Expoflamenco Podcast → 'The Roads' series with José María Castaño → The short saeta of Jerez, closer to the proclamation than to the siguiriya?

As Holy Week approaches, albeit in such an atypical form as this year, the flamenco saeta takes center stage. cante very special because of the musical characteristics that identify it, but also because of its nature as a sung prayer.

The photo of Agujetas is from Jean Louis Douzert.

Our colleague Alvaro de la Fuente Mirror has already provided an excellent overview of the saeta's history, leading up to its flamenco form. I invite you to participate in the previous delivery from his podcast Flamenco ClassroomAmong his statements, I was struck by the one about the borrowing of some early saetas from the town crier's proclamation as a musical form. Let's not forget that in the past, this type of call, sung in a very particular and identifiable way, was common in our towns and cities. It was used to announce different products, like grapes, or to proclaim municipal announcements. There were liturgical forms, but also forms that have now disappeared. They remain only in the collective memory.

I say all this because I am convinced that the call short saeta from Jerez In its statement and development it could be closer to the old proclamation than to the cante by siguiriyas. Almost all of the phrasing – which barely lasts a minute and a half – takes place in the opening speech, except for two woe dry and powerful in the first and last verses that the singer would graft to give more drama to the prayer.

As an example of what I say, we hear the versions that the history of this has left us. cante short, today almost extinct in favor of more modern and effective versions, in the voices of Manuel Torre, Manuel Agujetas and son Antonio AgujetasAs an introduction, I propose listening to the saeta of Elu from Jerez, more current, and some relics such as the liturgical toná of Montesinos 'the Wolf' from Puebla de Cazalla or the old saeta of Arcos in the voice of Manolo Zapata.

Manuel Torre's own saeta says it: "To the sound of a hoarse trumpet and to the voice of the town crier."