Pepe Habichuela publishes the
sheet music from the flamenco and Hindu music album ‘Yerbagüena’
Besides the guitar, the two books transcribe
the arrangements by The Bollywood Strings
Flamenco-world.com, October 2007
‘Yerbagüena’
reveals its secrets. The mythical album by Pepe
Habichuela, on which flamenco guitar encounters Hindu
music, is transferred to the staff. The record is presented
in two books of sheet music in tablature and standard
notation with four songs each. The transcription, besides
the guitar, also includes the arrangements by The Bollywood
Strings and the collaboration of Enrique Morente on cante.
The two volumes, with commentaries in Spanish and English,
are part of the collection Biblioteca Grandes Guitarras
Flamencas de Hoy (Today’s Great Flamenco Guitarists
Library), which already offers transcriptions of ‘Alcázar
de cristal’ by Rafael Riqueni and ‘Algo que
decir’ by El Viejín.
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Pepe Habichuela (Photo
Daniel Muñoz) |
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Guitar students have a new tool to delve
deeply into the study of today’s flamenco music.
The sheet music from the album ‘Yerbagüena’
by Pepe Habichuela is published as part of the collection
Biblioteca Grandes Guitarras Flamencas de Hoy. Transcribed
in tablature and standard notation, it is presented split
up into two books with four pieces each. The first volume
contains the rumba ‘Yerbagüena (Oriente)’,
the bulería ‘Bangalore Krishna’, the
soleá ‘A mi chaché Miguel’ and
the malagueña de Cádiz ‘Se la llevó
Dios’. The second volume includes the tanguillos
‘Como un fandango’, the bulería ‘Tres
colores’, the seguiriya ‘En el Grec’
and the rumba ‘Yerbagüena (Occidente)’.
The interest lying in these transcriptions,
whose author is Enrique Vargas, is that they not only
translate the guitar, but also most of the arrangements,
including the contributions from The Bollywood Strings
and even the cante by Enrique
Morente. According to the publishers, “material
nearly inexistent to date is offered for flamenco duets
and trios. However, it must be pointed out that every
piece can be perfectly performed as a guitar solo, which
makes this work approachable for both soloists and groups”.
As in the books focusing on Rafael Riqueni and El Viejín,
the work is completed with “explanations of the
styles included on the album, the footwork marking, the
tonality, the foundation of the melodic and harmonic style
of each variety, and the detailed analysis of the most
difficult falsetas with explanations of the artist’s
personal style”.
A historic album
‘Yerbagüena’ was an
album published in 2001 by the record company Nuevos Medios.
And it is considered to be the first record in which flamenco
guitar has an encounter with Hindu music. The idea of
making such a special album arose from the collaboration
Pepe Habichuela carried out with Anglo-Indian musician
Nitin Sawhney, a recording and tour on which he met violin
maestro Chandru, director of The Bollywood Strings. Such
was the understanding between both maestros and both musical
cultures that immediately “the idea of doing something
together arose”. Enrique Morente, Josemi
Carmona, Juan Carmona, Antonio Carmona and Guadiana
also collaborated on the album.
Pepe Habichuela (Photo Daniel
Muñoz)
