Sevillanas Compas Problem

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Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

Sevillanas Compas Problem

Guys, so I was booked to play with my duo at a corporate event, and the director of the event flew in a dancer from LA. Me not being an accompanist at all, he still wanted to me to accompany here. We decided on a couple pieces and I sent her the tracks. Well, at the last minute, she tells me that the coplas are too long on the Sevillanas I sent her! I said, well I have been playing them that way for years, I don't think I can change them on the fly. So of the 4 coplas, she just picked the two she said were right and I repeated them. So... can you guys hear it too? The 3rd and 4th are supposed to be the wrong length.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/91758762/Sevillanas.mp3

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 19 2013 15:58:10

Erik van Goch

Posts: 1787
Joined: Jul. 17 2012
From: Netherlands

RE: Sevillanas Compas Problem (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

The 3th is indeed wrong in length but only because you accidentally play the melody 4 times in stead of 3 times so you probably didn't have to change anything aside from paying attention to how often you have played it already :-). On the other hand i can imagine this melody is not the most simple one to dance on and it might not fit all choreographies.

The 4th Sevillanas has a correct length but maybe she didn't feel compatible with the melody. I composed a couple of Sevillanas myself before i was privileged to accompany dancers and soon discovered that some of the melodies i composed were totally incompatible with the dancing (correct length and even phrasing but somehow totally undanceable). Like the guitar the dancer changes choreography with each new song. Some songs fit certain choreographies like a glove wile being totally incompatible with others.

One dancer i worked with was not that trustable herself when it came to compas length and after a 3 mount holiday she frequently would skip or add a chain, blaming me in the process :-).

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 19 2013 16:26:09

Dave K

Posts: 155
Joined: Mar. 29 2006

RE: Sevillanas Compas Problem (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

You did play an extra line on the third copla, but the fourth was okay... Maybe she didn't like the melody of the fourth? Had you been playing for a dancer you'd have stopped at the proper time because of the dancers calling a halt with arms up and a pose. I seem to recall someone as great as our Ricardo doing one line short because the dancer stopped it... They pose, you stop - no big deal.

Cheers,
Dave

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 20 2013 1:50:02

Ricardo

Posts: 14848
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Sevillanas Compas Problem (in reply to Erik van Goch)

quote:

The 4th Sevillanas has a correct length but maybe she didn't feel compatible with the melody.

the third sevillanas has the footwork call and response, so this melody works best for the 3rd instead of the 4th. BUT....the dancer is still wrong to suggest this doesn't work, it works fine. And yes he accidentally repeats the E phrygian one a 4th time...again, any pro dancer would simply say "wooops, only 3x thanks, the rest are fine".

A funny thing is I also made up my own sevillanas that were off length (in my first weeks of playing for dancers), because my model was wrong. I used Paco and Modrego's duet of lorca's 18h century sevillanas. The dancer I showed them to corrected me simply saying I did too many strums between coplas. Later it made sense, but I was always baffled why Paco and Modrego did that. I think for track timing length to fill up an LP was the reason.

Later on I noticed several quierky sevillanas that were off. I think it is a game for flamencos to sort of stretch em out. A dancer friend of mine organized a party called "sala rociera" where students could come and dance sevillanas for hours, both to live music and ipod. We compiled a huge set list of sevillanas and for fun at the end we put some in we knew were "off" so all the dancers would be confused at the end of the night.

One of my all time favorites is Vicente Amigo and el Pele on the album Canto.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 20 2013 1:52:15

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Sevillanas Compas Problem (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

Guys, thank you for checking it out. I figured it was going to be some combination of guitar scrub messup and dancer OCD :) Reason being I have played these same coplas with at least three sets of guitarists around here for gigs, and no one ever said anything! She was real cool though and just asked me to play the first two coplas twice. Of course no one cared, because they were all staring at her. She's quite beautiful and dances dramatically.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 20 2013 2:56:52

mark indigo

Posts: 3625
Joined: Dec. 5 2007

RE: Sevillanas Compas Problem (in reply to Ricardo)

quote:

We compiled a huge set list of sevillanas and for fun at the end we put some in we knew were "off" so all the dancers would be confused at the end of the night. One of my all time favorites is Vicente Amigo and el Pele on the album Canto.

I think the one recorded by Camaron with PDL accompanying in the seventies (on Rosa Maria lp?) was "off" as well, I think the melody was too long for the normal length.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Aug. 20 2013 6:06:32