As for the instruments on which folk music is played, traditional instruments naturally predominate, although the classical guitar is clearly favoured and some regions use ethnic instruments such as castanets in Andalusia, bagpipes in Galicia and the “timple” (a small guitar, similar to the ukulele) in the Canary Islands.

Serous study of Spanish folk music and folklore didn’t really begin until towards the end of the 19th century, when Antonio Machado y Álvarez began a comprehensive enquiry into the traditional music of Andalusia and formed the Andalusian Folklore Society in Seville in 1883. He went on to publish an inventory of the various aspects of the music of the south, which now also incuded a number of excellent pieces of popular music from the likes of Pedro de Albéniz, José Inzenga (some of his work was “borrowed” by Rimsky Korsakov), and Julián Calvo.

To understand the richness and diversity of the folk music, however, it’s probably useful to do a brief, whistle-stop tour around the regions.

Probably the most popular and best well-known Spanish folk music comes from Andalusia, where nearly eight hundred years of occupation have bequeathed the region a distinct Islamic influence that sets it apart from the rest of almost the entire country. As we saw earlier, the best known is flamenco, but the older Cante Hondo (Deep Song) is probably the most interesting and unique. Cante Hondo is also known as Cante Andaluz, Cante Gitano, or Cañi. The legendary author and poet, Garcia Lorca, described Cante Hondo in the following terms: “It is deep, truly deep, more than water wells and all the seas of the world, much deeper than the heart that creates it or the voice that interprets it, because it is infinite. It comes from races of long ago, it crosses the cemetery of the years and the dying winds. It comes from the first cry and the first kiss”.

Cante Hondo has a really quite limited range of tones and instead repeats the same note almost obsessively. Despite its baroque ornamentation, the song has an apparent lack of rhythm. It is a painful song, and often improvised. For these reasons it’s impossible to write it using the traditional European system, and it can not be sung by a choir. It is always interpreted by a “Cantaor”, a soloist, who sings the pains and feelings of the people in a most unique manner. According to Lorca “those that believe Andalusia is a land of joy, will be disappointed when they find its Islamic, Hebrew and Gipsy roots”. There is a saying in the region that goes something like “when Andalusia sings and dances there must be silence; silence to understand its soul, silence to capture the message that comes from a song that expresses the ecstasies of life”.

What is more, and despite their usually painful themes, the cante hondo can take many forms – such as cañas, carceleras, fandangos, polos, seguiriyas gitanas, serranas, soleares, toná chica, and toná grande.

Let’s now travel north from Andalusia to Aragon. Here, the beauty and huge popularity of the jota ¬– which is considered the soul of the region – has overtaken several other categories of folk music, such as alboradas and rondas, in popularity. The jota is in fact a relativey recent musical form, making its first appearane in the latter part of the 17th and early 18th centuries.

The jota has an energetic, vibrant and robust character that embodies the soul of the people of Aragon. There are three different types – the Jota Zaragozana is danced with the arms raised high while doing fast and lively moves; the jota from lower Aragon has slow movements, elegant, with the feet always on the ground; and the one from upper Aragon is a mix of the other two. Some of the most popular are Jotas de Ronda which are sung by either a soloist or duo, with castanets, lyre, flutes, guitars, panderetas (tambourines) and other instruments as accompaniment.

Other popular dances from Aragon are boleros, danza de cintas, El Paloteao and seguidillas.

Still in northern Spain, the most enduring folk music in the Asturias is divided into two principal categories – Asturianadas and Vaqueiradas. These second are intense, expressive and have beautiful lyrics, with an emphasis on the rhythm to echo the steps of the vaqueiros (cowboys) when they follow the cattle. The rhythm is beaten with a key striking a large frying pan and with enormous panderetas (tambourines), similar to those played on the island of Ibiza.

Examples of some of the most popular songs and dances in Asturias include: Baile del Panadero, Danza Prima, El Baile de los Pollos, El Corri-Corri, El Pericote, El Rebudixu, El Salton, El Perindango, and La Giraldilla.

The Canary Islands, of course, are also home to dstinctive forms of folk music, where the best known music is the folias, isas, and malagueñas. The most popular dances are the isas, seguidillas and El Tajaraste. Each of the Canary Islands has its own peculiarities and variances, especially in Gran Canaria and Tenerife. The most popular instruments are the native “timple”, guitars, lauds, castanets, and panderetas.

The region of Castile brings us the music and dance of agriculture and farm labourers. The songs’ lyrics tend to be romantic and very simple, with stories and myths often being the principal theme. The region’s most popular songs include: aradas, esquileo, mayas, trilla, and siega, whilst the most popular dances are agudos
Agudillos
Jotas
Jotillas

But let’s take a well-earned break in Castile and resume our whistle-stop tour of Spanish folk music in a second piece in this series at a later date. Hopefully, this brief introduction has whetted your appetite for more of the incredible range and diversity of this rich cultural heritage.