Symphony No. 5 - Mambo No. 5 - Beethoven/Prado/arr. Ramos video free download

July 28, 2012 - The Filipino-American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Shroder, perform this interesting arrangement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Prado's Mambo No. 5, by Louie Ramos, for the FASO is Bach to Rock Concert at the Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, CA.

NOTE: Unfortunately the Channel LA36 Video Camera crane can be seen moving in and out of this video, as the permitted locations for video camera setups were restricted at the Ford Amphitheater.

Program Notes:

The two Number Fives--Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Perez Prado's Mambo No. 5 was mashed up in this Louie Ramos arrangement, based on a setting of the Japanese composer Akira Miyagawa. Ramos enhanced the Mambo groove through a number of devices. First, the percussions played a tumbao pattern in the conga drums and the 2-3 clave pattern in the clave percussion. Second, the saxophone and clarinet sections added swing into their melody lines. And third, the contrabass anticipated the harmony's tonic by playing the root note one beat ahead of the usual downbeat of a measure, a characteristic of many Afro-Cuban grooves.

The 1959 hit "Mambo No. 5" was remade by singer Lou Bega in 1999. He introduced a very catchy melody ("A little bit of...") that was not in the original Prado piece. Although Miyagawa's setting did not use the Bega melody, Ramos reincorporated it in his arrangement. The Miyagawa setting converts Beethoven's classical theme into a Mambo groove but does not do the converse, which is to give Prado's Mambo theme a classical treatment. Ramos' arrangement mashes the two pieces further by accomplishing the latter. He took Lou Bega's melody ("A little bit of...") and gave it a classical treatment. Listening closely, one will hear the Lou Bega melody echo across the string section, in the classical style that Beethoven does in his symphony.