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Characteristic Rhythms
GALICIAN MUSICAL GENRES:
O people he used music on many occasions and for many reasons: to express his worries, to transmit social norms, to protect himself from evil and attract divine favors, to celebrate vital events, to facilitate work, to have fun or to make the hard times easier ... Because the event that did not serve as an excuse to sing, play, or dance was rare, diversity of musical genres emerged. These musical expressions, moreover, are often strongly linked to traditions, rites, works, and popular knowledge, and it is impossible to separate them.
The oldest Galician songs use a small variety of scales. The same melody varies in tone, intonation and even rhythm depending on the performer and the geographical area. Even in the same interpreter goes changes; many melodies are definitively constructed at the very moment of singing them, being the individual interpretation an important value within the Galician music.
Some genera are not fully closed or are not fully defined, or have variants or different names throughout geography. Some genres are defined by their usefulness or theme, while others are defined by rhythms, which makes their classification difficult. The lyrics and melodies are often combined freely, and even the same melody adapts to different rhythms and functions, depending on the performer and the area. Nevertheless some sorts with own characteristics or thematic are distinguished.
Various religious songs are related to the celebration of Christmas. The aninovos and the kings or panxoliñas they were sung on the last night of the year and around the sixth of January respectively. The latter had narrated the tradition of the birth of the child Jesus. They were later replaced by carols , pieces of cultured origin, with a rhythm of new but slower muiñeira [3] . All these songs were performed in chorus and accompanied by percussion and bagpipes. They started with a license application and ended with one Christmas gift , that is, asking for gifts or invitations to chorizos, wine or some larpeirada. The manuals they are a more modern genre in which those who are holy on the first of the year are congratulated.
No Carnival and at the feast of the may music was used to make criticism and mockery in public about events that had taken place during the year. Humorous performances and more or less improvised performances took place. Children were the main protagonists of the May , but whether these or the older ones, it was not uncommon for financial compensation to be sought for the performance or, more modernly, for the leaves that were distributed after the performance.
A hurdy-gurdy it was a typical instrument of blind singing
The how many cribs , cribs or cribs were used to put the youngest children in the house to sleep. They were slow-paced, and could both have a children's theme and even tell a story. Other significant songs were children's songs, enumerations and other songs that accompanied the children's games.
The alalás they are the oldest and best known form of Galician music. They sang alone, without musical accompaniment and with free rhythm. They are based on a brief theme that repeats the melody that can also be separated with bagpipe phrases. The melodies were almost always diatonic.
Linked to the work were the plow corners, of seitura , to mace it linen -as espadeladas -, corners of mace it milk , and for other similar work. There were also songs associated with specific trades: singers, stonemasons, blacksmiths ... These songs were either of free rhythm and interpretation, or of a very marked rhythm and appropriate to the rhythm of work and body movement. while working. In this way, these songs helped to carry the loneliness of the moment or to adjust the rhythm of often collective work.
In the weddings musical expressions did not lack, being own of them the regueifas , denomination as much of a thread with which it was given to the pair, a dance that was done in its honor, a type of dance in which the fianc2ee wore the thread in the head and a song consisting of an improvised dialog and with own melodies in which it competed for seeing who ran out of ideas to continue. [3] There were other types of wedding songs , which enlivened the celebrations, reminded the bride and groom of their obligations, or allowed the godparents to show their generosity.
Regueifas are also given outside the realm of weddings, either with totally improvised songs, or with lyrics already known by the performers. This last modality is called challenge , and in it can participate two groups that use the songs in the form of insult and mockery. Regueifa and challenge were the main dialogued genres, to which must be added the songs of questions and answers and the paragraphs , love dialogues between man and woman or a parody of them, with a certain narrative character.
The blind corners e romances , along with carnival songs, are a bridge between oral and written music. It was common for performers, after the performance, to sell the printed lyrics; it was what came to be called string literature , for the leaves with the letters are tied in a rope. In this way, romances remained fixed and were less prone to changes due to transmission defects. Romances were as common to the peninsular tradition, adapting them to pre-existing melodies, as specific to Galicia or even to a totally local theme. [3] They were clearly narrative, and both served to narrate historical events, news of the time, or local affairs, sometimes with moralizing intent.
RHYTHMS FEATURES
Many of the Galician musical genres were danceable. Some, in fact, are mostly distinguished by their way of dancing, although there is no substantial formal difference. They were interpreted as much singing as instrumentally, being this last variant less habitual
Modernly, the most popular and characteristic composition is the muiñeira new , or simply, miller . It’s a fast pace with a 6/8 time. Variants are a carballesa (very marked rhythm), a riverside (live rhythm), a round , a chouteira , o blow (slow pace) eo contrapaso , which differ in the way they dance. These distinctions are challenged in some studies: Angel Martinez San Martin [4] states that many of these forms, if they ever existed, have long since disappeared from tradition. By its melodies and its complex compass it is deduced that its origin is probably cultured, being already scattered in the 18th century [3] .
A muiñeira old , also called wielded by the way it is played with the tambourine, is a lively tertiary rhythm, where the second note is accentuated. Its origin predates the young miller, but is now less widespread.
As tambourines they have a certain relationship with the miller, but their own compass is that of 5/4, although they can be seen in 6/8 or 4/4.
A dawn is an instrumental composition that is written in 2/4 and is characterized by a series of descending phrases. They are used to start the celebrations of the day, as its name suggests, and they lack lettering. Very similar are the walkways e corridors .
As processional marches son marches slow, in 4/4, 2/4, or 6/8 bars created to accompany the processions and other religious acts.
A xota it is a rhythm in 6/8 (or also transcribed in 3/4) extremely spread throughout the peninsular geography. In Galicia it is, together with the muiñeira, one of the most danced and sung rhythms. A foliated is a cheerful song that is played preferably in the pilgrimages . It is considered a variant of the jota, with a time more posed, although certain authors treat it as a denomination but for the same concept.
Over time, more rhythms arrived in Galicia that became widely accepted among the people. They were generically called clinging by the way they dance. Originally, they were rhythms of American, European or peninsular origin, which were adapted to a Galician melody and performed with traditional instruments. O pasodobre , for example, is a variation of the Spanish pasodobre, to which the bagpipe is gotten up to him. As polkas spread throughout Galicia from Europe during the 19th century . Their bar is 2/4 and they are more melodious than the originals.
Another important influence was the Portuguese melodies and rhythms . In times of siege or in more modern times, when a civil work required it, Portuguese workers moved to Galicia. Adult games from Portugal, or as thunderstorms . In the south of the Galician territory this influence is, for geographical reasons, more marked.
INTERPRETATION:
Musical performances were not always entirely formal: it existed always a certain degree of improvisation , especially in those genres prone to spontaneity. During a tambourine, for example, a performer began a song, which was recognized by the others who joined in the second or third verse. There was even the possibility of improvising it entirely, based on previous schemes or existing songs, adapting its content to the occasion. By means of signals the musicians indicated the end of the piece, or with a song that indicated it expressly. During the performance the singers could talk to each other or release one aturuxo , a prolonged shout that was thrown to animate the musicians or the dancers during the interpretation of a dance or festive piece.
