Alhambra

The Alhambra (/ælˈhæmbrə/; Spanish: [aˈlambɾa]; Arabic: الْحَمْرَاء‎ [ʔælħæmˈɾˠɑːʔ], Al-Ḥamrā, lit. "the red one"), the complete form of which was Calat Alhamra, is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It was originally constructed as a small fortress in 889 and then largely ignored until its ruins were renovated and rebuilt in the mid-13th century by the Moorish emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar of the Emirate of Granada, who built its current palace and walls. It was converted into a royal palace in 1333 by Yusuf I, Sultan of Granada.

Alhambra's Islamic palaces, as we know them today, were built for the last Muslim emirs in Spain and the court of the Nasrid dynasty. After the conquest of Granada by the Reyes Católicos ("Catholic Monarchs") in 1492, some portions were used by Christian rulers. The Palace of Charles V, built by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1527, was inserted in the Alhambra within the Nasrid fortifications. After being allowed to fall into disrepair for centuries, the buildings being occupied by squatters, Alhambra was rediscovered in the 19th century by European scholars and travelers, with restorations commencing. It is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions, exhibiting the country's most significant and well known Islamic architecture, together with 16th-century and later Christian building and garden interventions. The Alhambra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the inspiration for many songs and stories.

Recuerdos de la Alhambra

Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Memories of the Alhambra) is a classical guitar piece composed in 1896 in Granada by Spanish composer and guitarist Francisco Tárrega. It uses the classical guitar tremolo technique often performed by advanced players.

Recuerdos de la Alhambra shares a title with the Spanish language translation of Washington Irving's 1832 book, Tales of the Alhambra, written during the author's four-year stay in Spain.

Performance notes

The piece showcases the challenging guitar technique known as tremolo, wherein a single melody note is plucked consecutively by the ring, middle and index fingers in such rapid succession that the result is an illusion of one long sustained note. The thumb plays a counter-melody on the bass between melodic attacks. Many who know this piece only as a recording mistake it for a duet rather than a challenging solo effort, but any student of classical or Spanish guitar will immediately realise that it can - and therefore must - be played by one hand.

Executive producer

An executive producer (EP) enables the making of a commercial entertainment product. The EP may be concerned with management accounting and/or with associated legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). An EP generally contributes to the film's budget and may or may not work on set.

Motion pictures

In motion pictures, an executive producer oversees the filmmaking with regard to film finance. Executive producers liaise with the line producer and report to production companies and distributors.

Television

In television, an executive producer often supervises the creative content as well as the financial aspects of a production. Some writers (for example Stephen J. Cannell and Tina Fey) have been the creator and also the producer of the same TV show. Other dual roles may include the executive director(s) starring in the show they produce, such as Full Throttle Saloon reality TV star, Jesse James Dupree. Still other shows may have more than one executive producer working on a TV show where there can be one among them who outranks the others. This position is known as the "showrunner," or operational executive producer.

Andalusia

Andalusia (/ˌændəˈluːsiəˌ -ziəˌ -ʒⁱə/; Spanish: Andalucía [andaluˈθi.a, -si.a]) is a south-western European region established as an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain. It is the most populated and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities in Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Seville. Its capital is the city of Seville (Spanish: Sevilla).

Andalusia is in the south of the Iberian peninsula, immediately south of the autonomous communities of Extremadura and Castile–La Mancha; west of the autonomous community of Murcia and the Mediterranean Sea; east of Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean; and north of the Mediterranean Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar. Andalusia is the only European region with both Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines. The small British overseas territory of Gibraltar shares a three-quarter-mile land border with the Andalusian province of Cádiz at the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar.

John Williams

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John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning over six decades, Williams has composed some of the most popular and recognizable film scores in cinematic history, including Jaws, the Star Wars series, Superman, the Indiana Jones series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, and the first three Harry Potter films. He has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all save five of Spielberg's feature films.

Other notable works by Williams include theme music for four Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, the 2011 Tintin movie, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the original, not-as-well-known, calypso-based theme song to Gilligan's Island. He has composed numerous classical concerti and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments, and he served as the Boston Pops' principal conductor (1980–93), and is now the orchestra's laureate conductor.