DECIMA

Today the term "Decima" is usually used as the generic name for any of three forms of mostly octosyllabic ten lined stanzas, whose derivation can be traced back to the medieval Troubadors.

For simplicity's sake, the modern Anglicised forms of them are:


1. Decima / Espinela

10 lines, with 8 syllables per line.

Rhyme scheme ABBA : ACCDDC

the colon denoting a pause.

Every line MUST be stressed on the 7th syllable.

= = = = = = = =

2. Espinela (variant)



12 lines, with 8 syllables per line.

Rhyme scheme ABBA : ACCDDC ED

the colon denoting a pause.

(NOTE that the penultimate line does NOT rhyme with any of other lines).

Every line MUST be stressed on the 7th syllable.

= = = = = =

3. Decima Italiana

10 lines, with 8 syllables per line.

Rhyme scheme ABABC : DEDEC

the colon denoting a pause.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

BACKGROUND INFORMATION


The first "decimas" approximating the final form were the 14th and 15th century Spanish 10 line variations of the "copla de arte menor".

Sometime during the mid to late 16th century, Vincinente Espinela, a Spanish writer, musician, and adventurer notorious for his dissolute life, and whose holy vows, taken in 1589, did little to change, is commonly attributed to having brought the decima to its existing form. Which bear the name "Espinela", more or less intechangeably with "Decima", to this day.

The "Espinela",or "decima espinela", has been termed "the little sonnet". Some of the most beautiful lines in Spanish poetry (eg Caldoron's "la Vida es sueno") have taken this form.

The "decima italiana", probably first used in the 18th C, is an octo syllabic strophe rhyming ababc : dedec -- the "c" rhymes being oxytones (words in which the last syllable is stressed), and the colon denoting a pause.

Other metres, particularly the hendecasyllable ( 11 syllables) with heptasyllable (7 syllables), may be used and the rhyme scheme and position of the pause may vary, or lines may be unrhymed provided the two oxytones rhyme and can be found one at the end of the strophe and the other at the pause. This strophe is directly related to the Italian 10 line stanza, "decima rima".

The latter variant metres are not the result of poetic whim, but due to the application of a set of rules that particularly apply to Spanish language "decima", which are more often than not sung, and still form a living and integral part of the culture of Latin American countries.


It's well worth visiting the Cuatro Project website at

http://www.cuatro-pr.org/Home/Eng/Instrmus/Genres/Thedecima/decimaeng.htm

which provides an annotated example of the rules for composing "decima" in Spanish, together with a wealth of other information, including musical illustrations.

Examples:

With luck and a fair wind, you'll find some of these in other files on "the cage
unhitched" website.

Have fun,

Neil