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Ole! There was a paper about Petenera I came across that explains this song is used during the bullfight. I am curious if that is always done or some special case?
Also, in case anyone was curious I tracked down the supposed Sephardic song that relates… It seems the evidence is based on a one Turkish guy’s performance of some song, And its transcription that vaguely resembles Petenera melodies. It was recorded In early 1900 hundreds (so AFTER Mochuelo recorded it), so, not good evidence That the song predates or influenced Petenera we know.
Can´t say I have ever heard Petenera during a corrida: usually pasadobles. Faustino claims that its origin is Mejico. The inhabitants of Paterna de la Rivera have another idea: they have a life size statue of La Petenera at the entrance of the town and an annual competition for el Cante de Peteneras
The guy that showed me my first rasgueados and tolerated me in his group the first years that I was learning with him occasionally some palos here in Patras, Greece, where we both live, always told me that Peteneras was bad luck for many. He said that Petenera was associated with death and singers that might be superstitious, seldomly sung peteneras in public. He said that whenever he or we as a group played peteneras, something weird would happen to him.
He went every summer for months to Andalucia and Spain generally to study flamenco when he was younger, in the 80s and 90s I think. He also has some photos with Carlos Montoya with whom he also had some lessons I think (I never asked him where he met him, I thought Carlos Montoya lived in the US). Here is his soundcloud for anyone that wants to hear how he plays.
I like it a lot how the guitarist and the singer melt together as one.
Once I red the story why it brings bad luck to play the peteneras;
There was a girl in the village Paterna that was so beautiful that all the men in Paterna fall in love with her. On a very dark and bad day, the girl died. All The men where crying, they could not work, and could not eat. After moths, they still where mourning, crying, not eating and not working. All the women where desperate, nothing could comfort the sad men. Ans so, the whole village was doomed to go under.
So, never ever play a peteneras, you are doomed if you do.
So, never ever play a peteneras, you are doomed if you do.
José Millán told me he once went to a festival where most of the cantaores were gitanos. He went to the bar but could not approach as the gitanos were 4 deep. So he started to sing peteneras and all the gitanos fled, so he had the bar to himself
The concurso in Paterna has been going for more than 20 years, with hundreds in the audience and maybe 20 cantaores. Nothing adverse has happened yet
While I was listening to this petenera and reading this thread (my desk is right next to a ground-floor window), a parakeet smashed into the safety bars in front of the window and a cat jumped up, caught it mid-air and walked away with his prey in his mouth.
Scared the **** out of me. I guess this particular petenera was good luck for the cat, bad luck for the parakeet.
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