HOLY WEEK MUSIC _SAETA

One of the most bone-chilling experiences of Andalusia's Holy Week is hearing that broken voice, which, from the loneliness and the anonymity springs out, singing from the soul from on high to pray to the baroque images. The "saeta" (a style of religious music) has been able to find in flamenco a way of channeling its prayer. It is a way to get close to God. But this encounter is anything but casual it is already a prayer".

The saeta goes back to an uncertain moment in history as a popular canticle whose intention was to inspire devotion and penitence on the occasion of the Way of the Cross or canticle of the Lord's Passion. These sententious saetas or moral warnings were sung in the 18th century by the Brothers of the Rounds of Mortal Sins who patrolled the streets to encourage the faithful to be pious and to repent.

The birth of the popular saeta and the custom of people singing it to express their religious feelings dates, approximately, to the middle of the 19th century. This primitive saeta, which has now almost disappeared, was moving for its grave, deliberate, monotone intonation, which was simple in style and execution.

This song of faith, and flamenco, that other way of expressing the deepest sentiments, came together in the hearth of the common people at the start of the 20th century. The people's artistic expression gave form to the saeta, adapting it to its styles, flavoring it with flamenco.

These songs have been played, directing them to the images, without accompaniment, during the passing of the processions of Holy Week. The theme of these songs is, obviously, the Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ.