What the styles sound like
Flamenco palos to listen for
The palos you may hear in a Granada cave show, from zambra and tangos to granaína, soleá and bulerías, and how each one sounds in plain language.
Book flamenco in the Sacromonte cave ↗Quick answer
A palo is a flamenco style, identified by its rhythm, mode, typical motifs, verse form and origin. In a Sacromonte cave you may hear zambra, tangos, granaína, soleá or bulerías, though no venue can promise a given one. Soleá keeps a twelve-beat cycle, tangos on four beats, and granaína has no fixed beat.
What a palo is
Wikipedia gives palo, or cante, as the name for each of flamenco's traditional musical forms. What separates one palo from another is its rhythm, its mode, its typical motifs, its verse type and its origin. The article adds that the classification is not strict and is a popular grouping, sometimes inconsistent. For a listener, that means the label matters less than the feel: serious or festive, steady or free.
Serious and festive
Wikipedia reports a grouping by mood. The cante grande includes soleá and siguiriyas, an intermediate group includes granaínas, and the cante chico includes bulerías, fandangos and zambra. It notes that soleares and siguiriyas are sometimes called deep song, in contrast to faster, festive forms such as tangos and bulerías. So a show tends to move between grave pieces and lively ones.
Cante, baile, toque
Palos are the styles; cante, baile and toque are the arts that perform them. UNESCO treats cante as the singing, done by men and women alike and ideally seated; baile as a courtship dance full of passion, covering feelings from sorrow to happiness; and toque as the guitar, an art that long ago outgrew accompaniment. Any palo can involve all three, and a show gives each its turn at the front.
Tangos
Tangos are a lively palo in binary or quadruple metre, Wikipedia says, usually counted in four-beat cycles. The name is borrowed by Argentine tango as well, but the Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco treats the flamenco form as its own Andalusian thing. The article mentions a Granada form tied to local practice, especially in the Sacromonte, and says tangos often come near the end of a tablao performance.
Granaína
Granaína belongs to the fandango family and to the intermediate group of cantes. Wikipedia says granaínas, malagueñas and the free fandango are rendered in free rhythm, which means there is no steady count underneath the voice. When the singer holds a line and the guitar waits, that stillness is the style, not a mistake, and the dancer may stop to listen too.
Soleá
All the palos in the soleá family use twelve-beat cycles, Wikipedia says. Soleá sits in the cante grande, and the article notes that soleares and siguiriyas are sometimes called deep song. Expect a slower pulse and a graver mood. If a piece feels weighty, with long phrases and a still dancer, the cycle underneath it is probably twelve beats.
Bulerías and the clapping
Bulerías, Wikipedia says, can mix twelve-beat, six-beat and three-beat sections and belongs to the lighter cante chico. Palmas, the hand-clapping, carry the compás when there is no guitarist, according to the article on flamenco, and UNESCO lists hand-clapping, castanets and foot-stamping among flamenco's other instruments. When clapping gets quick and loose in a small room, you are likely hearing the festive end of the programme.
Frequently asked questions
What is a palo?
A flamenco style, told apart by rhythm, mode, motifs, verse type and origin, Wikipedia says.
Will I hear all of these?
No. Programmes change, and no venue can promise a particular palo.
Is flamenco tango the same as Argentine tango?
No. Wikipedia says the Instituto Andaluz del Flamenco treats flamenco tangos as a distinct Andalusian form.
Sources