Zéjel. Poetic composition of the metric popular hispanoárabe also spread to poetry Castilian; It is made up of one or two initial verses that make up the chorus and a variable number of stanzas ; Each verse is made up of three monorrimos verses followed by a last verse, the return, which rhymes with the chorus.
Summary
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- 1 Toponymy
- 2 History
- 3 Features
- 4 Zéjel Divisions
- 1 It is characterized by being divided into parts:
- 5 Variations, according to Tomás Navarro
- 6 News
- 7 Source
Place names
The zéjel or zajal (in Arabic, زجل, zajal, in Spanish ar. Pronounced zajál, ‘ song ‘ in dialect ).
History
Zejel is common in songs of love and derision. When it had a satirical character it was called a stirrup or discor. Isabel Paraíso recalls that the Zéjel is the most primitive form of the gloss.
Its structure is essentially the same as that of the moaxajas, except that while in the moaxaja the rhythm is set by the jarcha, the zéjel lacks it and it is the chorus or markaz that establishes the rhythm of the poem . It was sung by choir or soloist. It was a very popular form in Andalusia, and it used to be accompanied by lute , flutes , drums and castanets , sometimes it was danced.
It had great repercussion in the Arab world of the time , as the historian IbnGalib reviews . He was also successful in Christian kingdoms, which paid high rewards to Moorish minstrels.
Characteristics
- The verses of the chorus may or may not rhyme with each other.
- It lacks a linking verse.
- The use of the octosyllable predominates .
- When the zéjel was composed of several stanzas , the consonant of the body varied in each one. The custom established that the verses of the chorus, when the composition was written, were not repeated after each stanza , because they were taken for granted and everyone knew that they should repeat them there.
- The example of Domínguez Caparrós is very clear in the structures, let’s call them classic zéjel, with the clarification that the repetition of the chorus is not usually represented in writing.
Zéjel divisions
It is characterized by being divided into parts:
- a chorus of one or two lines , also called a head;
- a body or movement of three monorrimos verses ;
- and a back verse that rhymes with the chorus.
Variations, according to Tomás Navarro
- The chorus could be reduced to a single verse or count of more than two.
- The last verse of the chorus and the one on the return were sometimes shorter than the others.
- The move added in some cases four or five monorrimos verses instead of three.
- The verses of the move sometimes carried interior rhymes .
- The return could consist of two or three verses.
Present
Although its origins are medieval, it still survives both in the Maghreb, especially in Algeria and in the eastern Mediterranean, mainly in Lebanon and Palestine, where professional zéjel declaimers can reach high levels of recognition and popularity. The current zéjel is interpreted in a dialogue or debate format between zaŷŷalin ( poets who improvise the zéjel) as a semi-improvised and semi-sung expression. Usually it accompanied by musical instruments of percussion (occasionally also with wind instruments . As Ney ) and a choirof men (and more recently women ) who sing parts of the verses .
