Jota (music)

Aragon. Fuck.by Joaquín Sorolla (1914).

The jota is a traditional dance and song widespread throughout much of Spain. Its style varies depending on the region, there being, for example, the Aragon jota, the Castilian jota, the Manchega jota, the León, the Valencia, the Mallorcan jota, the Navarra, La Rioja, "mountain" » from Cantabria, from Asturias, from Galicia, from Extremadura, from Alta Andalucía, from Murcia, the jacks from the Basque Country, the Catalan jack, and even the insular jack from the Canary Islands.

Understood as a scenic representation, the jota is sung and danced to the accompaniment of castanets and the performers are usually dressed in regional costumes. In Valencia, in the past, the jota was danced in the burial ceremony. It was also danced —and is danced— in Catalonia, and especially in the Tierras del Ebro area (Amposta, Tortosa, etc) and in the Campo de Tarragona (jota fogueada). Also in the Canary Islands the jacks and rondallas with peculiar characteristics they were the most outstanding part of folklore, nowadays somewhat displaced by the protection towards other styles considered more autochthonous. However, on the islands there is the isa, a piece of music that derives from the jota. In the Philippines, the Spanish religious transmitted the jota to the Tagalogs, who interpret it in rondallas and accompanied by native instruments. The varieties of jota from Aragón, La Rioja and Navarra are related to each other and form the so-called Jotas del Ebro, being one of the most characteristic of this genus. Jotas del Ebro contests and competitions are held throughout the Spanish territory.

Etymology

Its origin is unknown. It would seem to come from the Mozarabic *šáwta, to jump, and this from the Latin saltāre, to dance. To the north of the Pyrenees, dances also called sauts, salts, are danced in the Gascon-Aquitanian, Béarnaise and Lower Navarre provinces, derived directly from the Branle of the Renaissance (c.f. "Le saut de Béarn", "Les sept sauts", and "Le saut deu lapin").

Origin

Regarding the origin of the song, there has been a rather fanciful belief that the jota had been brought to Aragon by an Arab expelled from Valencia named Aben Jot. He considered him the "inventor" of singing, as reflected in some couplets that mention him as a refugee in Calatayud in the XII century:

«The Jota was born in Valencia

and from there he came to Aragon;

Calatayud was his cradle,

on the banks of the Jalon.»

There are written documents that speak of the jota as a very widespread dance in the Kingdom of Valencia in the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th centuries and the first half of the century XVIII (no previous document has been found that speaks of the jota either in Aragon or in Spain as a whole, and the Aragonese jota appears at the end of the century XVIII). It highlights a painting of the inauguration of the Royal Palace, Al Munia in Arabic, which was built in 1009 by the king of Balansiya Abd-Al-Aziz. For the Arabist Henri Péres, the painting shows men and women dancing a jota. If the jota was born in Valencia, it is logical to think that the day laborers from Requena, Utiel and their regions, who went down to the Ribera del Júcar in the rice harvest at the end of September in the Llíria region, and the alfalfa harvest, cereal and onion in the lands of the Turia, on their return they would comment with wonder on the dance they had seen and which was called jota. This dance spread through Requena, Utiel and their regions, and surely these same day laborers were the ones who began to transmit it when they went up to the kingdoms of Aragon and Navarra to harvest the cereal.

Features

Its rhythm is usually measured in 3/4, although some authors maintain that 6/8 is better adapted to the structure of the choreographic and strophic cycle. The most common popular harmonizations stick to first, fourth, and fifth chords of the major mode with a dominant seventh. For its interpretation guitars, bandurrias and lutes are used. Accordion in the case of the Navarrese, La Rioja and Aragonese, dulzaina and drums in the Castilian, and in the case of the Cantabrian, Leonese, Asturian and Galician bagpipes, mountain pitu, charra bagpipes, tambourines, drums and bass drum.

The strings are the instruments that make the rhythm.

The exhibition versions are sung and danced with regional costumes and castanets, which is not so common when it is practiced as entertainment or social dance. The content of the songs is very diverse, from patriotism, to religion or sexual mischief. Those that are useful as generators of cohesion in the town that dances them prevail.

The steps performed by the dancers are similar to those of the waltz, although in the case of the jota there is much more variation. The lyrics, in terms of form, are usually written in eight-syllable quatrains, the first and third verses being assonant.

