Flamenco is a style of music and dance which is considered part of the culture of Spain, although it is actually native to only one region: Andalusia. Flamenco is the music of the Andalusian gypsies and played in their social community. Andalusian people who grew up around gypsies were also accepted as "flamencos" (Paco de Lucía). Other regions, mainly Extremadura and Murcia, have also contributed to the development of flamenco, and many flamenco artists have been born outside Andalusia. Latin American and especially Cuban influences have also contributed, as evidenced in the dances of "Ida y Vuelta".
Andalusian, Gypsy, Sephardic, Moorish and Byzantine influences have been detected in flamenco, often claimed to have coalesced around the time of the Reconquista in the 15th century. The origins of the term are unclear; the word flamenco itself was not recorded until the 18th century.
Origins
Moorish influence in the Iberian Peninsula goes back thousands of years, but it was the Islamic invasion in 711 that brought the main musical influences. The conquerors brought their music, and were in turn influenced by native Spanish forms. The Emirate, and later Caliphate of Córdoba became a major center of influence in both the Muslim and Christian worlds, attracting musicians from all Islamic countries. One such was Zyriab, who revolutionized the shape and techniques of the oud, adding a fifth string, and set the foundations for Andalusian nuba.
Centuries later, aspects of this "Moorish guitar" combined with the European lute and guitar latina to create the vihuela, which in turn influenced the baroque guitar, the precursor to the classical guitar - the basis of the flamenco guitar, and all other guitars in popular usage today.
The Jews were an important group in al-Andalus, able to maintain their own traditions, rites, and music under a culture of religious tolerance fostered by the Moorish rulers. Certain flamenco palos like the Peteneras and saetas have been attributed to Jewish origins. Some see a clear middle-eastern influence on southern Spain's music. To what extent this eastern flavour is owed to the Moors, the Jews, the Catholic Mozarabic rite, and the Gypsies is impossible to determine.
Long before the Moorish invasion, Visigothic Spain had its own liturgic music, the Visigothic rite (also known as the Mozarabic rite), which was strongly influenced by Byzantium. Cut off in Moorish-ruled Al-Andalus from the rest of western Christian Europe, it survived the Gregorian reforms of the western Catholic liturgy and the Moorish invasion, persisting until at least the 12th century. Manuel de Falla's theory links the melismatic forms and the Phrygian mode in flamenco to this Catholic rite. Unfortunately, due to the musical notation used to record them, it is not known what the chants sounded like, so the theory remains unproven.
The influence of the New World
It is believed that when Spain colonized the New World, they brought back the influence of Latin American dance steps and music. It would appear the fandango picked up dance steps deemed inappropriate for European tastes. Thus, the dance for fandango, for chacon, and for zarabanda, were all banned in Europe at one time or another. References to Gypsy dancers can be found in the lyrics of some of these forms, e.g., the chacon. Indeed, Gypsy dancers are often mentioned in Spanish literary and musical works from the 1500s on. However, the zarabandas and jácaras are the oldest written musical forms in Spain to use the 12-beat metre, a combination of terciary and binary rhythms. The basic rhythm of the zarabanda and the jácara is 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. The soleá and the Seguidilla, are variations on this; they just start the metre in a different beat.
The Rise of Flamenco
Early flamencologists were amateurs and relied for historical data on a limited number of sources (mainly the work of 19th century folklorist Demófilo, es:Demófilo and notes by foreign travellers. This started to change in the 1980s, when flamenco began to be studied in conservatoriums, and musicologists and historians such as Rios Ruiz and Álvarez Caballero began to carry out more rigorous research. (Ríos Ruiz, 1997:14).
The first mention of flamenco in literature is in 1774 in the book Cartas Marruecas by José Cadalso. Traditional flamencologists, like Molina and Mairena, called the period 1780-1850 "The Hermetic Period" when flamenco was said to be secretly danced in Gypsy homes in the Seville and Cádiz area. Álvarez Caballero (1998) went further, stating that if there is no record of flamenco before the late 1780s, it is because flamenco simply did not exist. José Blas Vega has denied the absence of evidence for this period:
Nowadays, we know that there are hundreds and hundreds of data which allow us to know in detail what flamenco was from 1760 until 1860. . .the theatre movement of sainetes (one-act plays) and tonadillas, the popular songbooks and song sheets, the narrations and descriptions from travelers describing customs, the technical studies of dances and toques, the musical scores, the newspapers, the graphic documents in paintings and engravings; and all of this with no interruptions, in continuous evolution together with the rhythm, the poetic stanzas, and the ambience.
There is disagreement as to whether primitive flamenco was accompanied by instruments. The traditional view is that flamenco was originally unaccompanied singing (cante). Later, the songs were accompanied by flamenco guitar (toque), rhythmic hand clapping (palmas), rhythmic feet stomping (zapateado) and dance (baile). Other scholars maintain that while some cante forms are unaccompanied (a palo seco), it is likely other forms were accompanied if and when instruments were available. 19th century writer Estébanez Calderón described a flamenco fiesta in which the singing was accompanied not only by guitars, but also bandurria and tambourine.
The Golden Age
During the Golden Age of Flamenco, between 1869–1910, flamenco developed rapidly in cafés cantantes, a new type of venue offering ticketed public performances. Dancers became a public attraction. Guitar players supporting the dancers increasingly gained a reputation, and so flamenco guitar as an art form was born. A most important artist in this development was Silverio Franconetti, a non-Gypsy seaman of Italian descent. He is said to be the first "encyclopedic" singer, that is, the first able to sing well in all palos, instead of specializing as was usual at the time. He opened his own café cantante, where he sang and invited other artists to perform, and many other venues of this kind were created in Andalusia and Spain.
