Vicente da Camara
15. Júlia Florista, Max
16. O Pagem, Alfred Marceneiro
17. Bons Tempos, Carlos Ramos
18. Fado da Defesa, Margarida Bessa
19. Lisboa Não Sejas Francesa, Amália Rodrigues
20. Há muito quem Cante o Fado, Manuel de Almeida
21. Lisboa É Sempre Lisboa, Tristão da Silva
22. Fado Trinta e Um, António Mello Correa
23. Tamanquinhas, António Mello Correa
24. Ah, Qunata melancolia, Camane
25. Maria Madalena, Lucília do carmo
26. Minha Má foi Cigarreira, Filipe Pinto
Contact me for price with shipping: ron@fernandezmusic.com. At this time Amazon is selling this book very cheaply.
Fernandez Music, P.O. Box 2130, Anacortes, WA 98221
Portuguese Guitar Method Books
Playing the Portuguese Guitarra Lisbon Style (an Internet lesson)
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