In order to understand its musical form and characteristics, it is necessary to know that verdiales comes from a previous tradition known as fandango, which in turn was born from the zarabanda.
Zarabanda was a very popular dance in Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries, along with the jota and the seguidilla. Although the Baroque was its period of greatest splendour, it was already known before. Some even relate this dance to the times of Rome and Classical Antiquity1. Many say that this dance is 'something born in Andalusia'2 or 'typical and characteristic, through historical times, of the Andalusian people'3.
Despite the numerous prohibitions, people managed to preserve this dance by constantly changing its name. Some of these names are: carretería, japona or gorrona. It was considered a cheerful, vigorous, vulgar, rustic and simple dance which was usually performed in taverns. It was despised by the upper classes and the Church as they considered it to be a lewd, fiery and sensual dance. Moreover, it may have been so persecuted because of its Moorish traits4.
The metre of the zarabanda is made up of six verses (4+2), just like the later fandango and, therefore, verdiales. This metric comes from the Arabic zéjel5. In addition, verdiales will also inherit the ternary rhythm of 3/4 or 6/8 from the zarabanda.
Some of the later variants of this dance will be the fandango, the folías, the chacona or the pandorga.
The zarabanda began to decline at the end of the 18th century, probably because of the constant prohibitions; although, the rural areas would never give up this tradition.
Image 18. Fandango 18th century.
Rocío García (2017). El fandango en el s. XVIII: música popular española en la corte vienesa. Revista AV Notas, vol 2, p. 94.
After the decline of the zarabanda, a new music was born: the fandango. This term started to be used around the beginning of the 18th century and was very successful until the end of the following century. It is the heir to the Roman Hispania, the Mozarabic dances and son of the zarabanda. According to Palatin's Diccionario de Música (1818), the fandango is a very old and common joyful dance in Spain.
There is some confusion in some regions of the country with another Spanish genre, the jota. After all, both are rural traditions that come from the zarabanda. While in Andalusia this dance is always called fandango, in some areas outside this region it is called malagueña (demonym that means 'from Málaga') or rondeña (demonym that means 'from Ronda', village in Málaga).
In the 19th century, the fandango became the national song and dance, but at the end of the century it began to decline and disappear, at least with that exact name. Most of the veteran musicians in verdiales agree that by that time the term 'verdiales' was already being used.
The instruments used in both the zarabanda and the fandango are the same as in verdiales: the violin, the vihuela or guitar, the tambourine and the cymbals, as well as singing and dancing. Although this type of traditional music is for the most part extinguished, there are still some areas where the fandango tradition is kept alive, but then without the violin in the group.
The violin can therefore be considered not only the most relevant instrument in verdiales, because of its melodic responsability and leadership, but also in Spanish traditional music in general, because it is the only type in which the violin still survives.