Traditional flamenco commentators such as Demófilo see this period as the start of the commercial debasement of flamenco. The traditional flamenco fiesta is small (fewer than 20 people) and organic - there is no telling when it will begin or end, if the artists invited will even turn up, or at what hour they will perform. By contrast, the café cantante offered set performances at set hours and top artists were contracted to perform. For some, this was crass commercialism, while for others it stimulated creativity and technical competence. In fact, most flamenco forms now considered "traditional" were created or developed during this time or have been attributed to singers of this period like El Loco Mateo, El Nitri, Rojo el Alpargatero, Enrique el Mellizo, Paquirri El Guanté, or La Serneta.
In the 19th century, the perceived "romance" of flamenco and the Gypsies became popular throughout Europe. Composers wrote music and operas on what they thought were Gypsy-flamenco themes. A flamenco show became an essential part of any trip to Spain, even outside Andalusia. In 1922, one of Spain's greatest writers, Federico García Lorca, and renowned composer Manuel de Falla, organized the Concurso de Cante Jondo, a festival dedicated to cante jondo ("deep song"), to stimulate interest in "uncommercial" styles of flamenco, which were falling into disuse. The initiative made little difference.
The "Theatrical" period
The period after the Concurso de Cante Jondo in 1922 is known as Etapa teatral (Theatrical period) or Ópera flamenca period, so-called because the impresario Vedrines called his shows opera, to take advantage of lower taxes offered to opera performances. The cafés cantante were gradually replaced by larger venues like theatres or bullrings. Flamenco became immensely popular but, in the view of purists, hopelessly over-commercialised. In the new shows, flamenco was mixed with other genres and theatre interludes portraying picturesque scenes by Gitanos and Andalusians.
The dominant palos of this era were the personal fandango, the cantes de ida y vuelta (songs of Latin American origin) and songs in bulería style. Personal fandangos were based on Huelva traditional styles with a free rhythm (cante libre) and with an emphasis on virtuoso variations. The (Canción por bulerías) adapted popular songs to the bulería rhythm. This period also saw the birth of a new genre, sometimes called copla andaluza (Andalusian couplet) or canción española (Spanish song), a ballad style mixing zarzuela, Andalusian folk songs and flamenco, usually with orchestral accompaniment.
The leading artist at the time was Pepe Marchena, who sang in a sweet falsetto voice, using spectacular vocal runs reminiscent of bel canto coloratura. A generation of singers was influenced by him and some, like Pepe Pinto, or Juan Valderrama also reached immense celebrity. Many singers from the café cantante fell into obscurity. Others, like Tomás Pavón or Aurelio Sellé, found refuge in private parties. The rest adapted to the new tastes, taking part in the shows, while still preserving some of the old styles, e.g. La Niña de los Peines, Manolo Caracol, Manuel Vallejo, El Carbonerillo.
Traditionalists maintain that the opera flamenca became a "dictatorship" (Álvarez Caballero 1998), which non-authentic dances almost caused traditional flamenco to disappear. Other critics disagree(See Ríos Ruiz 1997:40-43): great figures of traditional cante like La Niña de los Peines or Manolo Caracol enjoyed great success, and palos like siguiriyas or soleá were never completely abandoned, not even by the most representative singers of the ópera flamenca style like Marchena or Valderrama.
Singers of the period like Marchena, Valderrama, Pepe Pinto or El Pena, have also been reappraised. Singers like Luis de Córdoba, Enrique Morente or Mayte Martín started to rescue their repertoire, recording the songs they had created or developed. A new generations of singers claim their influence. Critics like Antonio Ortega or Ortiz Nuevo have also vindicated the artists of the ópera flamenca period.
Flamenco Today
Traditional flamenco artists never received any formal training: they learned by listening and watching relatives, friends and neighbours. Some artists are still self-taught, but these days, it is more common for dancers and guitarists (and sometimes even singers) to be professionally trained. Some guitarists can even read music and study others styles like classical guitar or jazz, and many dancers take courses in contemporary dance or Classical Spanish ballet as well as flamenco.
Flamenco occurs in three settings. The first and most traditional is the juerga an informal, spontaneous gypsy gathering (rather like a jazz "jam session"). This can include dancing, singing, palmas (hand clapping), or simply pounding in rhythm on an old orange crate or a table. Flamenco, in this context, is organic and dynamic: it adapts to the local talent, instrumentation, and mood of the audience. One tradition remains firmly in place: the cantaores(singers) are the heart and soul of the performance. A Peña Flamenca is a meeting place or grouping of Flamenco musicians or artists.
The professional concert is more formal. A traditional singing performance has only a singer and one guitar, while a dance concert usually includes two or three guitars, one or more singers (singing in turns, as in traditional flamenco singers always sing solo), and one or more dancers. One of the singers may play the cajon, and all performers will play palmas when not required for other duties. Alternatively, there may be a dedicated cajon player and one or more palmeras. The so-called Nuevo Flamenco New flamenco may include flutes or saxophones, piano or other keyboards, or even the bass guitar and the electric guitar. Camarón de la Isla was one artist who popularized this style. Finally there is the theatrical presentation of flamenco, which uses flamenco technique and music but is closer in presentation to a ballet performance, with musicians in the orchestra pit, scenery, lighting etc. More flamenco history.
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