Comunicación en: The Global Reach of the Fandango in Music, Song and Dance: Spaniards, Indians, Africans and Gypsies. New York, 2014.

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 1
J. F. Lewis. Fiesta española

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 2
First access to the field: research on oral improvisation.
The poets in the Subbeticas (Genil River Valley)

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 3

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 4

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 5

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 6
Manuel Blasco. Los verdiales

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 7
Singing fandangos in a Peña

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 8

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 9

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 10

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 11

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 12

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 13

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 14

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos
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1. Southern Fandangos
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• Series of verses (octosyllabic quatrains and limericks)
• Usually according to the dance
• Instrumental accompaniment:
A) Fandangos VERDIALES: guitars and other stringed and percussion
instruments
B) Fandangos de HUELVA: flute and tambourine
• Phrygian scale (more on this later).
• Ternary rhythm, always integrated in 12 beat cycles

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 16
KNOWN AS:
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Verdiales in oriental Andalucía
Fandangos in Huelva
Malagueñas in the area of Murcia
Rondeñas, fandangos and malagueñas in Castilia (even
Gredos),
Malagueñas in the Canary Islands

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 17
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Its popularity was what motivated musicians like
Albéniz, Ernesto Lecuona Sarasate and so on, to
compose their artistic malagueñas
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And also, that popularity motivated the emergence
of many flamenco malagueñas and other songs of
the same type or family, such as granadinas,
tarantas, fandangos, and rondeñas.
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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 18
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2. The “other fandangos”.
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But, there were other types of music called fandangos, that did not
follow the characteristic musical form of the South’s fandangos. e.g.
in Spain, México, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil,
Panama…
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Why does the same word, fandangos, designate diverse musical
realities? Looking at musical features alone does not provide the answer
(although there do exist some common musical features).
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There always appears a common element in which all fandangos
coincide. This may not be in the musical form alone, but in the fact that
all these songs are linked, maybe in the past, to a specific type of
dance, danced in specific kinds of festive gatherings. Almost always
involving dancing couples.

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 19
First Conclusion:
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Although fandangos colloquially referred to the type of
gathering (dance parties), through a process of semantic
reduction - a metonymic type of reduction - it ended up
referring to the musical component of the gathering.
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The process of metonymy seems to be ancient, and would
have begun even when these parties started to lose
popularity, even in the first half of XIX century, if not
before, (according to place).

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 20
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So what is the best way to investigate the connections between
fandango music in Spain and fandango music in America?
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The way I follow and propose here is:
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Expand the comparative frame to something more that the
South’s fandangos.
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Thus, in Spain, the three most typical generic designations for
traditional couple dances are fandangos, jotas and seguidillas,
and any of these could have influenced fandango music in
America

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 21
Jotas, seguidillas, and fandangos
as “fandango music”. Common traits
• They are sung in couplets, a solo + orchestral accompaniments, for
dances with couples.
!
• A “popular orchestra”, with string predominance, highlighting the
strummed guitar family; percussion instruments like tambourine,
castanets, and other home instruments.
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• A similar structure: Instrumental introduction/ couplet /
instrumental interlude/ couplet/ instrumental interlude… sung and
danced in sessions with an undetermined number of couplets.
Predominance of instrumental choruses (interludes), rarely sung.

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 22
Jotas, seguidillas, and fandangos
as “fandangos music”. Common traits
• Ternary rhythm, integrated almost invariably in harmonic rhythmic
cycles of 6 or 12 times, this is an idiomatic constant in this whole
repertoire of dances. Not so frequent the alternating cycle of 12
times 3+3+2+2+2, although the prosody of the octosyllabic verse -
very common in this type of music - contains in itself the tendency to
that rhythmic structuring.
• Our hypothesis is: this trend merged historically in America, maybe
by the interaction with the arrived rhythms from African musical
culture. And this evolutionary process influenced Spain since the
beginning of colonial times, and it could be traced in the musical
pieces of dance since the end of 16th century: Canarios, Zarabands
Chaconas…

