(headline image: One string rabel – Photo by Araceli Tzigane Sánchez. This the same type of rabel used by Juan Antonio Torres of folk band Vigüela from El Carpio de Tajo in Toledo province)
The rabel is a bowed stringed instrument from Spain with historical ties to the medieval Arab rabab, itself evolving from a Persian lute. With typically one, two or three strings crafted from materials such as gut, steel, or twisted horse-hair, the instrument appeared around the 11th century. Currently, it still has a significant presence in the Spanish region of Cantabria.
Known for its association with secular instrumental music, the rabel dominated the musical scene during the Middle Ages. This unique instrument contributed a distinctive flavor to traditional Spanish court and folk music.
The anatomy of a rabel includes the soundbox crafted from wood like cherry, elder, or ash and covered with goat skin or tin; a bridge; fretless neck; headstock; strings made of gut, horse tail mane or metal; and a bow fashioned from hazel or ash wood with about twenty-five horse tail manes.
The rebáb was introduced into the Iberian Peninsula during the Arab conquest of southwestern Europe. The Spanish variation, known as rabé or rabel, as well as arrabel and arrabelillo, emerged around the 11th century, featuring rosette-themed soundboards and Western playing styles.
At the wedding of King Alfonso XI of Castile and Leon in 1328, minstrels played the rabel, marking its early presence in historical events. The dispersion of the rabel throughout the Iberian Peninsula saw its prevalence in regions like Asturias, Cantabria, Burgos, Logroño, Madrid, Avila, Toledo, and Cáceres (near the Toledo border).
Diverse types of rabel currently exist. Fernando Gomarín categorized the Cantabrian rabel into three types: 1) the small size “zurrón” (satchel) rabel (45-50 cm long); 2) light rabel (53-59 cm.); and, lastly, the heavy rabel (63 cm.).
Cultural nuances distinguished the Cantabrian and Toledo rabeles. While the Toledo rabel embraced a Western, Latin-influenced playing style with the instrument supported on the shoulder, the Cantabrian version exhibits variations. It is played vertically, supported by the knees, in the Polaciones Valley and on the shoulder in the Campoo area. These distinctions suggest a potential confluence of Arab and Christian Spanish cultures, warranting further exploration into the cultural dynamics at play.
The rabel eventually found its way to the Americas via Spanish settlers and sailors, where it played a role in colonial times as an accompaniment for singing and dancing. In Panama, for instance, it was featured prominently in dances like the mejorana, as well as musical forms like cumbia and punto.
Sources: Consolación González Casarrubios and Maria Elisa Sánchez Sanz.
[Editor’s note] We are also adding here the below article El arrabel en el Valle del Tiétar by musician Manuel Marcos Bardera (Aljibe) originally published in Trasierra. Reproduced courtesy of Manuel Marcos Bardera. Translated and edited by Angel Romero Ruiz. The Tiétar Valley is located in Ávila province, bordering Toledo].
The arrabel in the Tiétar Valley
If we ask any of the town elders in the Tiétar Valley [Ávila] about the arrabelillo, many would likely answer yes, or jokingly ask “how could I not, if I have seen it?” However, those under 35 years of age might not be familiar with it, as, sadly, there are barely any arrabeleros (rabel players) left today. But what exactly is an arrabelillo, and what significance does it hold for us? Let’s delve into it.
Well here we go…The arrabel, arrabelillo or rabel is an instrument of the string family, a type of short lute rubbed with a bow that was modified between the 10th and 11th centuries. It is believed that its origin is Arabic and its name, rabâb, means “to resonate.” Other theories point to its origin as being the fidel, fídula, viela, viola and violin (derived from fandir or feandir, a word of Caucasian origin that in Europe became fidle or fidula and here it became viola or viela). It was constructed of a single block of wood that stretched toward the headstock and ended toward the back.
The cover of the box had two levels: the upper one made of wood and the lower one made of leather. On this membrane rested the bridge that held the strings; and in this skin there were holes. Its strings were made of gut or mane, one or two in number, and they were rubbed with a wooden bow and string.
