Every once in awhile, we receive a translation project that has to do with one of my favorite hobbies: music. And although anyone familiar with music may think, “Easy! All music is in Italian!”, it’s not quite so simple. It is true that during the renaissance, Italian musical invention revolutionized Western music and more or […]
When translating a song, a poem or a proverb, it’s unacceptable to go about it in a literal fashion (though later on we’ll see an example where there’s no other option but to do so). In the specific case of a song, we must find a way to express the original meaning of the lyrics […]
In previous posts we dealt with the subject of the revolution of dubbing (specifically, in animated Disney films). Starting in the 1940s, this aspect of internationalization of film was subject to incredible improvements. But which is considered to be among the best dubbing jobs in history? And, more important still, what characteristics does it display? Through […]
This blog talks about many things: languages, translations, cultures, etc., but one thing we hardly ever explore here is music. One cannot deny that music is in fact, a beautiful language in and of itself. Just like words, music is both written down and then expressed through sound. If you think about it, music is […]
We all know that there are many differences between terms that are commonly used by Spanish speakers and those used in English. Thanks to globalization and the vast amount of information we receive through music, movies, social networking and the exchange of information of all kinds, it’s plain to see that certain basic things are […]
In a recent post, Pablo questioned whether or not music should be considered a form of language.The textual component of music, that is, the song lyrics, is on a more superficial level of the topic: we can, without fear of being wrong, affirm that there we are effectively dealing with language. As such, the lyrics […]
The other night I was listening to a version of Eleanor Rigby by the talented Uruguayan musician Leo Masliah. This particular version has got so many variations and modulations (changes of key) that at one point I realized that there was no way he could know the whole thing by heart. Of course, he writes […]