Castellana examples please

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krichards

Posts: 597
Joined: Jan. 14 2007
From: York, England

Castellana examples please

I would really appreciate some help in understanding what is meant by the 'Castellanas' section of Alegria.
I've searched the forum and this has been discussed before, but no examples were given.
I know it comes immediately after the Silencio/Campanas, and its 4 compases in length and its 'upbeat'. But that doesn't tell me what to play.

Can anyone point me to some classic examples, maybe on You tube or recordings by well known guitarists?

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 16 2013 17:59:10

estebanana

Posts: 9367
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Castellana examples please (in reply to krichards)

Much of the time today dancers don't do a castellana so it is hard to find examples. In fact sometimes they throw out the silencio too and plow into a long tedious foot work section.

You probably have to wade through a bunch of videos of dancers dancing alegrias. Try looking for older examples. But the chords are the same as the chords in the letra, you have to follow what the singer sings. It does the E to B-7 change, then it goes to A and back to E, but again you just follow the singer. It's not hard to hear and if you can find a sample, the thing listen for is how it closes. It's nothing fancy.

I'm not sure what your experience with accompaniment is, but the chords are just regular alegreas chords and if you understand the melody of the letra the castellana is like a smaller section of a regular letra with similar melody, it's not a radical departure melodically. The thing to remember is that is closes and becomes and separate little section that brings the tempo back up to the letra tempo that preceeded the silencio. Then after the castellana the dancer comes to a full stop again and begins the escobilla.

So in a sense the casteallana becomes a section that gets in between the way of the dancer going straight from the silencio to the footwork. Much of contemporary alegrias dancing takes advantage of that moment of drama of the full stop at the end of the silencio and begins the footwork right there. The castellana puts a section of letra back there that breaks the damamtic mood of the end of the silencio and I think that is why many dancers don't take the castellana and think of it as old fashioned or a part they can edit out.

Honestly I think it's kind of extra baggage and have gotten used to the Silencio to Escobilla transition, but it is a delight when you see it today because it is a surprise. but these things ebb and flow in trends and for a while the casteallana comes back and then goes out of fashion again. Like the way some guitarists pull out really old falsetas.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 16 2013 19:14:53

El Kiko

Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland

RE: Castellana examples please (in reply to krichards)

here for you

Castellana This is a combination footwork/remate section that leads away from the silencio into an escobilla. Usually 4 compás long, the singer sings the traditional 'tiriti tran tran tran" or a shortened verse. This generally ends with one or more sets of compás for the remate. This section is not always performed, but is often included a completely traditional version of the dance.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 16 2013 20:06:26

xirdneH_imiJ

Posts: 1893
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton

RE: Castellana examples please (in reply to estebanana)

i've played all kinds of alegrías, dancers like to vary, silencio-castellena-escobilla, or silencio-escobilla-castellana, sometimes skipping either, it really depends...but i like to play it, i like these breaks in dynamics when the audience has no clue whats going on :)

btw, E, E7, A, B7, back to E

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 16 2013 22:00:04

krichards

Posts: 597
Joined: Jan. 14 2007
From: York, England

RE: Castellana examples please (in reply to estebanana)

Thanks to you for this.
I understand what you are saying. The dancer I play for wants to include it but doesn't really know what it it is!

I really need to find an example somewhere.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 17 2013 6:12:54

Pimientito

Posts: 2481
Joined: Jul. 30 2007
From: Marbella

RE: Castellana examples please (in reply to krichards)

It took a bit of searching on youtube for a good example. As Estebanana says a lot of dancers dont go through the whole Silencio, castellana, footwork section. The Castellana is something you would learn if you accompany dance classes. Its basically the same chords as the letra and its 4 compas long.

In this example the companas starts at 3.25. At 4.19 there is one compas which is the llamada and then the castellana begins at 4.23 until 4.40. Its simply that 4 compas of letra that goes directly into footwork section

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 17 2013 8:52:54

krichards

Posts: 597
Joined: Jan. 14 2007
From: York, England

RE: Castellana examples please (in reply to Pimientito)

Pimientito
That's very helpful. I get the idea now.
Thankyou so much.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 17 2013 9:17:24

Ricardo

Posts: 14833
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Castellana examples please (in reply to krichards)

Cantiñas seems to be an umbrella term for a whole family of songs/melodies/letras. I felt Pini seemed to be the only song called "cantiñas" by dancers or anything played in C major on guitar too...but I often wondered what were the ACTUAL melodies of cantiñas. It seems that the colatilla melody IS cantiñas by itself... there are two main kinds I am familiar with that either attach to the end of Alegrias, or the other type to the end of Romeras/Mirabra etc. The colatilla is not related lyrically to the first parts. Alegrias for example has 3 main melody types, one starting on the 4th/3rd of the scale in the low octave (camaron used to do this octave higher), the other staring on tonic and coming down to the third, and the final one starting on the 5th and going up above and back down to tonic.

The colatilla that is used for alegrias is always that one melody "tiri tiri tran tran". I remember a Paco guitar solo called "cantiñas" and it finally made sense why that was not called alegrias. But that was guitar stuff mainly. Later we learn it doesn't really matter. Alegria de Cordoba and Caracoles are more like songs with lots of stanzas (not interchangeable short improvisational verses) that borrow from the aire and compas of the other forms in the cantiñas family.

so that one colatilla we hear that rounds off an alegria (any of the 3 melodies can use the same type of colatilla it seems) is what is sung for the castellana section of dance. I assume it derives it's name from the lyric that a specific singer and dancer used, and had that word in it. In practice any colatilla is sung, but one could also omit from the last alegria letra and finish off here, or repeat what was done before etc. The important thing for the guitarist is to catch the proper tempo from the sudden llamada of the dancer (normally wait to come in on count 7) after exiting the silencio.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 18 2013 14:52:33