Polo (Spanish pronunciation:[ˈpolo]) is the name of aflamencopalo ormusical form. There is only one known song in thispalo, which is extremely similar to another palo calledcaña, and itsguitaraccompaniment, like thecaña, shares its rhythm and motifs withsoleá. Both thecaña andpolo share the samemusical mode. Thepolo has usually been considered as a derivation of thecaña. To complete the singing of the polo, singers usually sing a stanza in thepalo ofsoleá, generally in the style calledsoleá apolá.

Although nowadays, only one song is known for thepolo, known aspolo natural, past writers also mention anotherpolo, calledpolo de Tobalo, which has probably been lost.

Thestanza of thepolo is thecuarteta romanceada, typical of most flamenco songs and Spanish folklore: four octosyllabic verses, the second and fourthrhyming inassonance. It is usually sung with the following typical lines:

Carmona tiene una fuente
con catorce o quince caños
con un letrero que dice:
¡Viva el polo sevillano!

Translation:
Carmona has a fountain
With fourteen or fifteen jets
And an inscription that reads
Long live the Sevillan polo!

Often, the last line is replaced by another saying: "Viva el polo de Tobalo" ("Long live the polo de Tobalo"). This is curious, as the melody used is not that of thepolo de Tobalo, but that of thepolo natural. Some lines are partially repeated, and there are also two series ofmelismas sung on one vowel in the middle and at the end of the stanza, which separate the song in two sections. The stanza is therefore rendered like this:

Carmona tiene una fuente
con catorce
con catorce o quince caños
oooh oooh oooh etc. (melismas)

con un letrero que dice y que
y viva el polo
viva el polo de Tobalo
oooh ooh ooh etc.

As to themetre andmusical mode, they are the same as for the soleá, that is 12-beat metre (or alternating 3/4 and 6/8) andPhrygian mode (for more information, see article onsoleá). The guitar accompaniment andfalsetas are also inspired by the soleá, although some specialarpeggios are included after the second line of each section ("con catorce" and "y viva el polo") and during the singing of the melismas. It is always accompanied in the guitarchord position of E for the tonic. Musicologist Hipólito Rossy stated that the song was in [major mode] and 3-beat metre (Rossy [1966] 1998), but he was not very familiar with thispalo, as all recordings show the typical soleá rhythm and Phrygian mode. He might have been influenced by the recording of singerJacinto Almadén, in which guitaristPerico el del Lunar certainly uses some chords insinuating the major mode.

The first mentions of a "Gypsy polo" can be found in the poemLa Quincaida by the Count of Noroña, written in 1779. It is also mentioned in theCartas Marruecas, by José Cadalso (written around the same years). Some critics argue that this was not yet the currentpolo, but a primitive folkloric song, which was not yet flamenco:

(...) the Gypsies, in the eve of flamenco, were acting on the Spanish popular rhythms and songs which, still preserving this popular quality, evolved sensibly towards anagitanamiento ("gypsying") which will finally be evident. When this transition time was completed, that song, that rhythm that the Gypsies knew in Andalusia were already a different thing, they were flamenco. In the case of the polo, this did not happen until the beginning of the 19th century, if we are to accept the criteria from Molina and Mairena, and Butler.

Both thecaña and thepolo seem to have enjoyed great success and were considered the finest type of flamenco song at the beginning of the 19th century. Serafín Estébanez Calderón, in his book from 1847Escenas andaluzas (Andalusian Scenes), mentioned famous singerEl Planeta [de] (the protagonist in one of the scenes), as "King of both polos". He also assured that thepolo was difficult to sing and that it was derived from thecaña and mentions thepolo de Tobalo. The polo is widely mentioned in the literature of the 19th century. Most important singers at the time included it in their repertoire, up to the times ofAntonio Chacón, who is reported to be one of the latest great performers of this song.

Although historic sources mention two or morepolos, only one variety is known for sure to have survived to our days: thepolo natural. SingerPepe de la Matrona recorded a version of thepolo Tobalo at the end of the 1969s, but the authenticity of this recorded version has been put in doubt by several critics on the grounds that he could never explain who he had heard it from (Álvarez Caballero 1998).

The only old recording with the title ofpolo, prior to itsrediscovery in the 1950s, was made by La Rubia and it resembles thecaña even more than the usual version of thepolo natural. In 1960, at the time of reappraisal of traditional cante, the polo natural was recorded byJacinto Almadén (also known as "El Niño de Almadén"), in theAntología del cante flamenco compiled by guitaristPerico el del Lunar and flamencologist Tomás Andrade de Silva. At the time, according to the introduction the latter wrote for this anthology, singers who knew this song were extremely rare. Since then, it has been recorded by several famous singers, but it has remained in

There are several contradictory theories, that have been suggested regarding the origins of the polo and its varieties.

