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romantic spanish music and dance ...
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However ... that is just one type of wonderfully vital and passionate music that Spain has to offer!
For, each Spanish region tends to possess its own delightful music and dance ...
Not to mention Spanish pop, rock, hip-hop - much peppered with flamenco and folkloric overtones - plus increasingly popular Spanish Reggae Music.
Popular Spanish instruments include the guitar, tambourine (pandereta), castanets (castañuelas) and bagpipes (gaita).
Let's take a peek at how some of them are used in Spain ...
spanish music - flamenco
The most well-known of all Spain's music and dance styles - colourful and passionate flamenco - has never been more popular than it is today!
Read all about flamenco on this page and browse some photos we took at a Seville flamenco show here.
spanish music - other regional styles
Whilst on your travels throughout Spain, you're sure to discover that each region has its own particular folkloric music and dance.
Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria - nestling in Spain's north-west - are renowned for traditional bagpipe music.
The muñeira or miller´s dance (originating from the word molino or windmill) is traditional to this area - danced singly or in pairs, it's accompanied by haunting bagpipes, drum and tambourine.
The most popular music of the Basque Country is called after the dance txistu - based on tambourine and accordian.
La Sardana is the folkloric spanish music and dance of Cataluña - danced in a closed circle by several couples, with hands joined.
The jota is another traditional dance from the north of Spain - in particular, Aragón.
The couple dances to a series of chord and percussion instruments with their hands held high above their heads, playing the castanets.
This is also much-danced in Castile, Madrid and Leon - but usually in a slower form and with different instrumentation.
Navarre and La Rioja have their forms of the jota dance as well - and so does Valencia.
spanish music - zarzuela
The zarzuela is popular all over Spain.
It's a dramatic mixture of singing and spoken parts - with dance - and originates from the seventeenth century.
Its name derives from a hunting lodge - the Palacio de la Zarzuela - near Madrid, where it was first performed before the Spanish Royal Court.
spanish music - modern
More often than not, the influence of more traditional Spanish music can be perceived in their modern songs.
Famous artistes of to-day include Alejandro Sanz, Miguel Bosé, Mónico Naranjo, Enrique Iglesias, Davíd Bisbal, Davíd Bustamante, Estopa and La Oreja de Van Gogh.
related articles
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