The length ranged around 50 cm. It entered the Iberian Peninsula in the 11th century. Much of the region was under Muslim rule at the time, and it didn’t take long for ther instrument it to pass into the Christian world with the Spanish name rabé or arrabé.
It was considered a cultured, court instrument, as it appears on plate 117 from the 13th century Cantigas de Santa María by King Alfonso X of Castille (also known as the Alfonso the Wise). It was played vertically, resting on one knee or between the two.
Authors such as Lucas Rodríguez (1550) talk about this instrument in his Pastoral Romance: Y por poder descansar de su trabajo pesado a un alto sauce se arrima con su rabel estimado (And to be able to rest from your hard work, he approaches a tall willow tree with his esteemed rabel).
The importance of this instrument is reflected in anecdotes such as the following: in February 1337, King Pedro IV of Aragon sent a letter to the justice of Játiva ordering him to send to Valencia “urgently” the Hali Ezigua, a Moorish minstrel and rabel player. The justice quickly fulfilled the request and sent the musician with another one as a tip, as those weren’t times to irritate kings…
Along with its cultured version, it was also rudimentarily manufactured in the traditional environments, especially among shepherds, who, while the sheep grazed, had time to build it and play it.
There are constant literary references to the rabel; even Cervantes (1547-1616) cites it in the second part of Don Quixote (Cap. LXVII). And Luis de Góngora (1561-1627) cites the rabelillo in his romance Cuando la rosada aurora (When the pink dawn).
However, by the 16th century the rabel tended to disappear due to the impulse of violas and violins, which allow greater extension of notes and better sound. From then on, the name rabel was maintained to designate rustic bow instruments, often built by their player. That is, the instrument is displaced from cultured music and relegated to humble and pastoral environments.
The shepherds learned to build the instrument from each other, using the materials that they found nearby. As the verse says: El rabel, que ha de ser fino ha de ser de verde pino, la vihuela de culebra y el sedal de mula negra. (The rabel must be fine, made from pine green, the vihuela from snake and the sedal from black mule mane). Because of this, it is difficult to find two rabeles built with the same materials.
As an example, I must say that almost any type of wood is used for the box, such as banana, chestnut, pine, walnut, even cow horn, as in the curious examples from Puerto Castilla (Ávila). The cover can be made of wood, leather or brass, as in the Toledo models.
The sounds or melodies of the rabel were learned by imitation from someone else who knew more. And, since the rabel is an instrument that is played by the same person that sings at the same time, the song lyrics and romances were also learned by memorizing them. Thus, these were transmitted from parents to children and friends, from generation to generation, in an uninterrupted chain.
The areas of the [Iberian] peninsula where the rabel was found therefore corresponded with the areas where the shepherds moved to, in search of the green pastures. And these were none other, since the 14th century, than the routes of transhumance. That is, the roads that connected the areas of Castilla La Mancha, Andalusia and Extremadura (winter pastures) with those of the north such as Asturias and Cantabria (summer pastures). These Cañadas Reales (Royal Roads) sometimes even used ancient Roman roads, as in the case of the Cañada Real Leonesa Occidental, which follows the Roman Road through the Valley of Five Villas, ascending and crossing the Puerto del Pico.
Currently, the rabel is located in very few areas of the Iberian Peninsula. The largest nucleus is located in Cantabria, in the Valley of Polaciones and Puentenansa, as well as in Sanabria (Zamora). There are also some rabelistas in the Toledo towns of Oropesa and Puente del Arzobispo in Asturias, León, La Rioja and the Jerte Valley in Extremadura.
The rabel was basically a family instrument that was played alone, often while tending livestock, or at family gatherings, such as slaughters and celebrations, since its low volume did not allow its use in front of large audiences or in large meetings. It was also in the long afternoons and nights of winter when it was played at home, many times with a dance repertoire; in Cantabria there is a rich repertoire of jotas “a lo pesao” and jotas “a lo ligero” (heavy and light jotas), so that children and young people could practice.
