GREATEST KONKANI SONG HITS #4: ___________________________ transcribing the fine music of a great culture - revisiting the original magic, and recreating a modern idiom: _________
"CLAUDIA" _________ A. LEGEND: "Claudia" "Claudia": is the eponymous theme of the semi‐tragic "Nirmonn" (Destiny) film, that followed "Amchem Noxib", its popularity again due to Frank Fernand's beguiling music score. Here it's a lilting little three‐chord Sousa‐like foxtrot. The lyrics are again by C. Alvares, who also stars ‐ he composes this little ditty for his daughter before he's lost at sea. Unbeknownst to all, he's washed ashore in far away Africa, suffering amnesia. Years later, toiling as a minion in an elaborate Goan household, he hears the same tune played by the young damsel of the house, for her friends gathered around a piano ‐ and his memory is triggered again... __________________________ B. TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED: "Claudia" A new "Claudia" story, different, and yet the same. Aguada, Goa, January, 1960. The prison governor raged. The convict in cell 61 was still on a hunger-strike. A great violinist once, he hated the Portuguese. Perhaps the visiting gypsy-troupe that evening had a violin....? Strangely, a rather battered one was produced by a comely shaven lamani gypsy called Kalauthia - no female troupes were allowed at Fort Aguada. Borne up to cell 61, the prisoner broke, and gorgeous airs emerged. The violin was returned two days later, and he ate. It became a weekly Friday ritual - the governor was away weekends - lyric violin magic closing out the week. Yet the prisoner was never let out, and the violin thoroughly searched before the prisoner had it for the weekend. One Sunday night, the prisoner vanished. The governor's fury on Monday was apocalyptic, but the violin virtuoso was never seen again. Indian troops rolled into Goa but six months later and the governor left Goa sadly for Lisbon, never to return. Twenty years later he did. At the Governor's palace he was stunned to meet his former prisoner, the musician, now Minister of Culture. "Oh, it was the violin all along!" the Minister explained to his puzzled guest. "No secret inside, the soft violin keys easily unplug! Strongly push in the jail-lock, get a firm impression, put it back. A fortnight later, I got it back, tooled by a locksmith, and I was free!" "Was the shaven-headed gypsy a plant then?" the ex-governor gaped. A raven-haired beauty with the gypsy's familiar features curtsied politely. "My daughter," smiled the Minister, "Claudia." "Claudia" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20GX2Xhh9U0&feature=channel _______________ Francis Rodrigues (c) 2009. Author of the multi-volume "Greatest Konkani Song Hits" series."Tales Of The Unexpected" contains many elements of the original lyric ideas. (A) is fact. (B) is fiction - a new spin to focus on the old songs. http://www.KonkaniSongBook.com _________________ _________________________________________________________________ Internet explorer 8 lets you browse the web faster. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9655582