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Ricardo -> RE: Flamenco music theory? (Dec. 27 2007 4:22:47)
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One of my favorite topics, but it can get pretty complex. First of all understand MODAL music vs TONAL music. Tonal music is all you really have studied, and using chords and stuff only works there because of TUNING systems. Modal music uses a drone and you tune the scale to it, where as tonal music uses 12 tone chromatic equal tempermant. Chords and key changes are made possible by 5th relations (tonic to dominant). E7-A, A7-D, D7-G,G7-C etc etc. Modal music does not every do that, you stick to the drone/scale/tonic. So there are NO functioning chords.
Flamenco music a modal tonal hybrid in the cases of siguiriyas, Solea, etc, and Fandangos is important to see that hybrid at work. That means, the singing is modal based, and works fine with a drone, but the guitar tries to impose harmonies that normally don't work. So you have a new hybrid and struggle. (Alegrias or Farruca, thing in normal major or minor keys don't apply since they follow the rules of normal tonality).
So the point is, if want to make E phrygian tonic, you should not ever play G7-C because you kill the modality and make everything sound "tonal", so E was really the III chord in C major, or V in A minor. But that IS in fact what happens in flamenco, and the challenge for the GUITARIST ONLY is to make everything sound like it stays and centers on E as tonic, despite the relative keys that are visited. It is real hard for the western ear to hear that as tonic. Eastern minded folks pick up on it easier.
Ideally you learn traditionally and pick up on the best ways to make it all sound like E is home, or phrygian is tonic, despite the close relation to A minor that key and mode provide, but there is ONE music theory trick that helps.
In more advanced theory you learn about "Augmented 6th" chords. These are misspellling of the bVI chord in minor keys, but with the quality of a dominant 7th. So in A minor, you have the F7-E7 then Aminor. VI7-V7-i. OK? Well the thing about it is you can respell the F7 chord, for the sake of part writing or choral singing really, and read the chord D#-F-A-C. So a weird broken rule in theory always a smooth melody line (D# pulls to E and tonicizes the E chord.).
The key to using this device in Flamenco is the rhythm, the phrasing, you have to resolve the F7-E, so there is no where to go, no need to get to A minor. That way you have a tonic-dominant relation F7-E. II7-I. The II7 is similar to tritone sub for B7.
So in flamenco you can think of phrygian "mode" as an actual key with funtioning harmony. Weird, but sound. Also, you can use the tonic-dominant relations to modulate PARALLEL. That means E phrygian can move to E major, or E minor keys. Also, the E prhygian in flamenco borrows from natural phrygian (EFGABCD) and phrygian dominant (EFG#ABCD). I call the hybrid "spanish phrygian" (EFGG#ABCD). THE CHORDS ALL ARE BUILT FROM THAT SCALE. The D# can be thought of as an accidental to the spanish phrygian key of E, like G# would be to the key of A minor. Not in the key signature, but necassary for the tonic-dominant resolution. (NOTE: this type of harmony does not work for any of the other modes you may be familiar with. It is a special quality of only the prhygian mode. You can't use tonic-dom. for dorian or lydian modes say...) You don't always HAVE to use D# to resolve, but it does legitamize E phrygian as a tonal "key" so to speak.
Fandangos: Nice hybrid that uses both relative key change and sometimes parallel.
Typical form is in E phrygian, you modulate to C major using G7. You move through the copla in C all the time, V-I, I-IV, V-I, I-V, V-I,....now the whole point of fandango after that pretty part is to go back to the darker modal key of E, so the next IV chord FUNCTIONS as II7 like we talked about before, and pulls to tonic E. There are western minded folks who have problems with that, it sounds like IV-III, and it just stays on III until the next copla, OR that it moved to A minor. But that is wrong, and important to make the distinction when you get into flamenco. It is a RELATIVE key change.
So hope that makes some sense. It is real important to learn first the traditional material to understand the how and why things resolve, and train the ear to hear both modally AND tonally. Rhythm is always underestimated for making these things "feel" like they need to resolve.
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