In a previous post, I wrote in praise of the Nimbus CD Cante Gitano, on which, among others, José de la Tomasa sings so well. One of his cantes was a siguiriya that, halfway through, shifted to a major key and conveyed a wonderful sense of tranquility and peace following the anguish of the first half. The cante reminded me of another, very similar, that I had somewhere, so I dug around and came up with José de la Tomasa's grandfather Pepe Torre, brother of Manuel Torre. Pepe Torre had recorded a Siguiriya del Planeta with Melchor de Marchena for Antonio Mairena's Antologia del Cante Flamenco y Cante Gitano that sounded very similar--similar letras, similar major key.

I recently got another José de la Tomasa CD, with Juan Carmona "Habichuela", with a similar piece as on the Cante Gitano CD--another siguiriya, this time labelled as siguiriya y cabal. Evidently the cabal (or cabales,pl.) is a very old and rare form of major-key siguiriyas, very rarely referred to in the flamenco (English) literature, and news to me. It was also referred to as siguiriya cambiá or siguiriya de cambio. José de la Tomasa obviously comes by his association with this palo through his Torre family background. There is no way of knowing whether el Planeta himself sang this piece as a cabal, but somewhere along the line Pepe Torre did, and his grandson has passed it on in the form of siguiriya y cabal. Anybody have any additional info?

Carlos

Hola

Cabal is thought to be an invention of El Fillo, made famous by his pupil Silverio Franconetti and is almost always a remate for seguiriyas, though sometimes sung in its own right. The change to the major key and the consequent chording of E and A instead of A an Bb give it a quite different feel. Diego Clavel has good recordings of it.

Curiously, Fosforito recorded the seguiriyas of El Manijero, alternating between Phrygian and Major, or half seguiriyas and half cabales, (which makes it difficult to accompany). In Jerez, where this style was born, it is sung as a straight A-Bb cante. I understand that Fosforito claims to have invented this variant.

Sean

Sean, many thanks for the additional info! Do you have any particulars on the Fosforito recording--I'd like to hear it.

Carlos

Sorry, tried to upload a file but software did not allow it.

Sean

I found more info about cabales on Norman Kliman's siguiriyas archive: http://perso.orange.es/sonionegro/sigclas.htm

His soleares archive is also most useful and fascinating: http://perso.orange.es/sonionegro/soleares.htm

Carlos

The Hispavox (Westminister) Anthology has these "siguiryas de cambio" or S de El Planeta or just plain "cabales" (as listed here in the Hispavox acccompanied in I think among the most exquisite (yet simple) flamenco guitar playing by Perico del Lunar padre

Just a quick note: These videos above are of Perico's son. Unusually these days, this guitarist son of a guitarist preserved his fathers' toque very closely (eg contrast to Melchor and Enrique)
And,in fact, a close duplication of the famous Hispavox Anthology was done with Perico jr
But neither of these are the "pure" cabales I posted about which on the original Hispavox stay in the "cambio key" throughout