Arranging and performing Flamenco music for marimba
(2020)
author(s): Emilio Saura
published in: Codarts
When I started my bachelor, I always have had the motivation to play a flamenco piece. I thought it would be important for me and my career, to be able of playing pieces from different styles. Also because I was not really motivated with the contemporary repertoire which I was playing in my bachelor years.
I have been connected with the Spanish music, given that is my own music and I have listened flamenco music since I was young, because of my culture and the location of my hometown. But I´d never listen a marimbist playing flamenco. It was in 2014 in a flamenco festival close to my hometown (el cante de las minas, La Union) when I saw for the first time a marimba player playing a piece (an accompaniment for a singer) of flamenco. Instead of guitar, there was a marimba doing the accompaniment for the singer. Sound that marimba produced when the percussionist played those chords in the Phrygian mode called my attention suddenly.
For this reason, I started to investigate deeper on the flamenco, trying to play some pieces from famous composers like Paco de Lucia, Tomatito, Moraito, Paco Peña, etc. until the moment that I thought that I had to do something else because it was not enough for me. Consequently, I took one of my favourite pieces and also one of the famous pieces of Paco de Lucia: Fuente y Caudal.
For all of this, I formulated my first following research question:
``How can I arrange these pieces of flamenco keeping the idea of the music but with the sound of the marimba?´´
This question was huge and without a concrete message, because I wanted to arrange pieces but I didn´t know yet how many and more important, in which shape. When I really thought about how many pieces I wanted to arrange I decided to write the new research question, which was the following:
How can I create my own version and arrangement of the pieces Fuente y Caudal by Paco de Lucia and La chanca by Tomatito in the marimba?
But this question still needed more information so; I decided to write another one and which the current version of the research questions is:
``How can I create and perform my own arrangement of the pieces Fuente y Caudal by Paco de Lucia and La chanca by Tomatito keeping the main features of flamenco music?
With this research question, I can show also the goal which I want to arrive. How I said before, I was not really motivated with the repertoire that I was playing. I had to play always contemporary pieces which I even really liked. Then, in my master, I wanted to explore different possibilities on the marimba, and the best way to do it was playing a different repertoire.
My main goal is can be able to make arrangements of flamenco pieces and create my own repertoire based in this music. Even, I would like to show that marimba is not just an instrument for contemporary or classical music. Marimba is still a new instrument which we have to discover new sounds and new possibilities.
