Due to the lack of resources for this research, interviews have been the most important step in the process. The Federación Provincial de Verdiales, a federation responsible for the management of all issues related to verdiales in Málaga (groups, events, festivals, and so on), has been doing an amazing work the last few years through its Youtube Channel1, sharing interviews under the title 'Conversation with...' with the most relevant and oldest people in the tradition. Nobody can explain better how people used to live out this tradition than them, so the chance to have these conversations recorded to know first-hand their experience is just priceless. 

However, I could not miss the opportunity to interview some of these verdiales musicians myself, as I thought it was important for me to really understand this tradition and their point of view. 

The first verdiales musician I interviewed was known as Paco Maroto, probably the greatest violinist in Comares style. This interview2 has been crucial for several reasons. First of all, he was probably the oldest musician still alive at the moment (90 years old). So it was possible to have direct testimony about how verdiales was a century ago or even more, since his predecessors were verdiales musicians too. And moreover, Maroto is also the creator of the violin playing in Comares style and is considered the saviour of the style. 

As he was quite old and was not used to this kind of situations, the idea of structure for the interview was basically letting him talk, being more easy to learn unexpected information and details. Since the interview was done just after COVID (2022), it had been a while since Maroto last played with his group, so he was extremely happy to have the chance to talk and play with a young violinist.

Taking a journey through his life, he recalled beautiful moments of his youth when his daily incentive was to come back home after work and play verdiales with his family and neighbours. Together with family and friends, as the first official group in Comares style, they struggled a lot during their first years because they were not considered part of the tradition. Little by little, they were able to take part in more formal events such as festivals and competitions until the 70s, when they were finally allowed to join as an official group.

Maroto has left his own way of playing as a great legacy, very particular and unique, and the one that all current young violinists of this style play. When asked how he feels about being the creator and referent of Comares style, he just says with great humility that he never intended to do anything to show off or be better than others, his only purpose was to have fun. And with certain pride he admits how touched he is when he hears violinists playing his own style, especially the younger ones, making him feel confident that the preservation of the tradition is safe.

It is possible to listen an old recording of his group in which he is also the first singer (audio recording 1). 

Conversing with Maroto has been the most gratifying part of this research: learning first-hand about his youth, the origin of his group, all the suffering and effort through his life to get accepted in the tradition and always giving his best smile and with the greater enthusiasm to share his experience. Unfortunately, Maroto passed away in August 2022, so this conversation is probably one of the last interviews he gave. 

Important verdiales veterans too, Francisco de Martos3 (guitar player), Juan Morales (guitar player)4, Juan Medina5 (platillos player) or Lola Ruiz6 (singer and dancer), have shared their own stories, all full of humility, a great respect and love for their tradition and, of course, a lot of stories related to the verdiales world that, all agree, have given meaning to their lives.  

Details about the music per se and the context explained in different chapters of this research has been clarified thanks to interviews with Antonio Romero Ponce, who used to be my teacher when I learned verdiales as a child. As a fanatic of his own tradition, Antonio Romero has been always interesed in talking with the eldest people in verdiales to be able to learn as much as possible about the tradition. So, when it comes to cross-checking stories or information about events or facts, conversations with him have been very interesting. In some cases, such as Maroto's, the interviewee was at a very advanced age and some memories are doubtful. And, although it is not possible to resolve this as his own testimony is not clear, it has been possible to contrast it with the conversations he has had with other people of his generation. 

After watching and doing all the interviews, I found out that there are a few issues that specially bother the senior verdiales musicians.

As a recent tendency towards 'virtuosity', the strings are tuned much higher than it used to a few decades ago. Guitars usually placed their capo between the third and fifth fret at the most, depending on the needs of the singers in the group. Nevertheless, lately the capo is placed at the sixth or even the seventh fret. This causes a considerable rise in the pitch of the music, which for singers can be risky but impressing for the listener. It has become more important to show who is able to sing better in this higher pitch and with greater skill, regardless of the message or expression of the lyrics.

It is possible to see the comparison between old (audio recordings 2 and 3) and current singers (audio recordings 4 and 5). For me, old singers sound like are able to try the possibilities of their registers without being uncomfortable, whereas the current ones sometimes sound forced. 

The oldest musicians are really annoyed with this trend, as for them it loses the warmth and vibrancy that the music used to have, in addition to the discomfort of singing forced and on the edge. For me, although in the instrumental part it does not make a big difference, I do not like to see how today's singers are sometimes on the verge of breaking their voices in order to show off their abilities. 

Something that marked a before and after in verdiales in the last century was the incorporation of contests. There is a lot of debate about the need and importance of contests in verdiales. Some, mostly the oldest members, are against this new practice because they think that it has created a certain interest in playing solely and exclusively for financial gain, as well as has generated disputes and arguments among fellow members. For them, the essence of this tradition is having a good time and they feel it is getting lost.

What I really love of this tradition when it comes to a festival or an informal event, it is that it does not matter if you belong to one group or another or even if you do not belong to any group, what really matters is meeting with family and friends, meeting new people and having fun all together. And, even though contests facilitate visibility of verdiales and it is a very good opportunity to bring together a lot of pandas facing new challenges and self-improvement, in the end is easy to forget the true motto of this tradition: enjoyment.

Finally, something the senior and younger musicians agree is the current lack of originality or self-iniciative when it comes to create new variations. 

With the easy access to recordings and the Internet, even if we tried to create something new, we have so many references on a constant basis that it gets quite hard to be original. A century ago, people could only listen to verdiales by going to fairs and celebrations, and it is very difficult to remember something precisely when you only hear it live and from time to time. In fact, they probably did not even try to do it.
We have also to keep in mind that before, verdiales schools did not exist. It is a great advantage that anyone who has heard of or is curious about verdiales, can go to a place to take lessons and learn this music. In the past, every interested person had to learn the verdiales on their own, or become the apprentice of a particular musician.

However, most instrumentalists were reluctant to share their knowledge because they wanted to maintain their authenticity and be the only ones playing that way. Sometimes, even, if they saw that someone was paying too much attention to their playing, they would change and vary their playing to mislead and make memorisation impossible7. Something similar happened with the singing, which used to be much more spontaneous and without the need to copy exactly the flourishes and turns that someone did.

With the arrival of schools, verdiales has been standardised, leading to a smaller range of possibilities and variety, to the point that the violin in Comares style, for example, is based on the style of a single person. Although more than half a century ago there were other violinists with their own styles, since Maroto began to teach his own style and began to standardise it to some sort of degree, no other styles have been created. I believe that now that this traditional music has found a major channel of transmission through schools, it would be possible to begin to encourage and work on the search for each performer's own unique style.

In a nutshell, for me the biggest difference between verdiales around 50 years ago and now, besides the changes or evolution in certain musical details, is the way of feeling and living this tradition. In the past, verdiales was just another excuse to meet with beloved people to have a good time and play some music always with humility and respect. And now, the real purpose of this traditional music gets lost in the pursuit of virtuosity, competitiveness and, sometimes, economic interest. 

Image 25 and 26. Francisco de Martos, guitar player. 

Image 22 and 23. Interview with Paco Maroto.

Image 27 and 28. Juan Morales, guitar player, and Juan Medina, platillos player. 

Image 24. Paco Maroto playing the violin (1978). 

J. M. Fontecha (2008). Retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmfontecha/2311019040/ 

Last visit: 11/02/2023

Image 29 and 30. Lola Ruiz, singer and dancer.