A style of cante performed with no musical accompaniment,
part of the toná family. It has a historical relation
with the work in the forge and, in fact, the compás
structure is often beaten out with a hammer on an anvil.
Hence its name, a type of hammer. The gypsy forges in the
Seville-Jerez-Cadiz triangle were hotbeds of these time-honored
cantes. In a blacksmith's shop in Morón de la Frontera
Silverio Franconetti learnt his trade as a boy and was initiated
into flamenco. Performing this style requires forcefulness,
composure and extreme sobriety. The compás is the
same as that of the seguiriya,
an amalgam of 3/4 and 6/8 time. It is not a style of cante
widely found in the discography of flamenco, although there
are active ‘martineteros’ like Agujetas,
who in his youth worked at the family forge in Jerez. None
of his albums would have been complete without this style
of cante: ‘En la soleá’, ‘24 quilates’,
‘Agujetas cantaor’... Other cantaores too, like
Chocolate, often sing and record martinetes, just as cantaor
Santiago Donday from Cadiz did on his only studio recording
‘Morrongo’, as well as artists like Juan Talega
years before him.
| Compás pattern: 1
2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11
12 |
Sample verse:
Yo no soy aquél que era
Ni quien debía yo de ser
Yo soy un mueble de tristeza
Arrumbao en la pared |
I am not the man I used
to be
Nor the one I should be
I am the furniture of sadness
Left neglected against the wall |
Guide to palos
Back to index:
fandangos, soleá, seguiriya, tangos, de ida y
vuelta, cantes de Levante... |
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