The art of the violin in Verdiales

María Estela Lastre Castillo

Verdiales is the traditional music from Málaga, Spain, which is little known even within Spain. This research places verdiales in its historical and musical context looking at: the differences between styles, rhythm and harmony, and, most importantly, the role of the violin in this music. As the main instrument in verdiales, the violin is played in a very different way than in classical music, since it is spontaneous music with a great deal of freedom for improvisation, disseminated purely by oral transmission, and with a particular technique which is suited to playing only this music. Through the deep learning of verdiales, I have looked for different resources to face my daily practice issues in order to gain more flexibility and freedom in my way of playing. After trying several exercises and approaches in different parts of my practice, I have been self- documenting and verifying the improvement and effectiveness of certain methods, taking into account different aspects such as bow hold, ornamentation, and improvisation. As a result, I came to the conclusion that in order to achieve different results, it is necessary for more exploration and extremely different methods than the ones I have been using when practicing the violin

Verdiales is the traditional music from my city, Málaga, Spain. It may seem a priori that because it is a traditional music it is quite well known; however, there are people even in the city itself who do not know it. It is a great pity that something as valuable as a tradition of millenary origins is not known throughout the country. And I am sure that with the great cultural richness in Spain, verdiales is not the only 'abandoned' music. This is one of the reasons why I decided to research the history of verdiales, as well as the performance of the violin as the main instrument in this music.
Because of my family origins and my environment, I have been lucky to listen to verdiales since I was a child, and it is perhaps this strong link to my childhood that has always made me curious about what is behind this music.
At the age of eight, I began my violin lessons in classical music and only a year later I joined a verdiales school to learn a little, just enough to defend myself in a real situation. Some teachers at the conservatory did not agree with me combining my learning classical music with learning verdiales. According to them, not only was of no benefit, but it would only delay my progress in learning the violin and I would learn bad playing habits.
My innocent and immature nine-year-old self did not question the problems that my teachers pointed out to me. However, there was something inside me that did not understand how something as necessary and intrinsic to human beings as tradition and popular music could be an obstacle to my training as a musician. Fortunately, my parents did support me to continue learning verdiales and, thanks to them, I can say today that I feel proud as a classical musician to know the traditional music of my city.

That is why I would like to find out what verdiales music can bring to my daily violin practice. So, the research question that will guide the research is: 'How can learning to play verdiales, including its history and evolution, affect to my playing in terms of freedom and flexibility as a classical violinist?'.

In order to find an answer to this question, and therefore for the elaboration of the research, the following steps will be followed:
First, articles, books, podcasts and documentaries about verdiales will be collected in order to get as much information as possible about the history, context and evolution of this music.
Then, the necessary interviews will be carried out in order to obtain the information that could not be obtained through existing resources.Thanks to the link my parents and I have with this tradition, it has not been difficult to get in touch with the people needed to conduct the interviews. Existing published interviews will also be visualised in order to learn more about the context and environment of this tradition from those who have lived verdiales their whole life.

Then, we will proceed to search for old and current recordings in order to compare the evolution of verdiales over the last century. In addition, the recordings make it possible to hear the small differences depending on the areas, places, time, style or even specific people.
Finally, I will learn in detail all the verdiales music for the violin, as well as all the technical possibilities and the different resources such as bow and violin holding or ornamentation and improvisation, in order to apply this to my daily practice and to experience how it can help me find a freer and more flexible way of playing the violin.

INTRODUCTION

Me playing the violin in verdiales in a summer festival in July 2022

Me dancing verdiales in a summer festival in July 2022

Me playing the violin at the age of 9 in a recital at the conservatory

Next -> WHAT IS 'VERDIALES'?

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