Granaína
The granaína belongs to the so-called fandangos granadinos, within the larger family of fandangos, and shares with the rest of the Levante cantes that free character, without a danceable compás, built instead on melody and the cantaor’s vocal display. Its name points directly to Granada, the land from which it takes its air and tone.
Antonio Chacón was the first cantaor to bring this style to wider audiences, already distinguishing at the time between the granaína proper and the media granaína, two related variants that have coexisted in the flamenco repertoire ever since.
Origin and history
The granaína arose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a refined elaboration of the Granada fandango, within the process by which several local fandangos were transformed into listening cantes, stripped of danceable compás, to become a vehicle for the vocal display of the great cantaores of the time.
Antonio Chacón, one of the main architects of this process of stylizing the fandango, was the one who fixed and spread the granaína as a distinct style, giving it an identity of its own within the broad group of the so-called cantes de Levante or cantes abandolaos. Alongside it he also created the media granaína, a variant of shorter length and melodic development.
Throughout the 20th century the granaína became established as one of the most valued cantes for showing off a cantaor’s high register and interpretive ability, holding a prominent place in recitals and recordings by the great names of cante.
Musical characteristics and compás
It is performed in free compás, with no rhythmic marking or possibility of dance, in major tonality and with a broad melodic range that demands considerable mastery of high tones from the cantaor. The guitar plays an extensive melodic introduction before the voice enters, and is usually played “por granaína,” a specific tuning and fingering for this style.
The media granaína, shorter and less vocally demanding than the full granaína, is usually used as a transitional or closing style within a set of cantes de Levante.
Representative cantaores and performers
Besides Antonio Chacón, its creator, the granaína has been performed by many of the great cantaores of the 20th century, among them Manuel Torre, Pepe Marchena, Antonio Mairena, Enrique Morente and Camarón de la Isla, who brought personal nuances to a style that demands great vocal capacity and control of the high register.
Relationship with other palos
The granaína belongs to the fandango family, within the specific group of the cantes de Levante or abandolaos, alongside the malagueña, the murciana, the rondeña and other personal fandangos in free compás. It shares with them the major mode typical of this subgroup and a common origin in the Granada fandango, from which the media granaína also derives as a shorter variant.