lyr/chords: Cancion Mixteca

Subject: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: BigDaddy
Date: 13 Feb 04 - 05:33 PM

GUEST,ClaireBear was kind enough to submit the lyrics for this a while back. I wonder if anyone could help with a simple three or four chord arrangement for guitar?

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Feb 04 - 05:55 PM

I think ClaireBear handled this with links in thread 57249. I know there is a link to sheet music. Check it out.
Mixteca

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Thread #57249   Message #900069
Posted By: GUEST,ClaireBear
27-Feb-03 - 06:41 PM
Thread Name: 'Funeral home' songs
Subject: Lyr Add: Cancion Mixteca

When my mother died after a long illness, the four of us offspring worked up two a cappella arrangements: Beulah Land (which *her* mother had loved) and Cancion Mixteca, which my mother loved and which seemed strangely appropriate for someone who had lived rather too long. I sang lead on that one. Hardest gig I've ever had -- this not being the easiest song to sing under the best of circumstances -- but we sent Mamacita off in style. Since it doesn't seem to live at Mudcat, here are the words and an approximate translation:

Cancion Mixteca

¡Qué lejos estoy del suelo donde he nacido,
inmensa nostagia invade mi pensamiento,
y al verme tan solo y triste cual hoja al viento,
quisiera llorar, quisiera morir de sentimiento!

¡0h tierra del sol, suspiro por verte
ahora que lejos yo vivo sin luz, sin amor,
y al verme tan solo y triste cual hoja al viento,
quisiera llorar, quisiera morir de sentimiento!

Approximate translation:

How far away I am from my homeland,
great nostalgia invades my mind,
and when I see myself so lonesome and sad, like a leaf in the wind,
I'd like to cry, I'd like to die of sorrow!

Oh land of the sun I long to see you
now that I live faraway, without light, without love;
and when I see myself so lonesome and sad, like a leaf in the wind,
I'd like to cry, I'd like to die of sorrow!

Here's a link to the sheet music: Cancion Mixteca music (sorry, no lyrics underlaid)

Let's see if I can find a tune file...hmmm, this page has MP3s for Mac and PC: MP3s

BTW, "There's a Long, Long Trail a-Winding" also made an appearance, not vocally but I placed the lyrics on her funeral announcement.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: BigDaddy
Date: 14 Feb 04 - 03:49 AM

Sheet music but no guitar chords. I know. If I were more musically literate, I'd be able to devise chords from sheet music. I'm impaired. So help!

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: BigDaddy
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 11:16 PM

Oh come on! Do I have to track down Harry Dean Stanton? :)

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 11:02 AM

You know, I was assembling some chords for you before Q reminded me that I'd submitted links to sheet music, at which point I erased my post-in-progress. Sorry!

I'll try to recreate it later today (I'm supposed to be working...), but I can't promise it will be in the same key as the sheet music. I also can't promise they'll be the right chords for you; I've always performed this a capella and hence hear vocal harmonies rather than instrumental. Lots of sevenths.

Claire

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 11:49 AM

OK, here's an attempt. All the disclaimers from my last post apply, and I'll add one: not being a very good guitar player *and* not having access to one at work, these chords are guesses. If it seems wrong, it probably is.

I tried to err by omission -- in other words, I took a deliberately spartan approach to chord changes. You don't need many; the tune has so many inherent chord runs that it defines itself.

Did you notics there's a tablature line underlaying the dots in the sheet music I linked to? It's in a guitar tuning I don't use, but it might help you come up with alternates to the chords I've used here:

Cancion Mixteca

¡Qué [G] lejos estoy del suelo donde he na[D7]cido,

in[D]mensa nostalgia in[D7]vade mi pensa[G]miento,

y al verme tan solo y [G7] triste cual hoja al [Am] vien[C]to, [Am]

quisiera llo[G]rar, quisiera mo[D7]rir de sentimien[G]to! [D]



¡0h tierra del sol, [D7] suspiro por [G] verte [D]

ahora que [D7] lejos yo vivo sin luz, sin a[G]mor,

y al verme tan solo y [G7] triste cual hoja al [Am] vien[C] to, [Am]

quisiera llo[G]rar, quisiera mo[D7]rir de sentimien[G]to!

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: M.Ted
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 12:07 PM

Ry Cooder would be better--I am sorry that I don't have time to count all the measures it out, Big Daddy, but the song is actually really easy to play--here is a kind of rough outline of the way the chords go, but it you''ll really have to sit down and fine tune it yourself.

|AAAA/EEEE/EEEE/EAAA/
AAAA/DDDD/EEAA/EEAA/
EEEE/AAAA/EEEE/EEAA/AAAA/
AADD/DDEE/AAEE/AAAA|

The thing to keep in mind is that the tune is in a compound tempo, 12/8, which is to say that each measure is four beats, each of which is three beats--like this:
|Da da da-Da da da-Da da da-Da da da-Da da da|

Although the melody seems to be sixteen measures long , in reality, there are a couple of extra pick-up beats before each line of lyrics, which, in other versions of the song, are really pauses or held notes--It works out to a couple extra measures over the length of the song, and makes the chord changes sound slightly unpredictable--The long and the short of it was that I didn't have the time to keep playing the recording over and over and counting out the measures(though I can now accompany the song on my guitar, and can even pick out the melody along with the recording)--

Good luck--



\

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: BigDaddy
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 02:27 AM

Thanks mucho, M. Ted and ClaireBear. I'll try it both ways. I really appreciate your help. Gracias Amigos!

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: BigDaddy
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 02:34 AM

Afterthought...Harry Dean Stanton performed this song on the David Letterman show in the late 80's. Letterman made fun of him as he sang (looking at his watch, pretending to yawn, grimacing , etc.). This was the last straw as far I was concerned and I haven't watched Letterman since. Cheers.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: GUEST,ClaireBear
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 10:26 AM

I admit it, I was wondering how Harry Dean Stanton figured into this thread. Thanks for clearing that up!

Claire

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: M.Ted
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 10:50 AM

Maybe Letterman was right--Cancion Mixteca is usually an uptempo Mariachi number--

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca chords required
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Feb 04 - 11:58 AM

Alone and sad, like a leaf in the wind? Uptempo mariachi renditions would cause Alavez to whirl in his grave.
OK, I guess, if you ignore his lyrics.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Cancion Mixteca
From: GUEST,svresolute
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 06:01 PM

The Harry Dean Stanton performance on Ry Cooder's, "Paris, Texas" is wonderful. I know the song is often performed with a mariachi tempo, but the words more closely mirror Cooder's interpretation.

Subject: RE: lyr/chords: Cancion Mixteca
From: GUEST,RRIPA
Date: 30 Apr 20 - 02:23 AM

The link to the sheet music doesn't work. Do you think its possible to put it on again?

Thanks.

Subject: RE: lyr/chords: Cancion Mixteca
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Apr 20 - 12:03 PM

That page has expired. Here's a search on Cancion Mixteca sheet music. Maybe you'll find it in there?

Subject: RE: lyr/chords: Cancion Mixteca
From: cnd
Date: 30 Apr 20 - 02:32 PM

Not to worry, the page is still preserved thanks to archive.org

https://web.archive.org/web/20170808120611/http://www.timsparks.com/pdfs/cancion_mixteca.pdf

Subject: RE: lyr/chords: Cancion Mixteca
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Apr 20 - 02:38 PM

Good save, cnd! That's one of my go-to places but I forgot about it.