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WHAT is Zorongo? I have heard the name for ages but never really been interested. My cantaor wants to do it and it apparently goes like Buleria but alternate between fast and slow.
If anyone can point me to a good youtube video that'll be greatly appreciated. Lots of Zorongos when I do search but none so far that sounds like above.
it is a song by Garcia lorca. The rhythmical part is sort of like buleria, but there is the main poem that is sort of freely interpreted, but it all works in 3/4 if you must meter it out.
I have experienced many dancers use it as an intro for a siguiriya, oddly.
The poem says, the moon is a little bit of nothing, the flowers have no value, the only thing that matters are your arms when at night they embrace me....
I'm sure you are aware that Sabicas recorded one -- Paco Pena also re-recorded the same composition in a cd homage to Sabicas, Nino Ricardo, and others. Pena also plays it in his current touring concert (a version of "A Compas!") although he doesn't credit Sabicas. All solo guitar, though. No cante.
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"Flamenco is so emotionally direct that a trained classical musician would require many years of highly disciplined formal study to fail to understand it."
Theres a great Zorongo by Antonio Hidalgo that our group does.
As my teacher describes it, its a Solea por Bulerias that stays mostly on the compás strong beats, avoiding syncopation.
It does require the traditional vocal melodic material to really be a Zorongo. In the above mentioned Marisol video, this specific material can be heard from 0:52 to 1:12
Ricardo is right about the rhythmical part being like Bulerias. Many years ago Vicente Gomez taught me a falseta for Bulerias that is almost verbatim melodically for the rhythmical section. I also have several records where Carlos Montoya plays the identical melody as a Bulerias falseta.
So is "El Vito" by PdL Zorongo? I've always wondered.
No. But also composition of Lorca, and not really flamenco. His take on bulerias or the flamenco 3 beat compas once again. Also Lorca composed sevillanas which are kind a weird too. Like Falla, Rodrigo, Albeniz, Granados etc, Lorca was inspired by flamenco and did his interpretations of the compas on the piano, but it is really classical music. Conversely you have pieces like Impetu by escudero, or Moraito's and Nuñez Vals buleria type compositions which use arpegios to evoke a spanish classical vibe, but are honestly based on a more fundamental and true flamenco compas base.
i thought all those Lorca songs Zorongo, Anda Jaleo, Los Cuatros Muleros, El Vito, La Tarara, Sevillanas Del Siglo XVIII etc. etc. were old Andaluz folk songs, which Lorca collected (much as other folk music has been "collected" eg. Cecil Sharp collected English and Appalachian folk songs), and wrote down, not compositions by Lorca. I understood that he made and recorded his own arrangements of the songs, but maybe that's what you meant by "composition"?
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His take on bulerias or the flamenco 3 beat compas
i have often wondered about the relationship between these (presumably but not necessarily old) folksongs, and flamenco compas - are the songs older and flamenco compas has evolved by taking the rhythms of the songs and using them as a base for improvising and creating flamenco forms, or are the compas forms older and these are just set folksongs that use the same rhythms. Several of the songs have a loose hemeola 12, 3, 6, 8, 10 rhythm; zorongo, el vito, anda jaleo
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it is really classical music
i don't think these folksongs were originally classical music, i think they were originally folksongs, but as Lorca wrote them down and recorded them etc. they became available to classical musicians and often performed by classical musicians.
were old Andaluz folk songs, which Lorca collected (much as other folk music has been "collected" eg. Cecil Sharp collected English and Appalachian folk songs), and wrote down, not compositions by Lorca.
Actually that makes more sense to me as I never knew Lorca was a composer of music, but more of a writer/poet in Andalucian culture?
Kate studied Lorca, so maybe she can shed more light on this?
i don't think these folksongs were originally classical music,
fair enough, but I was not talking about that. The versions interpreted by flamencos are direct from Lorca's "Obra completa" you can find in the library. It has poems plays, and music. I consider music in that form, preserved on paper for piano and interpreted rather then evolving or allowing for some improv or creativity within the form, as "classical" music. And his interpretation of the compas, I suspect is probably an interpretation just like Albeniz. Regardless if the origins were from folk music, the final versions are "classical" to me.
The versions interpreted by flamencos are direct from Lorca's "Obra completa" you can find in the library..... I consider music in that form, preserved on paper for piano and interpreted rather then evolving or allowing for some improv or creativity within the form, as "classical" music.
agreed, especially when interpreted in that fixed way by classical musicians
i think the whole area of folk music where the tradition is broken and then revived from written sources is kind of fuzzy - is it then "folk" "traditional" "classical" whatever?
i didn't know that flamencos were interpreting those songs from written sources, i assumed they probably got them by ear from the lp he recorded (i think with La Argentina)
and in some cases the songs are interpreted in a different palo from the original (eg. zorongo as tangos instead of bulerias by Carmen Linares) so they are not always interpreted by flamencos in a fixed "classical" way - i don't think it's clear cut, like i said, kind of fuzzy....
Zorongo was a popular dance in the 18th and beginning 19th century. La Argentinita had it in her repertoire in 1935. The cante is composed of a succession of four eight-syllabic verses, and according to one source, sung to a slow tangos compas. Lorca's version re-popularized it.
Zorongo was a popular dance in the 18th and beginning 19th century..... Lorca's version re-popularized it.
Hi Ed, Thanks for that info, interesting. Do you know if all the contemporary versions are based on Lorca's written/recorded arrangement, or if it has survived in oral tradition separate to that?
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