Hi Julia,
Did any of them use any formulaic methods like those described by David
Buchan?
SteveG
>From: Julia Bishop <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: study of popular / folk / traditional ballads
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fw: Improvised Iberian Folk Music
>Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:12:35 +0100
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Wright, Roger" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "study of popular / folk / traditional ballads"
><[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 10:27 AM
>Subject: Improvised Iberian Folk Music
>
>
>
>
>
>I was once on a coach with about 40 Spanish history students, travelling on
>a cold wet morning from Marbella to Granada. We stopped to get several
>bottles of cognac and a newspaper, and the students then amused themselves
>by improvising brief inventive ballad-metre pieces on the headlines in the
>paper (to basic and well-known tunes); it was fascinating and a privilege
>to watch and listen.
>
>The living Basque tradition is studied in detail in: Samuel G. Armistead
>and Joseba Zulaika, eds, "Voicing the Moment: inprovised oral poetry and
>Basque tradition", University of Reno [Nevada], Center for Basque Studies
>(Conference Papers series, no.3), 2005, 430 pp., ISBN 1-877802-55-7, with
>several photograpohs of performers. Wonderful. (Margaret Sleeman's review
>is in press with the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, and will be published
>later this year) - RW
>
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: study of popular / folk / traditional ballads
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Simon Furey
>Sent: 14 September 2007 20:43
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Maltese Folk Music
>
>You will still find improvised songs today (including the competitive
>element) in the Iberian peninsula.
>
>I attended a competitive song festival in northern Catalonia at the
>beginning of this year, and was impressed by the singers, who were amusing
>as well as skilful. There are various standard song forms that each pair of
>competitors have to conform to, and the judges give them a theme to start
>with. They then sing alternate improvised verses trying to trip each other
>up. Eventually one singer can't invent a new verse quickly enough in reply
>and so loses.
>
>A similar tradition is also very common in Valencia, where somebody
>whispers themes and topics into the ear of the singer, who has to sing
>about this immediately following the verse he or she is currently singing.
>This is unbelievably hard (you try it!) to finish singing one verse you
>just invented while receiving information for and inventing the next verse.
>
>The music in both the Catalan and Valencian traditions tends to follow a
>standard form, rather than an improvised one, although (particularly in the
>Valencian case) the proximity of Arab/Moorish music is clear.
>
>Someone once told me something like this still happens in Euskadi (the
>Basque country) also, but alas I have no information on it.
>
>Cheers
>
>Simon Furey
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