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 23
Jotas, seguidillas, and fandangos
as “fandangos music”. Common traits
• • Sung in octosyllabic quatrains and limericks, the seguidillas are
sung in the seguidilla's quatrain.
!
• The predominant musical modes:
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• Mi mode or Phrygian sonority in southern fandangos;
• lonic mode (or the C mode, or major scale) and the
• Eolian mode (or the A mode or minor scale).
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(Almost no presence of the Mixolydian mode, or G mode, nowadays
hardly any is present in the Spanish traditional music).
!
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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 24
Recreation of the festive contexts of those parties, according
to testimonials of old partiers. The customs nowadays: partly
disappeared or very evolved, but his ritual continued (more
or less) popular, in rural zones in the south of Spain, until the
sixties of 20th century.
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That ritual coincides in its main traces with the ritual
described in the ancient texts about the dances of candil in the
19th century (Afán de Ribera, Estébanez Calderón and a long
etcetera). And even in the late 18th (José Blanco White, José
Cadalso and others).
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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 25
Social conventions
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On weekends –Saturdays in the afternoon/night-, or on special specific
dates of every community. In this case, with a ritual more complex.
The place: private houses or in common places: small squares,
courtyards...
They were the main occasions to initiate or reinforce the relationships
between young women and men. They, men and women used to be
located in separated areas. Some specific ways through which men asked
women for a dance.
Many couplets: improvised, depending on events of the parties. Frequently,
ending the dance, parties tended to continue with clashes of improvised
couplets.
Always, some sorts of symbolic authority for every occasion, according to
the traditions of every place. However, fights were frequent, mainly
prompted by jealousies.

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 26
These parties were one of the main environments, along with
the theatrical ones, where flamenco emerged, particularly in
some cities of the southern of Spain.
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So, flamenco, especially in its early stages, inherited from
fandangos not only the music, but some sort of ritual
conventions taking place in old flamenco parties. As the 19th
century progressed, those environments were becoming more
theatrical, conquering new scenarios

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 27
3. The American fandango
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Which of these musical and ritual characteristics – that we have
just outlined here - have I found in American fandangos?
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As shown in the preliminary program: What are some of the
shared formal features—musical, choreographic, or lyric—that
can be discerned in the diverse constituents of the fandango family
in Spain and the Americas? What is the genealogy of the
fandango’s rhythm, verse, melodic structures, and improvisational
syntax?
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We cannot solve, of course, all these questions, but some issues
may be illuminated through the linking of some musical,
historical and ethnographic data.

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 28

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 29

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 30

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 31
Jácara
El fandanguito
Joropo

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 32
Guárdame… Aguilandos Polo

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 33

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 34

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 35
Zarabanda Galerón Jarabe loco

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 36
CONCLUSIONS
Spanish and American fandangos, although presenting significant
differences, maintain many commonalities, both music and ritual.
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Both: are linked, directly or indirectly, to the dance.
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Many Americans Fandangos are based in rhythmic-harmonic structures
similar to some dance variations of Spanish Baroque dance.
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Over a ternary rhythmic base integrated in cycles of 6 or 12, soloists sing a
free line “modal melody type”, guided by the underlying harmonic
rhythm. The 12 hemiolas are very common in American fandango, which
demonstrates a greater rhythmic complexity.

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 37
CONCLUSIONS
Many Americans fandangos: interesting similarities with Dance Music
Spanish Baroque. Two idiosyncratic sonorities stand out:
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Ambivalence / minor and Phrygian (Guárdame las vacas in late 15th and
16th century, 17th century Jácaras, 18th century Fandangos)
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Ambivalence major / mixolydian (zarabandas, chaconas, zarambeques,
cumbés, canarios, jácaras de la costa). This is very abundant in the
American fandango. In Spain, it practically does not appear in any traditional
popular music except in some romances, dance tunes such as fandango parao
in Alosno, Huelva and some others. Also in the medieval music of the Cantigas
de Santa María (Cantigas 29 and 383 for ex.).
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Hypothesis about mixolydian mode: in Spain has been subsumed in the major
sonoritie, whereas their American relatives have developed, perhaps due to the
influence of African and American sounds.
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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 38
CONCLUSIONS
Other continuities between Spanish and American fandango: not
between the Southern Spanish and American fandango (we only know
the case of the Malagueña from Margaret Island), but between the
traditional music of dancing couples from both sides of the Atlantic.
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The introduction/lyric/interlude/lyric/interlude structure,
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The strophic forms of the songs,
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The importance of the little orchestra filled with plucked and
strummed strings (and harp in some American regions)…
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All stand out as similarities.

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 39
CONCLUSIONS
Also the performances include the same importance of lyrical
improvisation. This characteristic has remained prevalent in
American countries, most prevalent within the décima.
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Notable differences: the increased presence of the floorboards,
the footwork, the outfits and scarves ... in American dances, but
this deserves its own distinct detailed study.

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The Fandangos of Southern Spain in the Context of other
Spanish and American Fandangos 40
CONCLUSIONS
Ritual: interesting connections between fandangos from both sides of
Atlantic:
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Certain commonalities between the ritual of Spanish and American
fandangos also show the interesting cultural continuities in the general
festive ethos. Paraphrasing Gessica Gottfried (2009), we recognize that
both are - or were - a festive ritual of integration. This statement would
demand, logically, a more in-depth analysis, but it still highlights
certain continuities from readings or particular chronic parties.
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Personally, from the prior knowledge we had of the fandango in
southern Spain, we have seen it in the case of Mexico, and specifically
the jarochos fandangos, of which we have had munch more opportunity
to read.
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