Fandango
Spanish dance in 3/8 or 3/4 time.
What it means
The fandango is a Spanish couple dance in triple metre, usually in 3/8 or 3/4 time. It is traditionally accompanied by castanets and guitar and has a lively, intensifying character.
Characteristic is the combination of an evenly running accompaniment, often over a recurring chord progression, and a melody that is sung or played in sections in between. The dance often begins moderately and becomes quicker and more vehement in the course. Interruptions, in which the dancers suddenly pause, belong to the character.
Related is the jota, another Spanish dance in triple time, which however is native to a different region and has rhythmic features of its own. The assignment of individual dance forms to regions is not always unambiguous, since forms and names have mingled in the course of time.
In the notation
The fandango is in triple time and in arrangements is often notated with a constant accompaniment figure over which the melody unfolds. The castanet rhythms occasionally appear as a part of their own. In art music that takes up the dance, characteristic accelerations of tempo and fermatas stand.
Musical use
The fandango became popular in Spain in the eighteenth century and soon attracted attention outside it as well. Composers took it into operas, ballets, and instrumental works when they wanted to produce Spanish colour. As a folk dance it lives on in various regional forms.
Gluck used a fandango in his ballet Don Juan of 1761, and Mozart took over its melody in the third act of Le nozze di Figaro. It often begins slowly and increases in tempo; the dancers stop abruptly at certain points. Art musicians took it up as an emblem of Spanish colour. In flamenco it lives on in regional forms, for instance the Fandango de Huelva.
Performance practice
Keep the accompaniment even and taut, for it carries the dance. Shape intensifications gradually and in a controlled way. Bring out the interruptions distinctly. And listen to recordings of traditional musicians to get to know the rhythm and phrasing of the style.