Polo (flamenco palo)

Polo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpolo]) is the name of a flamenco palo or musical form. There is only one known song in this palo, which is extremely similar to another palo called caña, and its guitar accompaniment, like the caña, shares its rhythm and motifs with soleá. Both the caña and polo share the same musical mode. The polo has usually been considered as a derivation of the caña. To complete the singing of the polo, singers usually sing a stanza in the palo of soleá, generally in the style called soleá apolá.

Although nowadays, only one song is known for the polo, known as polo natural, past writers also mention another polo, called polo de Tobalo, which has probably been lost.

The stanza of the polo is the cuarteta romanceada, typical of most flamenco songs and Spanish folklore: four octosyllabic verses, the second and fourth rhyming in assonance. 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 four or five 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 the one of the polo de Tobalo, but that of the polo natural. Some lines are partially repeated, and there are also two series of melismas 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)

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