Non-Spanish authors

A number of non-Spanish composers have used the jota style in Spanish-inspired works:

• Maurice Ravel includes jota compases in his impressionist Rhapsodie Espagnole.
• Jules Massenet en Le Cid and Georges Bizet en Carmen include “aragonaises”.
• Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894) incorporates it into his famous symphony Espagne (1883).
• Mijaíl Glinka, Russian composer (1804-1857), after a trip to Spain used the style of the jota in his work Fucking Aragonese..
• Liszt, pianist and composer of Hungarian origin (1811-1886), wrote a piano jot.
• Saint-Saëns, French composer (1835-1921), composed a jota for orchestra, the same as the Russian composer Mili Balákirev (1837-1910).
• Raoul Laparra, French composer (1876-1943), composed an opera entitled Fuck..
• José White, Cuban composer (1836-1918), composed La Jota Aragonesa.

Regional varieties in Spain

Fucking Aragonese.

Aragonese jack

The Aragonese jota is part of the Ebro jotas and is the best known of the musical folklore manifestations of Aragon. Its origin could be towards the end of the XVIII century, and it had its greatest splendor during the XIX, acquiring great popularity after the War of Independence. Since the end of the XIX century, it has been brought to the stage as a show. The jota was included in zarzuelas, films, choreographed for major festivals, and taken to contests and competitions.

The Aragonese jota includes both dance and singing and rondalla.

Dancing is done by women and men of all ages. It has great difficulty especially in the steps. They usually dance jotas de tres coplas, boleros, fandangos and all of this is danced in pairs forming different group figures.

The song is usually solo, although it can also be sung as a duet, made up of a voice that carries the melody and another that carries the octave, also called a duo. It is sung as a group such as boleros, fandangos, refrains and cellar songs made up of men and women. Regarding the dance, the singers accompany the dancers according to the instrumental theme and for this reason a group of dancers and singers is formed that adapt to the musical style. The singers sing the jotas included in the major and minor tones from DO to SI.

As for the formation of the rondalla, there is no age limit. The rondallas are usually made up of the most recognizable instruments such as guitar, bandurria, lute and guitarrico (this one is used more for rounds), apart from that, new instruments can also be introduced to this formation such as electric bass, viola or double bass. The rondalla plays an important role but at the same time is very discreet, they are in charge of accompanying the dancers in the dance jotas and the singers in their solo, duo or group jotas.

The dance styles, called pure, because they have been preserved to this day, are those corresponding to the towns of Calanda, Alcañiz, Andorra, Albalate del Arzobispo, Huesca, and Zaragoza. Among the most popular in the repertoires are: Jota de San Lorenzo (Huesca), Jota Repetida (Teruel), Jota vieja, Aragón tierra bravía, Gigantes y cabezudos, La Dolores (the latter belong to the zarzuelas of the same name), La danza de la Olivera etc

Other dances related to the jota are also very important, such as the boleros of the XVIII century, highlighting that of Alcañiz, that of Caspe, and that of Sallent de Gállego, which although today are highly influenced by the jota, in their day enjoyed great popularity, and were danced accompanied by dulzainas and drums, as in the Jota Hurtada de Albarracín. Other singular dances were the Gitanilla de Andorra, with ribbons, today choreographed as the Dance of Andorra, the dance of the handkerchiefs of Remolinos, or the nineteenth-century dances of the Pyrenees, such as the Cadril, the Villano, the Canastera or the Tin tan.

Among the singers, the figures of Pedro Nadal ("el royo del Rabal"), Mariano Malandía ("el Tuerto de las Tenerías"), Juanito Pardo, Cecilio Navarro, Jesús Gracia, José Iranzo Bielsa ("the shepherd of Andorra"), and José Oto, considered the most important "singer" of the Aragonese jota. Among the female voices we can point out those of Asunción Delmás, Pilar Gascón, Jacinta Bartolomé, Pascuala Perié, Felisa Galé, Pilar de las Heras or María Blasco.

Bailando la jota en Hospital de Órbigo (León).

Castilian jack

The Castilian jota (both the one from the Castilian part of Castilla y León, as well as the one from Madrid and the Castilian-La Mancha) is usually accompanied by guitars, bandurrias, lutes, dulzaina and drums.

Catalan Jack

In Catalonia, the jota is part of the traditional folklore of the western lands of the community, and especially of the so-called Tierras del Ebro. The first known written reference is a condemnation by the bishop from Tortosa, from 1734, although it refers to Calaceite, an Aragonese town neighboring Catalonia. In recent times this musical genre has been revalued in the community thanks mainly to the group from Tortosa Quico el Célio, el Noi i el Mut de Ferreries; In 2010 the regional government declared the jota dance of national interest in Catalonia.

