NormanKliman -> RE: Cante por Rondeñas (Jul. 16 2009 7:12:00)
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Okay, here's some information: The group of cantes has a few different names. You usually hear "cantes abandolaos" or "cantes de Málaga," and some people say "fandangos malagueños." If you call the group "verdiales" everyone will understand, but verdiales is just one of the cantes in this group. So it's like the cantiñas group and alegrías in that sense. Nearly all descriptions of this group of cantes mention verdiales, jaberas and rondeñas, but there's also the zángano, the jabegote (jury's still out on that one), the fandango de Frasquito Hierbabuena and others. It looks like some of the cantes abandolaos came from a series of local fandangos from Málaga, Lucena, Granada and Almería that were the ancient folklore of the people who lived there. Manuel Cano wrote that flamenco singers came up with their own artistic versions of these local fandangos. The new creations were more difficult, so they were sung by professionals rather than housewives or farmers, for example. The flamencólogos don't offer much information on those ancient fandangos, saying that they're long lost and all we have today are the personal flamenco versions. For example, they say that the fandango de Granada turned into the granaína, the fandango de Almería became the taranta, etc. But there are still references to these ancient forms if you look hard enough. The word fandango goes way back in time. According to Antonio and David Hurtado (in the Pastora anthology), the word "fandanguero" was used in Jerez in 1464 to refer to black and white slaves who "organized dances and nighttime scandals." It looks like the "local-fandango-to-cantes-libres" transition took place in southeast Andalusia late in the 19th century. At about the same time, the toná-soleá-siguiriya aficionados in southwest Spain were doubling their repertoire and the estilos festeros were consolidating, and shortly afterward the ida y vuelta cantes became popular. The cantes abandolaos come from the area between Málaga and Córdoba, where you'll find towns like Cabra, Lucena, Puente Genil, etc. The oldest forms are supposed to be rondeñas and jaberas, which, according to the book Mundo y Formas, were originally cantes libres. I haven't come across that in any other books, although some of the really old recordings are in fact sung without the abandolao rhythm. Here are four rondeñas. There are more versions by El Mochuelo, Rafael Romero, Beni de Cádiz, Juan Varea and Virginia Gámez. Rafael Romero seems to be the only one to sing the first line in a lower register. I've heard a lot of singers do it like that, and it adds a really nice feeling of calm. All the other examples follow El Cojo's version, starting off in the high register. Juan Varea recorded a slightly different rondeña that starts with an even higher note and stretches out the conclusion in the lower register, like Fosforito. Notice that Niño Almadén's version repeats the last line of verse because it's a four-liner. Cojo de Málaga with Borrull in 1924. A la sandía el color María tú le has robado a la sandía el color a la nieve su blancura y a la luna el resplandor a la Virgen su hermosura Rafael Romero with Perico del Lunar in 1950s. Para acabarlo de criar cogí un pájaro de un nido para acabarlo de criar y fue tan agradecido que cuando lo eché a volar se vino hacia el hombro mío Niño Almadén with Perico del Lunar in 1950s. Navegando me perdí por esos mares de Dios navegando me perdí y con la luz de tus ojos a puerto de mar salí a puerto de mar salí Fosforito with Paco de Lucía (late 60s early 70s?). Ya no le importa a la fuente corre con rumbo perdido que no le importa a la fuente que va buscando los ríos el arroyo nunca vuelve al sitio donde nació There are cantes abandolaos on a few of the Rito y Geografía DVDs, especially the one on the Cordobés singer Pedro Lavado. I've uploaded the MP3s to my website but I'm just about out of space and will have to delete them after a while.
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