The art of the violin in Verdiales

María Estela Lastre Castillo

Verdiales is the traditional music from Málaga, Spain, which is little known even within Spain. This research places verdiales in its historical and musical context looking at: the differences between styles, rhythm and harmony, and, most importantly, the role of the violin in this music. As the main instrument in verdiales, the violin is played in a very different way than in classical music, since it is spontaneous music with a great deal of freedom for improvisation, disseminated purely by oral transmission, and with a particular technique which is suited to playing only this music. Through the deep learning of verdiales, I have looked for different resources to face my daily practice issues in order to gain more flexibility and freedom in my way of playing. After trying several exercises and approaches in different parts of my practice, I have been self- documenting and verifying the improvement and effectiveness of certain methods, taking into account different aspects such as bow hold, ornamentation, and improvisation. As a result, I came to the conclusion that in order to achieve different results, it is necessary for more exploration and extremely different methods than the ones I have been using when practicing the violin

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Interviews

- Luca Alfonso Rizzello. Interview made by María Estela Lastre Castillo. September 2022, online interview, The Netherlands.

In order to broaden my perspective for the interviews and data collection, I have been helped by Luca Alfonso Rizzello, violinist and expert in traditional music, specially in his home country, Italy. As someone who does not know the tradition of verdiales but knows about some other traditional music in the Mediterranean, he provided me more general ideas and resources about folklore and the idea of Greece as the origin of many traditions in the Mediterranean. Also, key ways to seek information in the unknown field of verdiales based on his experiencie with Italian traditional music such as the evolution of the tradition in relation to the changes in culture, the connection with religion, how instruments used to be or trying to find out old testimonies or chronicles of travellers.

Without a doubt, an interview that has guided me and helped me to decide where to focus my search for information.

- Antonio Romero Ponce. Interview made by María Estela Lastre Castillo. February 2022, Málaga, Spain.

As one of the most relevant violinists of his generation, Antonio has been a key figure in helping me to get to know the music of verdiales in detail and to solve all my musical, historical and contextual doubts. Thanks to him, almost 15 years ago I started my journey into the traditional music of my land, and now, it will always be part of my life.

- Francisco Romero Díaz, known as Paco Maroto. Interview made by María Estela Lastre Castillo. January 2022, Málaga, Spain.

It would not have been possible to experience the essence of verdiales without the conversation with Paco Maroto. He has been a great musical reference for the following generations in this tradition. But talking to him, discovering his humility, respect and the excitement in his sparkling eyes when he talked about his tradition, have undoubtedly been a great inspiration to truly understand what verdiales is all about.

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