I'd like to learn the intro to the Tientos played by Jose Galvan on the solo compas CD. Could anyone please point me to the tabs or preferably a video of the intro.
e.g. at 1:56 he seems to go into E Major (or G if you don't consider the capo).
Any tips? thanks
The cante of Tientos and many tangos follow the harmonic and melodic structures of Solea and Bulerias. Often you can find the same letras. Obviously the rhythm is very different, although, the idea of a line of verse meshing with or covering a single compas leaving a brief space for a remate chord change, etc., IS in fact the same idea. So In that first letra he delivers the line of verse toward the C chord, and resolves to tonic. Musically we think of the A line of most versus as having various options (stay on tonic A, move to Dm, move to Bb, or C7, etc.), and the singer can repeat that first sung line exploring more than one of those. Poetically it could be the second line of verse starting, such that the rhyme works out by bringing in the true first line finally at the repeat of the “cambio” at the end. So the standard letra melody that moves in Bulerias from Dm to an E7 (a seeming key change called in by a sung B natural) is called “buleria Corta”.
So he is basically invoking that structure when he repeats the A line of verse. The “cambio” delivers the relative key change C7-F major…the standard for nearly all styles of Solea and Bulerias. And the cambio and conclusion back to A typically repeats together but doesn’t have to (for 3-line poems). Well, if the poem was actually a 4-line verse and the singer had not delivered that first poetic line yet, the cambio and conclusion necessarily repeat.
Hope that helps. Here is a bunch of Buleria Corta letras delivered different ways (1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th after the falsetas, etc.). Listen out for the E7.