Jack of Extremadura

Extremadura preserves a large number of native traditional dances and dances. In Extremadura, the jotas take on a great variety of shapes and nuances, the fandango, the rondeña, the triangle jota, the paleos, the pindongo, the perantón, brincao sones and flat sones also stand out.

The instruments used are the three-hole flute, the Extremaduran bagpipe and drum, guitar, bandurria, lute, rebec, accordion, tambourine, violin and other percussion instruments such as pestles, castanets, rattles, mortars, cowbells, bottle of anís... The Extremaduran jota is part of the stylistic archetype of the Castilian jota, in its slowest version. Therefore, it also structures its accents in a binary measure of ternary subdivision, that is, a 6/8. This aspect, as in the Castilian jota, can also be seen in the structure of its melodies and dance. This is how Manuel García Matos already reflected it in his Lírica popular de la Alta Extremadura. The texts usually present an octosyllabic quatrain metric. Example:

From the grape comes the wine,

From the olive oil,
And out of my heart comes out!
Honey to love you.
In Olivenza it's ringing
That we both love each other,
Deny it your life of mine,
I deny it too.
You're tall and good-looking,
Don't get it so hard,
That also the good mosses!
They are left to wear saints.
You're younger than an egg.
And you want to get married,
Go and tell your mother,
Teach you to work.
The girls of Olivenza,
They're not like the others,
Because they're daughters of Spain!
And granddaughters from Portugal.
They have the sweet beauty,
From the Lusitana woman,
And grace and salt,
Of the women of Spain.

(Jota de la uva, Olivenza, Badajoz)

Jack of Leon

In the case of the Leonese jota, the accompaniment is more frequent with bagpipes or flute with three holes and tambourine. Also the more austere accompaniment of voice and tambourine has been very traditional in the province, as in the rest of the Castilian and Leonese provinces. All while the couple of dancers dance keeping their hands above their heads, occasionally accompanied by castanets. These types of jotas are danced with the characteristic jumped steps, a bit chopped, and are more sober and less moved and graceful in their gestures than those of Aragón. The stanzas and songs that sometimes accompany the jota are called coplas. These sometimes deal with love, weddings (in which advice and praise were given to the couple), life or their religiosity, but they are almost always characterized by their picaresque and great sense of humor.

Rhythmically it is similar to the Castilian jota, organizing its accents in a 6/8 time signature. Like the Castilian jotas from the northern provinces, its tempo is faster than, for example, those found in Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha or the south of the northern sub-plateau.

Jota charra

The jota charra, typical of the province of Salamanca, has as its typical instruments the flute with three holes or bagpipe charra and the drum. There is also a Castilian tendency in the east of the province when the use of the Castilian dulzaina was recently introduced. The charro folklore constitutes a bridge between the culture of Leon to the north and Extremadura to the south.

The jota charra is usually danced as a couple, although it is also common to do it in a group, especially at town festivals. This type of jota, like the rest of charro folklore, is usually very static from the waist up.

Regarding the songs, there are with lyrics and without them, due to oral culture there are many varieties of the same lyrics, as is the case with the Jota de la Clara.

Jack from Manchega

The jota from Manchega, typical of the area, has round features as its own characteristic. Many jotas from La Mancha are known as "Jota del Mantecado", since it was common to sing and dance them on dates close to Christmas (and also on other designated dates).

Mountain Jack

The variety performed in areas of Cantabria is called jota montañesa, also known as baile "a lo altu y a lo baju" or "a la ligeru y a lo peau". Formerly interpreted to the sound of the tambourine to later enter the pitu (clarinet in E flat) and drum. At present the bagpipe has been incorporated. In the south of Cantabria this dance is accompanied by voice and rebec. It is part of the archetype of the Castilian jota, in its fastest version, which is why it also structures its rhythm in a 6/8 time signature (two parts of three beats). This can also be observed in the structure of his melodies and in that of the dance. Strictly, the part of the mountain jota that corresponds to what is understood as jota in the rest of the peninsula (the Castilian archetype, different from the Aragonese) is the "dance to the baju". In Cantabria, the alternation of "baile a lo baju" (as has been said, a dance with two ternary parts) with the "baile altu", a dance with two binary parts, that is, a 2/4. This characteristic, as in the case of the "baile al bajo", can also be observed in the structures of its melodies and in those of the dance. The "dance on high" it is considerably lighter and faster in tempo. A characteristic that this "baile altu" is that, on occasions, it is accompanied by a rhythmic design in triplets by the percussion, resulting from the matching of figures of a motif of two semiquavers and one eighth note. This occurs exclusively with the percussion accompaniment, never with the melodies, which do not abandon the binary subdivision structure. This procedure is characteristic of many binary subdivision binary dances (commonly called "light") from other northern areas.

