Séraphin Costa

Dominique Costa

Mikhail Malt

Marc Chemillier

Gérard Assayag

E G « Gitano » Vs « Payo », « Duende »

Federico

Machine-man Co-improvisation: Incursion of Djazz in Flamenco

Garcia Lorca, Jeu et theorie du duende

Here we focus on the balance between constraints and freedom in traditional flamenco improvisation («tablao » or « fin de fiesta », and the dialog between musicians. Here, the dancer is considered in a first attempt as a percussionist instrument.

Glossary: compas ; medio compas. Fin de fiesta: dernier palo interprété lors d'un spectacle, il doit normalement être festif. C'est la bulería le palo qui est choisi pour faire un fin de fiesta. Remate: fonction de fermer une étape. Palmas; Falseta

Conclusions and Perspectives :

It was possible to produce improvisations that respect the rhythmic pattern and the strongest beats. In the future, it is possible to improve the respect of melody and anticipate the « remate ». Body movement recognition could also be explored.

Flamenco is a traditional Spanish music from Andalusia. Based on oral tradition and transmission, traditional Flamenco, has implicit rules that allow musicians and dancers to interpret complex patterns without previous rehearsal. The experiments described here attempt to discover these rules by setting a musical improvisation program to play in the flamenco style and by analyzing the reactions of expert musicians listening to it. There are numerous styles or "palos" in Flamenco, however some general guidelines can be extracted. Here we focus on two general rules: i) During improvised musical developments where one partner takes the lead, musicians "resolve" together through a "remate" ii) The underlying common pattern is rhythm We tried to determine the minimal conditions to provide "acceptable Flamenco" through the Djazz environment developed by IRCAM and EHESS. We examined typical "palos": Tangos (binary), Fandangos (ternary) and Bulerias (mixed). The acceptability of the Djazz productions were tested by i) submitting the improvisations to musicians and listen to their advice, ii) co-improvising with musicians. In a first attempt, a "letra" (song) of Fandango was investigated. No grid was imposed. The results were unacceptable, as neither the harmony nor the rhythm and the remate were distinguishable. Then, a harmony pattern (chords) was applied. It was again not satisfactory, as the same chord in different places has not the same role. Thus, harmony and rhythm must be considered. We then focused on the rhythm aspects of Bulerias, using "palmas" (hands clapping). The acceptable grid was the one, where the "remate" is clearly identified. Additionally, we could define the statistical fingerprint of the Bulerias palo and compared the Djazz production to that of musicians. The conclusion of the study on Bulerias was directly applied to a live improvisation with musicians on Tangos, without preliminary tests, but we directly imposed a grid where the remate is clearly identified. Djazz production was satisfying for two criteria: the palo was respected and the musicians (guitar, dance) could co-improvise upon the Djazz Proposals.

In vivo experiment

Cristobal Corbel, guitar, Sophia Sena, baile, Alberto Garcia, cante

The conclusions of the in silico study are applied to the choice of the grid, which is abcdabce

« Compas » 3-3-3-3 2-2-2-2 3-3-2-2-2 2-2-2-3-3 « Remate » ﺎ-2-3-3-3 ﺎ-1-2-2-2 3-3-2-2-ﺎ-ﺎ 2-2-2-

Grid & Continuity

Haciendo Compas HC : software for foot beat partitions HC © allowed us to plot the beats and beat intensity in the musical measure (bar) of one « compas »; We thus have a fingerprint of the strong beats and weak beats, that give the benchmarks of the « palo of bulerias ». In addition, we remark an accumulation of beats at the end of the « compas »: this is the fingerprint of the « remate ». The grid that reproduces better the strongest beat, the time « 3 », the time « 10 » is the abcabcdedefg grid. In addition, it allows the occurrence of contratiempos at the end of the « compas ».

Conclusion

  : Guitar : respect of rhythm and melody, Feet : respect of rhythm, Both : coherence, Cante : non relevant

Figure 3 :

 3 Figure 3: Comparison between the model and the DJAZZ Impros : Occurrence and intensity of beats in one 12 times mesure

Figure 1 Figure 2

 12 Figure 1 : a) Flamenco « palos »: the different families are classified according to the « compas », a cyclic pattern b) polygon representations of the « compas » of the main families of « palos », from G. Toussaint, the geometry of musical rhythm

This research is supported by an action of ERC REACH supported by the European Research Council under Horizon 2020 program (Grant 883313) the European Research Council (ERC) REACH project, and by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) project MERCI (Grant ANR-19-CE33-0010); financial support from "L'OiseauRoc Flamenco" association is acknowledged.

What is Flamenco ?

Plenty of definitions, historical, cultural, esthetical, sociological and sacred* aspects.,