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Posts: 2277
Joined: Apr. 17 2007
From: South East England
unaccompanied cante
Does it have a special name, unaccompanied? If it does I'm sure you guys will know it.
This evening I've been listening to some unaccompanied stuff. A friend lent me an old cante anthology on vinyl, six sides, and the last side is all sin guitarra. And it really is astonishing. There Tonas, Martinetes and Deblas, all sung by Rafael Romero. And then there's a track Cuatro Saetas with a very spare military snare drum rhythm. It was amazingly atmospheric - real 'shivers down the spine' stuff.
Anyway, now this is gonna down real bad with so many guitarists , but it was so good it makes you wonder why we bother playing guitar.
Just kidding! I'll try to upload a little extract tomorrow.
Palo seco. Actually, any cante can be sung that way, but the ones you meantioned never had nor ever have had guitar. I like the martinete on Jose Merce's latest disc, it has a drone (single tonic note holding) which I think would be effective for ALL these cantes, and really shows their MODAL quality.
Saeta, not so sure that is considered flamenco, at least I don't consider it flamenco all the time, but very close related like Sevillanas/Rumba, except I think of Saeta as religious and profound. Here is a singer I know from Jerez, young guy related to Paquera, who got caught on camera during the holy week doing a saeta:
There are two very nice Saetas at the end of the Agujetas con Sanlucar disc, I found the march-style percussion they used very interesting (since the rest of the album was just guitar/cante/etc.)
Origins of the saeta are unclear, but it is considerably older than cante flamenco and anterior to the arrival of the gitano en Andalucía, probably judaic/arab.
The modern versions are exaltations directed at a particular Cristo or Virgen in the Semana Santa processions. Flamenco influence is relatively recent: Hipólito Rossy claims that the first flamenco saeta dates from 1919, when Manuel Centeno sang a saeta por seguiriyas, en Sevilla. This assertion is hard to believe, since all of the great cantaores, from Enrique el Mellizo and Manuel Torres are known to have sung saetas.
The saeta is very hard to sing, as it starts low and ends very high and not every cantaor has such a range. As a result, there are specialists in saeta, who do not sing flamenco. Nowadays, the flamencos tend to sing the saeta por seguiriyas or por carcelera.
The connection with Semana Santa is fundamental and a saeta sung in the street to a particular Cristo is a very emotive event.
I see that you have had your questions answered already but just wanted to add that Martinete is one of my favourite palos. It's origins ( correct me if I get this wrong any-one) are in the blacksmith when they would sing to the sound of the hammer. The Albaicin and Sacromonte used to have many many fraguas built into the caves. Only the other day the house opposite dug out all the rubble on the side and discovered an old fragua there. We had our staircase built by the last fragua in the Albaicin. The old Gitano actually carried the thing in two parts down the hill on his back and he as such a tiny man. Him and Harold put the staircase in together. It is now closed down, hopefully he made more money than ever before when he sold it and it is probably now a luxury home :(
Semana Santa isnearly upon us and already they are practising in the street. The Saetas are on of my favourite parts in the processions, particularly when El Ni~õ, Jaim or Morente sing during the Procession de Los Gitanos. A few years back I caughtby chance as I was passing Juan Pinilla singing a Sieta by the Peña to the Virgin as she passed by which made the hairs on my arms stand up and brought tears to my eyes, and I am not even religious at all. Its just very moving. One day you have to come to Granada at Easter and see for yourselves.
I like the martinete on Jose Merce's latest disc, it has a drone (single tonic note holding) which I think would be effective for ALL these cantes
I always liked the siguiriya on Morente's "Despegando" which has some kind of electronic-sounding drone, very effective. (And probably quite innovative when it was done 30 years ago). You can hear it here:
Printable Version
, but it was so good it makes you wonder why we bother playing guitar. 
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