Navarrese and Rioja jota

Together with the Aragonese they make up the famous jotas del Ebro. The joteros and joteras of this type of cante wear white pants or a skirt, white espadrilles with red ribbons, a red sash, a white shirt and a red scarf.

The lyrics of the songs are popular verses, in some cases referring to traditional day-to-day themes of the people for whom they were composed. An example are the jotas dedicated to field work, such as the grape harvest, the harvest, etc., to the patron saints of many localities, such as, for example, in Pamplona to San Fermín, to San Mateo, in Logroño, or songs Navarra or La Rioja itself.

Other themes are family, countryside, satirical tone, agricultural cycles or love and heartbreak. They are sung at popular festivals or by farmers to liven up the work in the fields. Normally the instrumental part of the performance is led by a rondalla or sometimes by wind instruments such as the Rioja boot bagpipe or the Navarra dulzaina, played in both regions. Also very frequently by an accordion.

There are schools of jota throughout the entire Ebro valley as it passes through La Rioja and Navarra, and it is also very popular in Miranda de Ebro, Tafalla, Tudela, among many others. Various contests of this art are held, which is one of the greatest exponents of the culture of this area. The most renowned is held every year in Tafalla known as the "Campeón de Campeones", in which the joteras and joteras winners in Navarra jota contests during the year compete for the prize. The condition of having obtained the first prize is essential to participate and is established in the contest rules. Said contest was suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. Its last edition was broadcast on Navarra TV.

The usual format consists of 4 verses of which 3 are repeated to reach a total of 7 in this order a, b, a, c, d, d, b. Example:

"The one in Navarre sings

The most fucked-up fuck
The one in Navarre sings
It's a bunch of roses.
That comes out of my throat
That comes out of my throat

The hottest fuck."

"I sing to Logroño

that in La Rioja was born
and in La Ribera del Ebro
I learned it.
I was born in La Rioja,
in La Rioja was born
and pride on my land

I sing it like that."

The Navarra jota, declared in 2019 an Asset of Cultural Interest in Navarra at the initiative of the Association of the Navarra Jota, Navarjota and the UPNA Chair of Intangible Heritage published in the Official Gazette of Navarra. The Government of Navarra will request the recognition of the Jota as World Intangible Heritage by UNESCO.

Raimundo Lanas is one of the most famous joteros in its history. Other renowned joteros are Faico and Josefina, Julián Arina, the Flamarique Sisters, the Anoz Brothers or Molviedro. But even musicians like Joaquín Larregla, Pablo Sarasate or Manuel Turrillas composed jotas for violin, orchestra, etc.

Usually they are organized in groups of joteros, and groups such as Alma Navarra (with their versions of «No te vayas de Navarra», «Pamplona, perla del norte» or «Himno de Osasuna»), Navarra Canta or Montaña are well-known and Ribera, among many other groups.

Although it is specific, I should also mention the jack of Ochagavía, in the Salazar Valley, in the heart of the Navarrese Pyrenees.

It is the popular music of the San Fermín festivities.

In the case of the Riojan jota, declared in 2017 an Asset of Cultural Interest, several performers and composers of this musical style should be mentioned, such as Pepe Blanco, Teo Echaure, Purita Ugalde "La Riojanita", Antonio García, Ángel Sáez-Benito, Oscar Alesanco or Fidel Ibarra, who performed before King Alfonso XIII in 1903 during his first visit to the capital of La Rioja and compositions such as "Riojano de pura cepa& #3. 4; (1880), the pasodoble-jota "In La Rioja I was born" (1957) "La jota de Logroño" (1910) "In La Rioja, the Riojans" (1945), "There is no tram in La Rioja" (1953) etc...

This musical style also had an impact in theaters. This was the case with zarzuela in works such as "El postillón de La Rioja" (1851), by non-La Rioja authors, which includes a La Rioja jota in the first act, in "Cameranas" (1933) by José Eizaga" or in "La Riojana" (1898) by Florencio Bello. Due to its specificity and uniqueness, the Riojan jota has been declared an asset of immaterial cultural interest.

