''Cartageneras'' () are a
flamenco
Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...
palo belonging to the category of the ''
cantes de las minas'' (in English, songs of the mines) or ''cantes minero-levantinos'' (eastern miner songs). As the rest of the songs in this category, it derives from older
folkloric
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fro ...
fandango
Fandango is a lively partner dance originating from Portugal and Spain, usually in triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has a ...
styles. The origin of this particular style is attributed to traditional fandango from the miner area of
Cartagena in the province of
Murcia
Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...
, in southern Spain.
Although earlier singers like
Rojo el Alpargatero contributed to its development, it was
Antonio Chacón who determined its definite flamenco form and made it popular in other areas.
The
stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have eit ...
of the Cartagenera is the usual for
Fandango
Fandango is a lively partner dance originating from Portugal and Spain, usually in triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has a ...
. Originally, it was played in the same key and mode as the rest of fandangos. But since
Ramón Montoya (Chacón's usual guitarist), all the
Cantes de las minas started to be sung in the key of D
major
Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicat ...
, modulating to F#
phrygian at the end of the stanza. The chord used for the F# is in fact a rare chord, formed with the notes (from the 6th to the 1st string) F#, D#, F#, G, B, E. It was also at this time that the ''cantes de las minas'' started to lose their ''abandolao'' rhythmic pattern to become
cantes libres (with no defined rhythmic pattern).
This palo contains a short list of ''cantes''. Only two or three (depending on the authors) are classified under this name.
Sources
* Álvarez Caballero, Ángel: ''La discoteca ideal del flamenco'', Planeta, 1995.
* Martín Salazar, Jorge: ''Los cantes flamencos'', Diputación Provincial de Granada.
Flamenco styles
Spanish music
Andalusian music
Vocal music
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