Flamenco palos explained

Three arts and a pulse

UNESCO describes flamenco as an artistic expression that fuses song, dance and guitar playing. The Spanish words are cante for the singing, baile for the dancing and toque for the guitar. Andalusia in southern Spain is its heartland, with roots in Murcia and Extremadura too. UNESCO places the form on its list of intangible cultural heritage, where it was inscribed in 2010. Behind all three arts sits the compás, the rhythmic cycle that holds a piece together.

What a palo is

A palo is a flamenco style, and Wikipedia's article on flamenco explains that palos are told apart by their rhythmic pattern, mode, chord progression, verse form and place of origin. It counts over 50 different palos. Some are sung with no accompaniment, while others have the guitar or other support. You do not need to name them in the room. It is enough to notice that some pieces feel slow and heavy and others quick and bright.

The 12-beat cycle

Many palos count a cycle of twelve beats, with the accents falling in different places. The article describes three kinds of twelve-beat rhythm: soleá, seguiriya and bulería. The soleá is regarded as a basic form. The seguiriya begins its count from a different beat. The bulería is the fast one. When you hear the audience clap in a repeating pattern, they are marking this cycle, and the dancer's footwork lands on the same accents.

Bulerías, the lively finish

The bulerías is described as the emblematic palo of flamenco. It is a fast twelve-beat rhythm that began among the Romani people of Jerez in the 19th century, originally as a quick, upbeat ending to slower pieces. It often closes a flamenco gathering, accompanied by vigorous dancing and stamping. If a show builds to a lively last number with the whole cast clapping, this is the family of rhythms it is most likely to draw on, though no palo can be promised for a given night.

The voice

In UNESCO's description, the cante is sung by men and women, preferably seated, with no backing singers. The lyrics are short and simple and can carry grief, joy, tragedy, rejoicing or fear. The singer is called a cantaor, a word that reflects the Andalusian way of speaking. The Royal Spanish Academy, quoted in the article, defines cante jondo as the deepest and most genuine Andalusian song. You will often hear the cante before the dancer enters.

The guitar

UNESCO notes that toque, the art of playing the guitar, has long gone beyond its first role as accompaniment. The flamenco guitar is lighter than a classical guitar, with a narrower body and a lower sound that does not cover the singer. Guitarists often sit with crossed legs and hold the neck nearly level. Techniques include strumming, called rasgueado, and tapping the soundboard, called golpe. In a small room with no microphones, you hear all of this directly.

The dance

The article describes baile as known for emotional intensity, a proud carriage, expressive use of the arms and rhythmic stamping. It is not tap dance: the footwork serves the rhythm and the song. UNESCO adds that technique can differ between male and female dancers, with heavier use of the feet in one tradition and gentler movement in the other. Styles range from improvised, solo dancing close to the gitano tradition to the more formal classical flamenco of dance companies.

Palmas, jaleo and duende

Palmas are hand-clapping, and when there is no guitarist they can keep the compás alone. Jaleo is the encouragement shouted by the cast, including the cry of olé. Duende is harder to pin down: the Royal Spanish Academy, quoted in the article, calls it a mysterious and ineffable charm. The poet Federico García Lorca wrote a lecture about it. As an audience member, you take part simply by keeping quiet during the singing and applauding after.

Joyful and sorrowful styles

The operator of Casa de la Memoria says that its performances mix joyful and sorrowful styles and show a different programme each day. It does not name which palos a date will include, so treat the forms above as a vocabulary rather than a promise. After one evening you will probably hear the difference between a quick, bright piece and a slow, heavy one without any help from a programme note.

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