Sunday Music – Nessun Dorma

Posted on Sun 03/28/2010 by TonyfromOz

Today’s music video is ‘Nessun Dorma’ (None Shall Sleep) from Jeff Beck.

This video was posted to You Tube by Leonel Javier Ciliberto

Each generation think it was they who invented the music. I was no different. I started getting ‘into’ music in the mid 60’s so that genre was where it started. As I got older, the music still coming through was good, so I gained a further appreciation of music. As well, I started enjoying music from earlier times as well. It took longer for me to start appreciating Classical music, jazz, and other styles as well. I still couldn’t really come at Opera, until I heard one truly beautiful piece in the mid 80’s. I still don’t like most Opera, but I understand it now, and do enjoy an occasional piece from a truly beautiful voice.

Those who have an appreciation of modern popular music know well the name Jeff Beck, and even though his solo career was limited, he played with the who’s who of modern rock music. He was in the Yardbirds, after Eric Clapton departed, and that band then morphed into Led Zeppelin. He was in The Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart, Nicky Hopkins, and Ronnie Wood. He was known as the guitarist’s guitarist, and has been ranked in Top Ten all time guitarists. Pink Floyd actually canvassed asking him to join the band after the departure of Syd Barrett.

The rumour is that he is difficult to play with because he is such a perfectionist, but he has had a long and wonderful career.

That brings us to this piece of music ‘Nessun Dorma’. It was written but not finished by Puccini for his 3 Act Opera Turandot. here you need to understand about the voice part of Opera. In modern music, the singers just sing along with the music. In Opera, the voice is a separate instrument in itself. The composer writes the music for each instrument in the orchestra playing the music. he also writes the music for the voice singing the part, and the lyrics are then formed as the notes of that music, So, all played together, it blends together. The Opera singer jus does not sing along with the music.

So, in this case, what Beck has done is to take the voice part of the music and play each note as it was originally sung, and then translate that to the notes on his guitar, because, believe me, Giacomo Puccini did not write in a guitar piece for his original opera. This Beck translation here is a really difficult piece to play because it is originally written for a Tenor voice, so the notes are way down on the fretboard and flow so it’s note to note, but a note that then flows, hence the use of the tremelo arm to stretch the note. Beck plays with an orchestral backing and this is just beautiful. Incidentally, the guitar here is a Fender Stratocaster, probably one of the best guitars for notes played that far down the fretboard. and still sounding ‘pure’, as they do here.

Beck is currently touring and is playing the piece during his concerts. There are numerous versions of the song from those live concerts, again all filmed with the ubiquitous mobile phone,and because of that they are jumpy by nature, out of focus and not showing the whole song, and each version is slightly different. That is why I have chosen this version which is the full version, and as it will sound on the album, due to be released soon.

Jeff Beck is now 65.

Incidentally, that piece of music that made me sit up and take notice of Opera in the mid 80’s was in fact ‘Nessun Dorma’, this piece, and it was sung by ‘The Voice Of The 20th Century’, Luciano Pavarotti, and if this does not make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, then you have no appreciation of music.