This lively, brief composition for solo guitar is one of 90 pieces of varying complexity to be found in the composer's masterpiece collection Instrucción de música sobre la guitarra española y método de sus primeros rudimentos hasta tañerla con destreza (Music instruction manual on the Spanish guitar and method on the first rudiments that concern playing with dexterity) that was published in three volumes between the years 1674 and 1697.

As indicated by the title, this piece is a dance from the Canary Islands (Islas Canarias), a Spanish possession off the southeast coast of Spain and nearer to the western Sahara desert in Africa. It flows along in a joyous triple meter with the melody in the upper voice at the beginning. Sprinkled throughout the tune are small turning embellishments, usually at the ends of phrases, that give the melody a certain elasticity and additional mirth while not actually ritarding the pulse. The first part of the melody gradually ascends by triplet patterns and the second half provides a symmetrical complement built of descending triplet patterns and grounding the dance from high steps to a kind of shuffling motion.

The recapitulation of the melody features imitation, questions, and answers between the upper and lower voices. There is a brief modulation into a close key, and then the tonic note is brilliantly trumpeted as a repeated treble octave (inverted pedal point) while arpeggios roll beneath. Again, a descending passage occurs as a balance and slight retreat from the ecstasy of the initial phrases. This last section is extended into more introspective gestures, and, with a bit of nostalgic reflection, the piece concludes calmly after slightly more than a minute's duration.

© "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Rovi