The Seguiriya's Compás

Twelve counts felt as five uneven beats — short, short, long, long, short — with one accent that no even count of the cycle can explain.

The cycle, count by count

  1. 12accent
  2. 1
  3. 2accent
  4. 3
  5. 4accent
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7accent
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10accent
  12. 11

Twelve counts, printed from 12; five are accented: 12, 2, 4, 7 and 10. Laid out from 12, the accents group the cycle as 2+2+3+3+2.

The seguiriya's cycle read three ways, each laid out from count 12: where each reading's groups begin, and which of the five accents land there.
Reading Groups begin on Accents it explains
2+2+3+3+2, from the accents 12, 2, 4, 7 and 10 5 of 5
In twos (2+2+2+2+2+2) 12, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 4 of 5
In threes (3+3+3+3) 12, 3, 6 and 9 1 of 5

Only the count in twos puts a downbeat on 2, 4 and 10; the count in threes explains no accent the count in twos misses. One of the four downbeats counted in threes carries an accent, against four of the six counted in twos: the accents favour the count in twos.

No even count explains the accent on 7: only the palo's own grouping puts a downbeat there.

Its accents are those of the soleá, the alegrías and the bulerías, started from their count 8.

Played in the flamenco mode, por medio: the home chord's root on the fifth string, which on a guitar tuned EADGBE puts it on A.

Counts as printed in Flamenco (Wikipedia, § Compás or time signature): [12] 1 [2] 3 [4] 5 6 [7] 8 9 [10] 11, the bracketed counts accented. Tonality from Siguiriyas (Wikipedia): "normally played in the key of A Phrygian".

Sources disagree here. Siguiriyas (Wikipedia) numbers the same accents one count later: [1] 2 [3] 4 [5] 6 7 [8] 9 10 [11] 12. This page declares the form its source prints above.

Flamenco (Wikipedia) says so too: "It could also be counted like starting a bulerías scheme from 8".

The cadence, in A

  1. Dm
  2. C
  3. Bb
  4. A

Four chords, ending on A. This is the key the por medio position plays in with no capo; any other key is the same shapes with the capo moved.

As printed in The Flamenco Key – Phrygian Mode, Andalucian Cadence, and Cambios (John Moore, UC San Diego, § (4b) and the list of flamenco-key forms): Dm C Bb A in A (iv III II I).

The seguiriya is one of the deepest and most serious forms in flamenco, and one of the oldest. Its compás has twelve counts like the soleá’s, but its accents fall so that the cycle is usually felt as five uneven beats rather than twelve even ones: two short, two long, and a short one to close. Its source prints it starting on 12, with the accents on 12, 2, 4, 7 and 10.

The accent no even count explains

Read against the two even ways of counting twelve, the seguiriya behaves differently from the soleá. Counted in twos, the cycle catches four of the five accents. Counted in threes, it catches only the first. And the accent on 7 falls on a downbeat of neither: it is only there because the two long beats in the middle of the cycle push it there. That single accent is the arithmetic behind the uneven feel, and it is why no amount of clapping in even groups will ever land on it.

The soleá’s cycle, started from 8

Its accents are not new ones. Start the soleá’s cycle on its count 8 instead of its count 12, and the five accents fall exactly where the seguiriya’s do; the shared-cycle line above works that out from the two declarations, and the source says the same thing in its own words. Sources also number the seguiriya differently: one counts it from 1, which puts every accent one count later than the numbering used here, while the accents themselves stay where they are. The page quotes both printings.

The cadence

The seguiriya is normally played in the flamenco mode on A — por medio, the home chord’s root on the open fifth string — so the page opens in A. The cadence is the four-chord fall its source prints for the flamenco key in that position, landing on the home chord. Its rhythm is often stretched and pulled by the singer, but the chords, like the cycle, stay put; pick another key and the same four are realised there.