This was done not just for entertainment and enjoyment; knowing how to dance well was essential. When the good weather arrived and it was time for the town’s festivities, it was an unparalleled opportunity to meet a future husband or wife; an opportunity that could not be wasted by asking a girl to dance and dancing poorly. For all this, it is common to find in the rabel songbook the repertoire of the guitar players, who were the ones who actually played at dances in the area. Unfortunately there is almost nothing left of the rich arrabelera tradition of the province of Ávila,
Within Ávila province, the Sierra de Gredos and its foothills, Valle del Tiétar and Amblés is where the greatest arrabel tradition was found.
Some of the first recordings of the arrabel that we are aware of are those made by American researcher Kurt Schindler in 1932, who toured many towns in our province collecting songs and instruments.
In San Martin del Pimpollar, Schindler recorded Lucía Calvo, who sang for him several romances such as El Conde Flores (Count Flores) and La boda estorbada (The Hindered Wedding). Possibly, she sang but the arrabel player had to be someone else, since women rarely played the rabel, although they did accompany by singing.
The last arrabelero of the town was “Tío Frutos”, who died in 1980. Carlos Porro, in his interesting work, has traced the memory of arrabeleros (rabel players) in towns like Bohoyo (“Tío Periquillo”), Puerto Castilla (Marcos García and Antonio Álvarez), Garganta del Villar, Hoyos del Espino, Navalosa (“Tío Agustín” and “Tío Boni”), Villanueva de Avila (Nicomedes Blázquez and Justo Muñoz), Hoyos del Espino (“Tío Martín” García, Basilio”Tío Botas” and Daniel “Tío Botillas”), Navalmoral de la Sierra (Fructuosos Piera, Mariano “El Higuero” and Inocencio Aparicio), Navahondilla (“Tio Gregorio”), Cuevas del Valle (Silvestre Sánchez) and Burgohondo.
It should be noted that of all these arrabeleros only Justo Muñoz (Villanueva de Ávila) and Silvestre Sánchez (Cuevas del Valle) live today. Silvestre’s love for the arrabel comes from his family because both his father and his grandfather (Bonifacio Sánchez, originally from Navalosa) played the instrument. He builds – and sells to anyone who asks – his own arrabeles, which are made of a single string and with a leather cover, “as they have always been made here”, and are played resting on the clavicle, in a position similar to that of the violin.
He also builds others to the buyer’s taste: with two strings, made like a gourd box, shaped like a lute, etc. His repertoire includes romances such as la Peregrina (the pilgrim), la Niña Perdida (the Lost Girl) and la Loba Parda (the Brown Female Wolf), the latter very widespread throughout the area and the entire peninsula, since Ramón Menéndez Pidal already collected a version in 1905 in Burgohondo sung with arrabel and another in Hoyo del Espino.
Silvestre also says he remembers that his grandfather sang the songs of the bullfighter Maranzotti and the Romance de la Niña Perdida, but of the latter he could only remember a few verses. Furthermore, there are jotas like the one for arrabel or the one he calls for accordion, since he says that he learned it from a musician who played it with this instrument. It seems like these two jotas are not part of the specific repertoire of the arrabel but instead were adapted from the songs of other instruments. For example, this accordion jota is from a melody identical to the so-called Carnival jota by Pedro Bernardo, which is part of the guitar players’ repertoire: Al subir el Puerto el Pico volví la vista a lo largo, adiós, pueblo de las Cuevas que lejos te vas quedando. (When climbing the Puerto el Pico I looked back along, goodbye, people of Las cuevas. You are so far).
The wood that Silvestre uses to build his arrabeles is none other than what he finds around the town, that is walnut and pine, which he carves with curettes (stylus) and blades. For the pegs he uses juniper and for the bridge and fingerboard, briar or pine. He also uses a knife to carve the headstock with shapes of animals such as goats, cows, rams, and to sign their instruments with his name. But, possibly due to his proximity to these transhumance routes, the rabel was also heard in Pedro Bernardo was heard until not so long ago. it was the sound of the arrabelillo, name with which it is known in the area and that comes from the name arrabé, used in the 15th century.
