As a classical musician, at the beginning of this research, I asked myself if transcribing the cante flamenco could be useful for myself and for others, reaching various conclusions which have shaped the way of transcribing that I use in this document.
Beforehand, it is necessary to take into consideration that flamenco has been around for many years and has never required scores to continue being performed since the active memory of the cantes through oral transmission has been enough. Therefore, to preserve it, its transcription is not necessary. Nor for the learning of it, because commonly the cantaores have learned them through oral transmission, listening and singing them from their childhood in their families, compared to what happens with academic music (especially since the 19th century) in which the score usually goes first. This way of learning has several consequences:
• There are no visual ties to the score, being internalized in a natural way, reminding us of the way in which we learn our mother tongue.
• It is constantly evolving since it is not embodied, remaining always alive and changing throughout the time.
• It is never interpreted in the same way, nor is it intended to, the cantaores often look for their own style.
Notwithstanding, as a classical musician I decided transcribing could be another tool for my learning, besides listening and imitating, so the transcriptions that make up this work try to achieve two basic objectives:
- Firstly, I find transcribing very useful to listen carefully and reach conclusions about common aspects shared by different cantes por soleares. I am referring to rules that flamenco singers have internalized and from which they start to develop their creative freedom. In this sense, transcription is used as a means of learning and analyzing, promoting conscious listening, although without pretending to imitate what is written, but rather that it serves as a guide for knowledge. Ultimately, these transcriptions do not try to put down on paper what a cantaor did at a certain moment, nor do they try to seek rhythmic accuracy, since I consider that the internalization of cante and pulse is essential in flamenco and that capturing every detail makes it lose part of its essence.
- The second objective, with pretensions of a medium-term future, the proposed transcriptions try to offer a method or guide that allows me to remember with some ease what I have already learned, in the words of Julio Andrés Blasco: ''writing that would serve to awaken the memory of the known and perhaps forgotten that has remained in the subconscious1.''
Finally, I would like to point out that these soleares are transcribed to be performed with a cello and not by a singer, and for this reason, the transcriptions have been made taking into consideration the resources that this instrument is able to offer. The voice is the most perfect instrument that exists and has a greater capacity to offer different timbres, so when it comes to transcribing cante, not all of these possibilities can be reflected. In my transcriptions and in the interpretation of them, I try to imitate some of these resources that cantaores offer, but on other occasions, I simply try to adapt them to the possibilities that the cello offers.
First of all, I would like to highlight the factors that have led me to choose these six soleares for transcription and analysis. It has not been an easy task, since there is a great variety of soleares and only after a long period dedicated to listening to them through the canteytoque website, have I been able to decide which ones I found to be of greatest interest to be performed on my instrument. Finally, I have decided those that show more interval jumps and greater melodic range, since not being able to express the lyrics with my cello I consider it more difficult to reach the heart of the public without turning my interpretation into tedious interpreting soleares with a low melodic range. That is why most of the soleares that have been selected belong to singers from Triana, although it also included a ‘macho de soleá’ from Paquirri, a singer from Cádiz, and the soleá from Charamusco. In this last, it is difficult to determine the origin as some claim that it was Frijones, the Jerez-born cantaor who taught it, while others believed that it came before and that it was heard through Triana.
For these transcriptions I have chosen 'mi flamenco' for the following reasons:
- The unification of the transcriptions in the same tonality facilitates the subsequent analysis and comparison.
- It's a tonality that works quite well both for guitarists and for the interpretation of soleares.
- It is an easy tonality for the tuning and sound of the cello.
It is also worth clarifying that although the soleá compás is formed by the amalgam of 6x8 and 3x4, I have decided to transcribe the cantes in 3x4, since it facilitates the fluidity of the reading and I consider that the compás and the cante must be internalized beforehand through the audition.
To be able to make the objectives of the transcription possible, of each of the soleares lyrics that I have transcribed, various versions (when possible) that I have heard performed by different cantaores are also indicated, which serve as inspiration for my own version. I have transcribed one of them, usually the oldest I have found because these cantaores were the ones that were in touch with the original creators of the lyrics and the melodies so to go to the origins of it. In the transcription I tried to capture the essential elements of it, leaving space for my own version and simultaneously looking for possible resources used that can inspire my interpretation.
I decided it was also interesting to know the lyrics so I wrote them in the score and did a small poetical analysis to also be able to identify whether the length of the text is important to the music or not.
When I could find more than one version I also analyzed the differences between them in order to get more insights for my own playing and also to see where are the common points. After analyzing the melody I got conclusions for my own playing related to:
- Flexibility in the music and very rhythmical parts.
- Different options to embellish the melody, especially, when repeating the melody.
- Relation between the text and the articulation.
- Resources used by the cantaores.
Ríos Ruiz talking about the cantaora Fernanda de Utrera: ‘[…] She relies to sing properly on the infused knowledge of her art. […] She has not studied anything, she has not worked at all mentally. As a child she listened to her people, she learned a number of elemental verses to express her feelings and came out singing with the same innate wisdom that she sings after the years, her whole life2.’