Carnival of Cádiz

The Carnival of Cádiz is one of the best known carnivals in the world. The city of Cádiz is often considered to have the funniest people in Spain. The whole city lives the carnival for more than two weeks and the presence of this fiesta is almost constant in the city throughout the year with the rehearsals, representations and contests. The feeling of this carnival is the sharp criticism, the funny play on words and the imagination in the customes, more than the glamorous dressings. It is traditional to paint the face with lipstick as a humble substitute of a mask. It is easy to get involved in the fiesta even not knowing the language and to live the Carnival. On Saturday everyone wears a costume, which many times is related to the most polemical news. But the Carnival of Cádiz is famous mainly for the satirical groups called chirigotas, their music and their lyrics.

Origins

History of the Carnival

Carnival groups in Cádiz

The most famous groups are the chirigotas, choirs and comparsas.

The chirigotas are well known witty, satiric popular groups who sing about politics, new times and household topics, wearing the same costume, which they train for the whole year. There is an official competition in Teatro Falla, where many of them compete for the award to the group. The music of the songs is original of each group, and no matter whether it is formed by families, friends or work mates, each chirigota has a wide repertory of satirical lyrics. They sing both in the streets and squares at improvised venues like staircases or portals and in established open air "tablaos" organised by the carnival clubs.

The choirs ("coros") are wider groups that go on open carts through the streets singing with a little orchestra of guitars and lutes. Their characteristical composition is the "Carnival Tango", and they alternate comical and serious repertory, with special emphasis on the lyrical homages to the city and its people. The costumes are by far the most sophisticated of all the Carnival of Cádiz.

The comparsas are the serious counterpart of the chirigota in Cádiz, and the poetical lyrics and the criticism are their main ingredients. They use to have also a more elaborated polyphony, being easily recognizable by the typical countertenor voice.

Other groups can be found at the streets: the quartets (cuartetos), that ironically can be composed by five, four or three components. They don't bring a guitar, only a kazoo and two sticks that they use to mark the rhythm. They alternate theater, improvisation and music, and they are purely comical. The minimum expression of the carnival groups in Cádiz are the romanceros, perhaps the oldest and for sure the most invariable carnival representation in Cádiz through times. It is formed by a single costumed person who brings a big poster with frames showing a story in images. The romancero recites the humoristic verses acompaigning the drawings with a long stick.

Musical forms

The Carnival of Cádiz has generated especifical musical forms throughout the evolution of the fiesta. In the beginning popular musics were used and tropical rhythms were mixed with European well known dances and songs, changing only the lyrics. About the end of the 19th century the musical identity of the Carnival was already mature, and although most of the names (tango, pasodoble, cuplet...) are shared with other musical forms around the world, their music, rhythm and character are unmistakingly original.

*The Presentation is the first piece to be sung to present the characterisation of the group, called "tipo". The style and music is absolutely free and can be just a well known song, a special composition or even only recited.

*The Cuplet is sung by the chirigotas, comparsas, choirs and quartets. They are short satirical songs with a refrain that is always related with the costume and the characterisation ("tipo").

*The Pasodoble is a longer song without a refrain, and it is usually (but not always) serious, criticising something happened in the year or doing an homage. They are sung by the comparsas and the chirigotas.

*The Tango, with its characteristic Gaditan rhythm are sung only by the Choirs with their orchestra, and they are mostly poetical compositions.

*The Pot-pourrit, sung by all the groups, changing the lyrics of well known songs of the year or any kind of music, sometimes depending on the "tipo".

Beside these, other musical forms or even theater short improvisations are featured, mostly by the so-called "illegal chirigotas", "murgas" or "callejeras", that don't submit to any rule or contest and just sing freely in the streets.

The contests

The best known contest of chirigotas, choirs, comparsas and quartets in Cádiz is the Official Contest at the "Gran Teatro Falla", that finishes just before the first Saturday of Carnival. It is broadcasted by the regional televisions and radios. Other contests take place during, before and after the Carnival, usually organized by institutions and private clubs, and their venues are open "tablaos" at the squares of the city.

External links

* [http://www.carnavaldecadiz.com Main portal about Carnival of Cádiz]
*An online image archive about the history of the Carnival of Cádiz. [http://www.elbaratillodelcarnaval.com/] es icon
*Guitar scores, videos and audio files of the Carnival. [http://es.geocities.com/videosdecarnaval/] es icon