Perhaps the most well-known players were Juan and Severo “Los Chungos”, now deceased, who dedicated themselves to everything from herding to other seasonal tasks. Many of the town’s elders still remember hearing them sing their songs through the streets: Con el arrabelillo perdí mis cabras, con el arrabelillo volví a encontrarlas. Tengo cuatro camisas, tres no me vienen porque están en el arca del que las tiene. (With the arrabelillo I lost my goats, with the arrabelillo I found them again. I have four shirts, three don’t come to me because they are in the ark of the one who has them).
Some of the couplets were of a picaresque character, like this: La mujer del herrero y la del barbero y la del boticario se la midieron. La una tenía un gemelo, la otra una cuarta y la del boticario pasaba la marca. (The blacksmith’s wife and the barber’s and that of the apothecary, measured it. The one had a twin, the other a fourth and that of the apothecary passed the mark).
Other rabelistas were Jacinto Alonso Fernández and Hipólito Cantero, “Tío Poli”, both also deceased. Tío Poli’s son Roberto Cantero said “I still remember when Christmas Eve was approaching. Years before, my father brought out the arrabelillo, let’s all sing by the fire! Since there were many of us at home, we could be heard well and the neighbors liked it. There was a man who did not move from his balcony while we were playing. He really liked it!”
Some of the songs that Uncle Poli sang were: Con el arrabelillo, con el arrabel, con el arrabelillo danos de comer. Aquella morena que va por ahí la llamo, la llamo y no quiere venir, no quiere venir, no quiere bajar aquella morena que por allí va. (with the arrabelillo, with the arrabel, with the arrabelillo feed us. That brunette that goes there, call her, I call her and she doesn’t want to come, she doesn’t want to come, she doesn’t want to come down, that brunette that goes there).
Perhaps Roberto is the last player of arrabel of the entire town and one of the last from the province, although he confesses that he hardly remembers anything because when he was young he changed the arrabel for the violin, with which he used to accompany guitar players at weddings. This is a curious coincidence, since we have already commented that the violin expansion marked the beginning of the end of rabeles in cultured music, and now the popularization of violins in traditional music seems to end with the few rabeles that we have left.
The arrabel with which he appears in the photo, he built it himself, since from his previous work as a shoemaker, he has been left as an inheritance of great mastery using various materials. The coincidences with the arrabel that appears in the old photograph of Bonifacio Sánchez are astonishing, even in the holey bridge, which I have not observed in rabeles from other areas.
Regarding the technique for playing the arrabel ,It’s not too difficult, considering that Our arrabeles are made of a single string. Perhaps the most complicated thing is to simultaneously sing while playing the instrument. As can be seen from the photos, the position is similar to that of the violin but a little lower, at the height of the clavicle. The string is not tuned to any particular note but rather the player tunes it to the pitch of his voice. One has to keep in mind that the sound is lower than how it is made on the violin. That’s why when we hear a song played and sung with the arrabel the notes do not have an exact tuning and the quality of the rabbelist’s interpretation consists of the adaptation and adjustment of his voice to the sounds of the instrument, to achieve a melted between both.
Finally, the wish that the sound of arrabel is reborn in our towns, not just to recover an ancestral tradition ofour area, but also so that we can enjoy, as our ancestors did, the beauty of music.
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The video below presents the two basic types of Avila arrabeles from the north and south.
As an update, there are barely any rabelistas left in Toledo and Ávila at this time. The area where it is still alive is Cantabria. One of them is Miguel Cadavieco, “el buen chaval,” interviewed here: https://elcoterucu-udias.blogspot.com/2008/06/entrevista-miguel-cadaviecorabelista-e.html
There is also a rabelista encounter in Olea (Cantabria): https://rabelistasenolea.wordpress.com
Jesús Reolid, a renowned luthier, recently retired, made rabeles, hurdy-gurdies and many more instruments: jesusreolid.net
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.