El Polo y La Caña

The First Literary References

In one of the  “Cartas Marruecas” of J. Cadalso, there is a passage in which a juerga flamenca is described. In the juerga, a certain Tío Gregorio comments that “…he sang the Polo so that the Preciosilla could dance…”This reference dates from 1780 and is the oldest literary reference that there is to flamenco.

In modern times, the Caña is quite often performed as a dance. However, it seems that the Polo was in fact the older of the two forms and was danced.

In the “Colección de las mejores coplas de seguidillas, tiranas y polos que se han compuesto para cantar a la guitarra” there is a reference to the early pre-flamenco polos. This rare and valuable book is generally considered to be the first collection of popular music in Hispanic literature.

First published in 1802, the author Don Juan Antonio de Iza Zamacola, writing under the pseudonym of Don Preciso, complains of changes in the interpretation of the Polos at the start of the XIX century.

His objective with this publication was:

“El deseo (…) de restablecer en España la música nacional, y de apartar quanto sea posible de nuestra vista la italiana, que no puede producir otro defecto que el de debilitar y afeminar nuestro carácter.” .
(To re-establish a national music which had little or no influence of the Italian fashions popular at the time.)

His second complaint however is more interesting from a  flamenco perspective. He mentions that the sweet and airy beauty of the Polos is being destroyed by modern interpreters. He comments that a fashion has sprung up in which singers with rough and coarse voices tear open their shirts in an emotionally pretentious fashion, and complains that guitarists play the Polos in a heavy handed fashion instead of the refined style that he was more accustomed to. He does not mention names, but there are several reasons to suspect that he is talking specifically of the interpretations of the lower classes, labourers, the unemployed poor and gypsies – a people found in abundance in Málaga, Seville and Cádiz – the so called Trángulo del Cante.

I suspect that he was observing (with apparent disgust) the flamencofying of traditional songs. What is certain is that the first interpreters of flamenco were nearly all gypsies, especially as regards the cantes de compás (rhythmical cantes). There are two singers in particular who are attributed to the development, if not the creation of the polo; El Tobalo and Curro Dulce, both singers of the XIX century.

The first “flamencos”

The first recorded singers of the the Caña and the Polo  are El Tobalo (Cristóbal?), a gypsy singer from Ronda and Curro Dulce. It is claimed that El Tobalo possessed an excellent voice and a creative genius. Little more is known of him and many writers claim that he is simply a myth, denying his existence.

As regards Curro Dulce (Francisco Fernandez Boigas) there is more information which comes to us from oral sources. He was born, lived and died in Cádiz, his favourite palos were the siguiriyas, tonás and polo/caña. His preferred way of singing was palo seco, that is, without guitar. He preferred to be accompanied by percussive effects.

Much is written about the polo/ca̱a due to its importance in the embryonic stage of flamenco. However, much is myth, coming to us from oral sources and however much one wishes to respect the memory of illiterate communities, much of the information is contradictory. The same can be said of modern flamencologists, many of whom make strong claims based simply on myth. The truth is that very little is known of the early decades of flamenco due to the fact that the early interpreters and creators were marginalized, disrrespected and illiterate Рnothing was written down or recorded.

Features and Structure of the Caña and Polo

Both the Caña and the Polo are performed in a ¾ compás, similar to that of soleá:

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 - 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 1 – 2

or

1 – 2 – 3 - 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 1 – 2

Both the Caña and the Polo feature a “pase’illo”. In these cantes, the pase’illo consists of five or six ‘ayes’ (known as melismas) that climb the harmonic scale.

The Caña consists of:

1. temple
2. primer pase’illo
3. caña, macho
4. soleá corta

The Polo consists of:

1. temple
2. two verses (los dos primeros tercios)
3. primer pase’illo
4. soleá apolá

To hear more recordings of these style, together with an analysis of their structures you could do no worse than to visit:

http://pedelgom.blogspot.com/2008/12/la-caa-y-el-polo.html

or:

http://www.radiole.com/especiales/enciclopedia_flamenco/soleares_cana_polo.html

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