Valencian Jack

The Valencian jota is reminiscent of ballroom dancing due to its rhythmic movements. Many towns have their jota, such as the jota vallera (Vall de Uxó), the cofrentina, the moixentina (Mogente), the postiguet, that of Carlet or that of Villena.

There is a heritage made up of 9 different genres of dance music with their musical and choreographic variants. All this, without counting the square dances, nor the ritual dances.

• Fuck her. The jota is the most popular traditional dance in Valencia, popularized in all regions. It is originally from the centuryXIVbut the way we know it now dates back to the centuryXIX. In this century it was replacing other older types of dance, such as the following. Musically the jots are distinguished with return (more abundant in the south) and without (more abundant in the north). As for choreographic structures there is a wide variety of loose forms (older) and grabbed (more modern), such as couples, races with change of couple (especially abundant in the north), in frame, of three from six (three couples), in row or rank (a special case is the dance of the canyon of the northern regions), etc.

• One or Malagueña. One is a dance originated in the south peninsula at the end of the centuryXVII or early 18th. It is strongly rooted in all the regions of the south half of the Valencian community. To the north, we only find it on the coast, where it reaches the region of the Plana. It is a dance that presents many denominations. In the south it is called malagueña, in the central regions or, in the most interior Spanish speaking districts fandango (the same name as in the Balearic Islands) and in the most north marineria. It tends to be a couple dance, formerly loose and more modernly grabbed. There are also some variations of one in circle in the central regions, which receive names such as villanera, carrot, dance plan or sandinga.

• Followers. They are a dance originally from the center of the Iberian peninsula, extended from the centuryXVI. Being such an old dance has been disappearing and there are currently few examples. There are two styles differentiated by their rhythm, the oldest or the most classic, called toast in some regions and the fast or manchega, also called Corrillo or cumshots. The first are more frequent in the northern regions and are danced in corrosion, although they also appear in the Marina and the Serrania de Alcoy, where they dance in painting and making chains or crosses. The second are more frequent in the inner central districts and usually dance as a couple.

• Fandango (north). It is a musical and dance genre almost exclusively Valencian. It is very abundant in the Valencian regions of the north, although it also appears in the Ebro Lands and the Aragonese populations near the Valencia Strip. It is an archaic fandango, related to other Iberian fandangos and the fandangos of copla departure from the southern Valencian. It usually has a very fast pace and very bright pastes are used. On many occasions it is linked to the jota, so it goes from the jota to the fandango without stopping the music or the dance. There are some examples in minor tonality.

• Bolero. It is a very bright dance, created by the dance masters of the centuryXIX for comfortable and popularized classes at the end of this century. Its origin is in the following, although there are also enfandangats bolers influenced by the One. It is a genus cultivated especially in the Costera, Ribera Alta, Ribera Baja and la Valldigna. In addition, the dance teachers of the popular dance paintings of the city of Valencia also created boleros to include in their repertoire.

• Coping. It's a prom related to the follower. The literary estrofa that you use is the copla or song and not the strofa of the seguidilla, plus it has a sung round that always says "wrink the ball". It saves a certain musical relationship with the Mallorcan copeos, although the Valencian copeo is much slower. Only three examples have been preserved in the area of the mountain range of Mariola.

• Valencia. Valencians are an exclusively Valencian genre, extended by the region of the Huerta de Valencia and some nearby regions. There are three different styles: the One and Two, the U and Doce and the One, the first two are related to the jota and the third with the Andalusian fandango. The birth of Valencians as a dance, is due to the teachers of the popular dance paintings of the city of Valencia, which adapted popular pasts but with the technique of ballet to style singing. They are therefore a kind of spectacular dance born in the entablados.

• Fandango. It is a musical genre exclusively Valencian, which only appears in the Serrania de Alcoy, the Hoya de Castalla and the Campo de Alicante. It is related to the fandangos of the north of the Valencian Community, with other Iberian fandangos and even the Philippines. He usually dances in row and forms chains.

• Fuck four. It's an exclusively Valencian musical genre. The name should not induce to think that it is a type of jota, since it is clearly differentiated from it. Very few examples have been preserved in the districts of l'Alcoià, the Vall d'Albaida and the Marina Alta. He usually dances in four-person paintings and forms chains.

Varieties from outside Spain

The jack in Colombia

There is also a variant of the jota in the Chocó region, Colombia, which has been studied by musicologist Andrés Pardo Tovar.