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How the scores of the Carnival of Cádiz work: from the alternative thermometer to the secrecy of the COAC

How the scores of the Carnival of Cádiz work: from the alternative thermometer to the secrecy of the COAC

It’s been almost a week since the start of the Official Contest of Carnival Groups (COAC) from Cádiz, a whole cultural and humor institution from one of the cities that most enjoys carnivals. Since last January 21, the 131 groups participating this year have begun to parade across the stage of the Gran Teatro Falla to, for half an hour, bring to light all their irony in the form of a song. Each of the groups has its rules and also its repertoires, and although this is a festival of humor, everything has a strict protocol that is followed to the letter.

The COAC has several phases: from the current one, the preliminary, to the quarterfinals. But how do you move on to the next phase? As with any ranked, it depends on a score. The COAC jury takes their notes daily, during each of the sessions, ‘in situ’ and secretly. At the beginning of each performance, the members of the jury receive the score cards from the secretary and once they are covered, they are returned. But no one knows how many points each group gets on the day of their performance. In fact, it is not until the moment the phase ends when some scores are made public, not allonly “the names and scores of the groups that do not go to the next”, as can be read in the contest rules.

Official scores are not known until you are disqualified… or the COAC ends

That is, when the preliminary is over, it will be known which groups go to the quarterfinals and of those that do not pass, the points will be known. Once this point has been reached, the number of groups will have been reduced from the 131 in the qualifying phase to a maximum of 56 that will be able to reach the quarterfinals (19 chirigotas, 19 comparsas, 12 choirs and six quartets maximum). Here the score obtained so far ‘will not be of any use’, because the qualifying points are not carried over; that is, all the groups that go to the quarterfinals start on equal termswith 0 points each.

When the quarterfinal phase ends, all the more of the same: the names of the groups that go to the semifinal (a maximum of 32; 10 comparsas, 10 chirigotas, 7 choirs and 5 quartets) and also the names and points of those who do not pass, but the points of those who do advance are unknown. Of course, from here the points obtained in the quarterfinals are added to those obtained in the semifinals. To grand final will reach a maximum of 16 groupsfour by modality, which will face each other on February 17.


And then… what are the daily scores that are known?

Carnival fans (and almost certainly all Cadiz residents) are familiar with these daily judges, although outside their borders they may be surprised to see different scores for each of the sessions. But wasn’t it that the points weren’t announced until the groups were disqualified or, at least, until the COAC ends? Yes, those are the official scores… but then there are the alternatives. “These scores are those made by unofficial juries, who have no connection with the COAC,” they told laSexta.com from the Cádiz City Council. “They give their own scores to see if they match later or with those of the official jury,” he adds. And on many occasions he succeeds.

Some of these scores are given by the alternative juries of the newspaper ‘Bahía de Cádiz’, ‘Diario de Cádiz’ or ‘La Voz de Cádiz’. The jury “little official” of the ‘Bahía de Cádiz’, for example, has “several master’s degrees in qualifying types of sailor and Falete couplets”, which translates into 17 years of experience as a parallel or amateur jury. Of course, they insist that it is not even official nor is he “obsessed with coinciding with the official nor with the newspaper of the whole via‘”.

Something more serious is that of the ‘Diario de Cádiz, the first and original alternate juror of the Cadiz Carnival, created in 1985, and which does serve as a thermometer to see how each of the phases is going. Almost as serious is that of ‘La Voz de Cádiz’, which, although it does have the occasional “subjective component, but in an impartial and honest manner”, elaborates a classification following “the same criteria used by the official jury of the Falla Contest”.

Why so much secrecy with the official score?

Throughout the COAC the only thing that sees the light publicly are the penalties to groups —for example, recently the COAC penalized ‘El don Juan de tus detalles’ for an instrument prohibited in pasodobles—, so that the group itself is aware and don’t make the same mistake on the next pass. But everything else official remains the best kept secret.

It makes sense, considering that it’s for the contest to progress naturally, without “influencing the repertoires of the groups”, as explained by the Cádiz City Council. “If each one knows how it is going, she can greatly influence her repertoire and the quality of the contest itself, bringing more or less good lyrics depending on how they are going,” she added. It should not be forgotten that a large part of the repertoire is unprecedented in every phaseexcept for examples such as choruses or medleys, which can be repeated in different phases.

These are the ‘alternative’ points so far

The troupe is made up of a minimum of 12 people and a maximum of 15 and its repertoire consists of a presentation, pasodobles, cuplés, chorus and medley. This year, a total of 28 comparsas participate in the qualifying phase.

On the other hand, the joke (which is perhaps the word that non-Cádiz foreigners associate most with the Carnival of Cádiz) is somewhat less numerous than the comparsa, with a minimum of seven people and a maximum of 12, who interpret their songs (also known as ‘chirigotas’ ), at least two voices. His repertoire consists of presentation, two pasodobles and two cupléswith both original music, a chorus (which is sung at the end of each couplet) and a medley.

At the Carnival of Cádiz, the quartet is the least numerous group, not only in members but also in participation in the contest itself. And it does not necessarily have to be made up of four members, but they have to be around between a minimum of three and a maximum of five. The repertoire of the quartets consists of parody, cuplés and free theme, being parody its strong point.

Finally there are the choirs, that they are, by far, the most numerous (in number of members): those of the Carnival of Cádiz are made up of a minimum of 12 people, but could have up to 45 components (ten of them, orchestra), accompanied by instruments such as the guitar, the bandurria or the lute. Their repertoire is made up of presentations, tangos, cuplés, refrains and medleys and, unlike what happens with comparsas and chirigotas, the choirs are usually mixed.

Source: Lasexta

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