• FolkloristDemófilo in hisColección de cantes flamencos compiled 37 different lyrics that were sung indistinctly as eitherpolos orcañas. He also added: "the famous singer Tobalo (Cristóbal) excelled in thepolos and gave his name to a special air of his, nowadays known as thepolo Tobalo. (Quoted by Martín Salazar n.d.) Estébanez Calderón, in hisEscenas Andaluzas, also stated that thepolo derived from thecaña, and mentioned that they
• Andrade de Silva mentions the soleá as the origin of the polo. According to him, singerCurro Durse initiated the custom of singing thepolo as appendix to thecaña, a custom followed by singers until thepolo fell into disuse afterAntonio Chacón. The style chosen for this was thepolo natural, that is, the original form of the polo, without much variations added by the singers. This flamencologist also states that Tobalo innovated thepolo and made it totally different from thecaña. At the time this recording was made, it was already customary to sing thepolo without thecaña, adding instead thesoleá apolá at the end (Andrade de Silva [1960] 1988).
• According to José Navarro Rodríguez, thepolo never existed. What we know aspolo is just a variation, created by 19th century singerCurro Durse, of thecaña. Navarro Rodríguez goes on to say that thecaña was the creation of a singer fromRonda, called Cristóbal Palmero and known as "Tobalo El Polo", who lived between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. As "Tobalo" is a familiar name commonly used in Andalusia for those who are called "Cristóbal", and he inherited his father nickname ("Polo") this caused a false belief that the song he created (thecaña) was calledPolo de Tobalo (Polo by Tobalo). This theory has been questioned as its author did not sustain it with any verifiable evidence (Álvarez Caballero [1994] 1998).
• In their bookMundo y formas del cante flamenco, published in 1965, poet Ricardo Molina and singerMairena, quoting musicologist García Matos, affirm that the flamencopolo bears no relationship at all with the folkloric polo of the 18th century and it is not even derived from it: it just borrowed its name. They agree with the usual theory that it derives from thecaña. They contradicted previous flamenco historians who defined thepolo as a gypsy song, and disregard it as a "really poor and inferior song", "rigid and stererotyped", "a fossile", "a mummy". They assure that:

The supposed quality of the polo and its pretended quality are but an invention of writers who did not know a word about flamenco singing. Many confused the Spanish or Spanish-Americanpolo with the flamenco one, attributing to the latter the popularity of the other (Molina and Mairena [1965] 1979).

It must to be noted thatAntonio Mairena tended to deprecate all non-Gypsypalos as inferior in quality. However, even though in this book he despised thepolo as non-Gypsy, he had recorded it some years before. When republishing this recording in hisAntología del cante flamenco y cante gitano in 1965, he included it among the Gypsypalos.

The following recordings are usually recommended for reference:

• Antología del cante flamenco, Hispavox, Second edition, 1988, compiled by Tomás Andrade de Silva and Perico el del Lunar. Contains apolo by "El niño de Almadén" (Jacinto Almadén), and acaña by Rafael Romero.
• Antologia del cante flamenco y cante gitano, compiled by Antonio Mairena. Contains apolo and acaña, sung by Mairena himself
• Magna antología del cante flamenco, Vol. VIII, CD Edition, Hispavox, 1992. It has a caña sung by Enrique Morente, a "Polo de Tobalo" by Pepe de la Matrona. Thepolo by Jacinto Almadén in theAntología del cante flamenco mentioned above is also there.
• Manolo Caracol recorded a very personal version of thecaña in 1958. It has been republished in the collection "Quejío", in a compilation calledEl genio de Manolo Caracol, Hispavox, 1997.
• Enrique Morente has recorded an innovative version, which he callsPolicaña in his albumEl pequeño reloj, EMI-ODEON, 2003. It has characteristics of bothpolo andcaña. It is not, of course, the originalpolicaña but a personal recreation. In another of his surprising experiments, the CD also contains acaña sung with the accompaniment an old recording of guitaristManolo de Huelva

• Flamenco
• Palo (flamenco)
• Soleá

• of all flamenco palos, including the polo and the caña

ÁLVAREZ CABALLERO, Ángel:El cante flamenco, Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 1998

ANDRADE DE SILVA, "Sobre los orígenes de trenta y tres cantes", published as an introduction to recordingAntología del Cante Flamenco, Hispavox, S.A, Madrid, 1960

CADALSO, José:Cartas marruecas (available in Biblioteca Virtual Cervantes, www.cervantesvirtual.com)

ESTÉBANEZ CALDERÓN, Serafín: "Asamblea general de los caballeros y damas de Triana, y toma de hábito en la orden de cierta rubia bailadora" inEscenas andaluzas, Madrid, 1847 (available in Biblioteca Virtual Cervantes, www.cervantesvirtual.com)

MARTÍN SALAZAR, Jorge:Los cantes flamencos, Diputación General de Granada, n.d.

MAIRENA, Antonio and MOLINA, Ricardo:Mundo y formas del cante flamenco, [Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1963], Librería Al-Andalus, Granada-Sevilla, 1979

ROSSY, Hipólito:Teoría del cante jondo, Second edition, CREDSA S.A., Barcelona, 1998ISBN 84-7056-354-8

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