Chapter 15: Music in Spain- Flamenco, between the Local and the Global
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Title: De Color de Cera Mare (Of Wax Color, Mother) (Wade & Campbell, 2020, p. 239).
Performer(s): La Niña de los Peines Culture: Spanish (Spain)
Instrumentation: Guitar, solo voice, palmas (handclaps)
Tempo: The tempo of is established by the opening guitar. Quadruple meter consisting of four-beat units divided into two pulses each.
Melody: Monophony
Structure: A traditional flamenco, a composition (cante) consists of several verses (coplas) alternated with short guitar interludes (falsetas/variaciones).
A flexible structure is shaped in the course of performance, however, singers often improvise.
A cante often begins with a guitar introduction that establishes the metric cycle, tempo, tonality, and mood. The singer usually follows with a short vocal section (ayeo) in which the voice is warmed up and that singer sets the mood for the copla by improvising on syllables (vocables).
One of the most important expressive tools in the cante, (the ayeo) also has other uses such as expressing complaint pain, or sadness. Following the copla, the guitar closes with melodic patterns characteristic of the song type.
Cultural Contexts: The flamenco De Color de Cera Mare illustrates several characteristics of the genre's lyrics and song performance. The song recalls the historic neighborhood of Triana in Seville where flamenco was cultivated especially among Gitanos.
Teaching Strategy Possibilities: Listen to the following video and hold class discussion. Where do you hear the vocables and the interchange between singers and guitar? What do you infer this song is about? How can you tell? (Discuss emotion, passion, and pain in La Niña de los Peines' voice. (Read English lyrics). Where you correct?
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Title: Falseta de soleá
Culture: Spanish (Spain)
Instrumentation: Guitar
Melody: Monophony
Harmony: Andalusian mode- a distinctive scale in flamenco music. What makes it distinctive is that the interval between the second and third pitches of the scale can be either a whole step or the less usual interval in European music of an augmented second (aug2) that consists of three half steps.
When the Andalusian mode is harmonized in the guitar accompaniment, a distinctive chord progression is formed. Occurring particularly frequently at cadences, the progression is so distinctive as to be called the Andalusian cadence. This cadence is sometimes used in pop and rock music to evoke Andalusia, Spain, or Latin America.
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Title: Soleá de Alcalá
Culture: Spanish (Spain)
Instrumentation: Guitar (percussive strumming, tapping on soundboard), voice, clapping
Rhythm: Polyrhythmic patterns
Melody: Monophony
Harmony: Andalusian mode and Andalusian cadence- recurrent use of progression. Complete cadence in final chord(s).
Teaching Strategy Possibilities: What is a palmas? (handclap). Listen to Soleá de Alcalá. Teach when to count the accented beats (3, 6, 8, 10, and 12).
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Title: Entre Dos Aguas
Performer(s): Paco de Lucía (1947-2014)
Culture: Spanish (Spain)
Instrumentation: Guitar, bass, bongos
Melody: Melodic modes
Harmony: Ninth chords, eleventh chords, occasional dissonance.
Structure: Three clearly marked sections:
Introduction (0:00-0:21): Each chord lasting two measures- Am7 - Bm7 - Am7 - B7
Section 1 (0:22-2:22): Solo guitar plays the main melody; repeated and elaborated; ornamented
Section 2 (2:23-4:13): Three melodic ideas based on the chord progression Em - D7 - C7 - B; corresponding to the Andalusian cadence.
Section 3 (4:13-6:00): Based on a two-chord harmonic progression (D7 - Em) extending over two measures. Repeated and elaborated, occasionally alluding to the sonority of the Brazilian bossa nova.
Each section is characterized by cyclically repeated chord progressions and distinct melodic and rhythmic material.
Cultural Contexts: Paco de Lucía is the best-known flamenco artist internationally. He performed asn recorded with different musicians, including John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Larry Coryell, and Chick Corea.
Teaching Strategy Possibilities: Listen to the pieces. How are the transitions between sections marked? Can you hear a clear distinction?
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Title: Volando Voy
Performer(s): Camarón de la Isla (1950-1992)
Culture: Spanish (Spain)
Instrumentation: Guitar, bongos, voice, flute
Melody: The melody from the refrain (see below) is reoccurring throughout the song.
Volando voy, volando vengo (I go flying, I come flying)
por el camino yo me entretengo (On the way, I entertain myself)
Structure: Rumba
Cultural Contexts: In 1979, Camarón de la Isla released an album titled La leyenda del tiempo (The Legend of Time). It made major contributions to shaping nuevo flamenco, mixing the flamenco idiom with styalistic elements from pop, rock, and Latin American music. Following this album, rock instrumentation and the electric sound became comon in nuevo flamenco music. Volando Voy is the most popular track from the album.
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