There is no doubt that a significant portion of the palos flamencos is the one of the so-called canteThese are dances from the Levante region, or miners' dances, among other names. We are talking about the taranta, the cartagenera, the taranto, or the minera, among others. There are already very successful studies on this peculiar group, such as those by Jose Luis Navarro, M.ª Ángeles Gómez, Pedro López Martínez, Genesis García Gómez, Antonio Sevillano Miralles, etc.
Or the author of the book we are discussing, Professor Jose Francisco Ortega Castejon, author formerly of the book Cantes of the Mines, Cantes for tarantas, published by Signatura in 2011, in which he already criticized the unscientific and musically unfounded research that often pervades or pervades studies on flamencoThe back cover alluded to these canteas "one of the richest and most diverse, but also controversial and intricate, branches of the leafy tree of flamencoAnd, with the help of musical arguments, a serious exploration was undertaken into what canteThe book explores the composition of this family, its origins, its unique characteristics, key artists, historical evolution, and more. It's a remarkable work, as one would expect, given that the author holds a doctorate in Classical Philology and, importantly, advanced degrees in Pedagogy, Solfège and Music Theory, and Musicology, and is a professor in the music department of the University of Murciaas well as being the editor of the research journal on flamenco the morning, among other merits and efforts.
Thanks to the collaboration of the universities of Jaén and Murcia, it has been published Couplets and discography of cante miner-Levantine, with a foreword by Antonio Parra, who states from his competent opinion that this book will be essential for anyone who wants to approach the canteLevantine mining and their authors.
The work continues with a preamble by the author, clarifications about its content, its continuity with the previously cited book, and the need to increase the number of flamenco songs or lyrics recorded and disseminated on record or in other formats. It recalls that Pedro López Martínez compiled them in his book Compendium and analysis of mining letters (2006) 450 couplets of the cante The miner, suspecting the number was higher, was motivated to undertake this investigation. Specifically, the figure reaches 1352, and there are even as many as three thousand in his archives.
In the introduction to the corpus or set of couplets, he makes a necessary overview of the state of the question and clarifies in detail the criteria of his work, addressing aspects such as the denomination –those cited or cante by tarantas for the ensemble—, the inclusion of mining lyrics that have been sung by others palos, data and figures on discography, etc.
This is followed by the corpus of coplas and their discographic references. Finally, and very usefully, we find eight indexes: thematic, of terms, toponymic, onomastic, of authors, of singers, of guitarists, and of palosIn short, this is very important for the reader, and certainly for the researcher who uses the work as a starting point for future research or commentary.
Professor Ortega comments that mining songs have varied universal themes, yes, but also specific ones – the mine being the most obvious –; or that to canteThe meter is another matter, since the performer adapts, cuts, producing that mutability or variability of the flamenco couplet; that the octosyllable is the prevalent verse and the stanza the quintilla; or that, as an orthographic criterion, it does not use italics for vulgarisms, and these are used only when they affect the meter or the expressiveness.
He states that the most recorded lyrics are the following:
One Monday morning
the rogue tartan vendors
They stole his apples
to the poor muleteers
who came from Totana.
We heard it in the voice of Enrique Morente with the guitar of Pepe Habichuela on his tribute album to Mr. Antonio Chacon:
And palos The most prominent miners' dances are the taranta and the taranto. He highlights some albums dedicated to these styles. cantes in a monographic manner, like those of Diego Clavel o Curro PineappleThe bibliography section is concise, unlike the previous book, which ran to several pages. Perhaps it wasn't necessary here, although we did miss some books, such as those by Génesis García Gómez and her cultural interpretation of these. cantes, from 1993, or biographies like those of Jose Gelardo about Rojo el Alpargatero –Almuzara, 2007 –, both cited in the previous book. Others are not, such as that of the professor Ana María Díaz Olaya, Mining, flamenco and café cantantes in Linares –1868-1918–, from 2008. And new works keep coming out, such as the work of José Ramón Medina, whom I followed in the doctoral research program of flamenco which I coordinated at the University of Seville, a thesis and then a book on the flamenco in the press in Linares. Anyway, please don't stop, please don't stop the thorough investigation.
Here we listen to Curro Piñana's Murcian song, live in the El Dorado hall, with the guitar of Juan Ramon Caro:
Certainly, the book in question focuses on one aspect—the corpus of coplas and their discography—which it handles with great care, rather than, as in his first book, delving into conceptual, musical, and historical depth. Thus, by combining these two works by Ortega Castejón, we obtain a broad, complete, and rigorous overview of the canteLevantine mining areas. I will not forget to thank, of course, the person who mentioned my book. In short –Signature, 2007– and the lyrics of my own authorship that he recorded Calixto Sanchez to Manolo Franco on the CD The poetry of the flamenco, which was attached to the magazine issue Coast, where these lyrics appeared in the style of Cartagena, our humble contribution as lyricists to the discography of these cantes:
The sun shines in the countryside,
The wind blows across the seas,
But in the mine, not even God.
not even the saints in heaven
They remember the miners.
How black is the coal,
How dark is my sorrow!
When I pick up my lantern
The mine is swallowing me up
And I keep praying to God.
Forgive me, everyone has their weaknesses. If it was a luxury and a dream for me then to be on that record, singing the voice of Maestro Calixto, it is now equally so that my recordings have been compiled in a book of this caliber by a prestigious researcher. Critics also have their dreams and aspirations. Now, in my case, I have another, more pressing one: that my fellow countrywoman, the young flamenco singer, will be included in this book. Lidia Rodríguez I will reach great heights soon, and I believe in that, in the Union ContestAnd if, as it seems, they no longer believe in the joy of some of my lyrics, well, that's basically what flamenco lyrics are for: to give them flight, voice, essence.
Well, I'll conclude by highly recommending this work, as they say, along with some of the mining songs you'll find in its extensive and varied collection. The first is a mining song by... Pencho Cros, the second of Antonio Murciano, which describes very well what is needed to sing well in tarantas, and the third a magnificent taranto by Fosforito:
The good miner gives his life
cutting lead from the quarry;
while carrying the drill
singing softly:
"What bad luck awaits me!"
To sing well in tarantas
Three things are necessary:
a mine in the throat,
that one is undermined by a desire
or the one who sings is a miner.
I'm losing strength
because I can't take it anymore;
not even this taranto
I will be able to finish:
That's why I sing while crying.
You can hear the latter in a recording from Canal Sur, with the guitar of Manuel Silveria, from 1996. It is the second letter:
→ José Francisco Ortega Castejón, Couplets and discography of cante Levantine miner, University of Murcia-University of Jaén, 2025, 454 pages.
