Cartagenera

Song of four or five verses of eight syllabes each, that belongs to the group of the Levante and, within it, to the group of the mines.

It comes from la 'taranta' and has also some roots in the malagueña. La cartagenera can be emotionally situed between these two songs. Its melody is much more "straight" than the taranta's, that is why it does not produce such an expressive and annoyed tension and is also less acid and rude. It is not that the taranta is not developping in an authentic flamenco creation but within its painfully complaint it exists a light, a hopeful brightness where there is the inescapable Mediterranean influence.

In 1884 Concepción Peñaranda sang in El Burrero café of Sevilla a kind of cartagenera with a character of malagueña. It was also possible to hear in El Burreo the 'granainas' and 'cartageneras' of Africa Vazquez, singer from Granada who lived in Almería for a long time. The cartagenera had its boom between 1890 and 1920, coinciding with the flamenco version of the malagueña. Both of them lived together for years, influencing eachother obviously. Some authors even allude to the cartagenera as a malagueña from el Levante. We can distinguish different kinds of cartagenera: the classical cartagenera. Another one would be the cartagenera of Niño de Cabra and a third one is the 'cartagenera grande de Chacón'. The last one would be the cartagenera that Chacón created from a malagueña of Canario.