Harpy’s Habanera
Love itself is wild. Therefore anyone who thinks they possess it - is already caught in its web.
TL;dr listen here -> https://suno.com/s/upASdjafwSuwtOME
I taught myself piano precisely because of the passion and style of Maria Callas’ singing Habenara.
It touched me deeply, despite French not being my first language.
I resolved right then and there to save up for a keyboard.
And once I did get my hands on a keyboard? I learned how to play exactly one song, this song.
Fittingly, Love comes, Love goes, Love is a rebellious bird.
Circumstances forced me into a midnight move, leaving my keyboard and anything else I couldn’t pack into a knapsack - behind.
Lately, I’ve been exploring storytelling through song. I take a myth, or a piece of literature, or some other inspo and pare it down to its essential nature - then rewrite as a short story, a poem, or as lyrics.
I try to match genre to story, or sometimes I flip it and explore experimental genres for the contrast. I think of genre’s the way I do a colour pallet. Some things go together better than you’d expect. Some things clash and you know what? Sometimes that clashing itself is what give the piece that je ne c'est pas.
Which is what brought my mind back to Carmen’s Habanera: An Opera song named for a cuban musical style (the habanera) sung in French by a Greek Opera Star, gave me a lot of room to play.
First thing I wanted to do was to strip the operatics and return the song to a Habanera structure: 3-2-2 rhythms
Then I wanted to add in African & Cuban instrumentation Mixed with the French Chanson style to approximate the 19th century Cuban Habanera style of music and dance.
My Refined Prompt: African Folk, French chanson, pre-tango habanera: tres cubano counterlines and nylon-string guitar over elegant accordion, marímbula bassline, crisp claves, güiro shakers, bongos, congas, timbales cowbell, and chequeré; slow 2/4 sway with gradual pullback, warm salon acoustics, dry room reverb, 1960s analog capture; low intimate vocal in the user's own recorded voice, close-mic breathy delivery, restrained passion, ‑no crowds, ‑no cheering, ‑no call and response
I turned my eyes to the lyrics.
First thing I had to do was transform the lyrics by translation. The translated lyrics were clunky, timing was off, and the Spanish to French to English translations flattened the beautiful nuances from the Opera. I re-wrote translations to a more modern vernacular, then re-wrote again to clarify and shape the verses, and to revise certain concepts and words for a more Harpy feel.
Finally, I had to choose my voice.
I have found I have a much more satisfying experience producing songs by using my own voice. I typically only sing to animals and plants - so this is all new to me. I’m not a trained singer, and I often lose my tune by slipping from my tonal range.
Suno takes my raw voice and makes it fit the shape of the song for me. It makes my voice stretch to hit those high, sustained notes. But when its in the lower register? It really does sound like me.
Sometimes the results are truly TRULY bad. Sometimes I really can hear my voice as it sounds to me, and other times I’m like whoah, the pipes on her!
Of course they aren’t my pipes, they are AI copies and clones of my voice taken on different days, under different moods, with varying levels of rawness. But what I have found, is a sound that is uniquely Harpy’s own that unites the catalogue I’ve been building across genres. Voice
First - Harpy’s voice Aug 11(smoother, cold is gone)
Second - Harpy’s Diamond voice (raw with chest cold)
Third- Created a new voice by mixing my two voices
Final - Chose Harpy’s Diamond Voice after all
Smashed everything together
Mixed and remixed till happy
FINAL HARPY'S HABANERA
Enjoy!
Comments