Today I'm going to talk about how the same letra can (and definitely will be) interpreted in different ways by different singers. I'll also talk about why, as dancers, we need to pay attention to this. And finally, I'll share a tangos letra with you. (Oh, and at the end of the post I give you an activity to do from the comfort of your own home.)
How the same letra can vary
Depending upon who is singing, how they like to sing a given letra, and even how they are feeling at a given moment, one letra can be interpreted in many different ways.
Let's look at some examples:
Most likely there is at least one person in your life you feel this way about. (I can think of many, my nieces, my sister, my sweetheart, just about all of my friends...)
Why not share today's letra with one of your beloveds?
Yesterday I received an email from a reader, Max Herzog, a guitarist based in San Diego, who came across today's letra on my blog. (I originally posted it about four years ago. I struggled with the translation then, and I'm still struggling with it today.) Max had some great insights along with a smoother translation which I wanted to share with you. You'll find his translation below (with just a couple of small changes from me).
Fandangos
Popular
Los ojos como las moras
y los dientes de marfil
y tu boca es una fuente
donde una noche bebí
agua con ansias de muerte
Saturday evening the moon shone so brightly against a miraculously clear sky.
Last night the moon showed off again, full and bright in the February sky…
I have a guajiras verse to share with you today along with a video of Belén Maya and Mayte Martín.
I'm in Seattle winding down after workshops Belén Maya this week.
On Wednesday I went to a lecture where Belén spoke about herself as an artist.
Another one that Zorri shared.
Bulerías
No sé por qué motivo
esta gitana lo hace
tan malamente conmigo
I don't know the reason
this gypsy woman
treats me so badly
You can hear it here, Los Zambos Por Fiesta, on Al Compás de Los Zambos. It's the first letra.
A letra to awaken to . . .
Soleá
Levanta y no duermas más,
que vienen los pajaritos
cantando la marugá
Get up, and stop sleeping,
the birds are coming out
singing to the dawn
This letra is from from Los cantes de Antonio Mairena Luís y Ramón Soler
Last night we saw the full moon.
We were at the beach for the Flamenco Retreat at the Oregon Coast.
So today, this letra…
Sometimes you want to know a song to go along with the dance form you're studying in class. Other times you want to know the words to that particular flamenco song you like so much. And sometimes you long to know what those words mean.
I'd like to help you with that
Here you'll find a collection of letras (flamenco verses) organized by palo (flamenco form.)
Nada!
Portland Flamenco Events is still around, I've just merged it with my other project, the Flamenco Tour. Together they form experienceflamenco.com.
But I am used to typing in portlandflamencoevents.com.
No te preocupes.
When you enter portlandflamencoevents.com into your browser, you will be redirected to the new url, experienceflamenco.com, where you can access all of the same info about our PDX happenings in addition to info about our events in Spain and other cool flamenco things.
How about some bulerías to start the new year? Here's an excerpt from La Luz del Alba by Antonio Reyes.
It's the final day of 2015, and tomorrow begins a brand new year.
This evening I plan to celebrate what went well in 2015 and look ahead to the possibilities of 2016.
Celebration & Possibility
I'm feeling particularly excited at the moment because 2016 means a brand new web site for me, this one, woo-hoo! (I'm still figuring it out, and there are various kinks at the moment, my apologies, but I find transitions to be particularly challenging while also providing amazing opportunities for growth.) I invite you to stick around to see how the site progresses.
Cheers to a bright new year with lots of dancing and fun.
A coletilla is a short ending that the singer tags onto a letra. The singer often repeats it like a little chorus (estribillo). Here's a common one por alegrías:
Una coletilla por alegrías
Popular
Que me lo tienes que dar
el tacón de la bota
que para taconear*
You have to give me
the heel of your boot
to make music with my feet
You can see a video of María la Sabina sing it here:
We danced alegrías with David in Barcelona. He gave us so many cute moves.
Here’s a letra for you…
The other night I went to see Noche Flamenca here in Portland.
Manuel Gago got me when he sang the Romance de Juan de Osuna. He sang it like this, opening with this letra por siguiriyas:
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for your support.
Gracias.
On the last Flamenco Tour to Jerez the ladies spent a good amount of time in the bar talking to José Luís and Maribel (our hosts). This is often the case as they are quite fun to chat with, and they make us feel at home. (Some people don't speak Spanish. I'm convinced this makes the conversations all the more fun.) So Luís loves flamenco letras and happily shares them with us.
I mentioned that we saw José Valencia at Tablao Cordobés. Seeing him in that intimate setting felt magical.
Here is one of the letras he sang:
Taranta
Mira lo que te he comprao
que vengo de las minas de las Carboneras
que mira lo que te he comprao
unas botas de cartera
con los botones a un lao
te las pones cuando quieras
Look at what I bought you...
Tonight we went back to Tablao Cordobés to see David perform. He danced por soleá, and he was on fire.
Everyone was.
Below is a letra La Tana sang tonight por bulerías.
Bulerías
A mí me llaman La Loca
porque vivo a mi manera
y aunque viva equivoca
seré feliz hasta que me muera
They call me The Crazy One . . .
As I mentioned last week, we've been studying caña here in Jerez on the Flamenco Tour (along with bulerías por su puesto). We learned from Mercedes that la caña has six ays (iis) while el polo has five.
For baile, that is.
And there is a set of ays in the middle of the letra and at the end.
For cante, it's more open.
