History of Flamenco

Flamenco is one of the great European nonacademic musical forms. More than simply a type of folk music, flamenco embodies a complex musical and cultural tradition. Although considered part of the culture of Spain in general, flamenco is really specifically a product and part of the culture of one region in Spain - Andalusia. There are many questions remaining about the roots of flamenco, but it is generally acknowledged that flamenco grew out of the unique interplay of native Andalusians, Islamic, Sephardic, and Gypsy cultures that existed in Andalucia prior to and after the Reconquest.

Once the seeds of flamenco were planted in Andalucia, it grew as a separate subculture, first centered in “baja” (lower) Andalucia, but soon spreading to the rest of Andalucia, incorporating and transforming local folk music forms. Recent research has revealed a major influence of subSaharan African music on flamenco's prehistory. This developed from the music and dance of African slaves held by the Spanish in the New World. We have 16th and 17th century manuscripts of classical compositions from the New World based on New World or perhaps African folk forms, such as "negrillas" and "zerembeques", and "chacons". We also find New World mention and manuscripts of the "fandango indiano". It is almost certain that fandangos are folk forms which originated in Málaga, Spain. The term "indiano" does not refer to Amerindians, but more likely to the "travel" of the music to the New World and then back to Spain.

It is likely that in that stay in the New World, the fandango picked up dance steps deemed too inappropriate European tastes. Thus, the dance for fandango, for chacon, and for zarabandas, 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 1500's on.

While it is a common belief that early flamenco was sung unaccompanied, this is almost certainly false. While some cante forms are sung unaccompanied ("a palo seco"), it is likely that other forms were accompanied if and when instruments were available.

There are early song and dance forms that appear to be direct forebears of flamenco. These are the romances and jacaras, both of which guard one of the basic compas patterns of flamenco. As well, the zarabandas and the early fandangos guarded a compas "abandalao". The compas of the fandangos is still sung in the province of Málaga.

A turning point in flamenco apears to have come about with a change of instruments. In the late 18th Century the favored guitar became the 6 string single-coursed guitar which replaced the double-coursed 5 string guitar in popularity. It is the 6 string guitar to which flamenco music is inextricably tied. Flamenco became married to the 6 string guitar.

There are questions not only about the origins of the music and dances of flamenco, but also about the origins of the very word flamenco. But whatever the origins of the word, in the early 19th century it began to be used to describe a way of life centered around this music and usually involving Gypsies. (In his 1842 book "Zincali," George Borrow writes that the word "flemenco" [sic] is synonymous with "Gypsy".) The music and culture of flamenco began to be associated with particular performers, mainly gypsies from particular families (castas) who authored and preserved certain songs and dances.

Although to the uninitiated, flamenco seems totally extemporaneous, these cantes (songs) and bailes (dances) follow strict musical and poetic rules. During this period of development, the “flamenco fiesta” developed. More than just a party where flamenco is performed, the fiesta, either unpaid (reunion) or paid, sometimes lasting for days, has an internal etiquette with a complex set of musical and social rules. In fact, some might argue that the cultural phenomenon of the flamenco fiesta is the basic cultural “unit” of flamenco.

During the 19th century, both flamenco and its association with Gypsies became popular throughout Europe, even into Russia. Composers wrote music and operas on what they thought were Gypsy-flamenco themes. Any traveler through Spain “had” to see the Gypsies perform flamenco. Spain - often to the chagrin of non-Andalucian Spaniards - became associated with flamenco and Gypsies. This interest was in keeping with the European fascination with folklore during those decades. It was during this period that a new venue was created - commercial stage flamenco with ticketed public performances. This was the beginning of the "cafe cantante" period. The traditional flamenco fiesta is crowded if more than 20 people are present. Moreover, there is no telling when even a paid-for fiesta will begin or end, or assurance that the better artists invited to perform will perform well. And, if they do perform, it may not be until the morning after a fiesta that began the night before.

The cafe cantante offered set performances at set hours. Top artists were contracted to perform. And whereas good singers were hired both to satisfy knowing aficionados and to preserve the reputation of the cafe as a place where pure flamenco could be heard, cafe cantante shows also included dancers and sets to attract casual tourists who wanted to experience flamenco.

Foreigners often think that the essence of flamenco is the dance. However, the heart of flamenco is the song (cante). The verses (coplas) of these songs often are beautiful and concise poems, and the style of the flamenco copla was often imitated by Andalucian poets. Garcia Lorca is perhaps the best known of these poets. In the 1920s he, along with the composer Manuel de Falla and other intellectuals, crusaded to raise the status of flamenco as an art form and preserve its purity. But the future of flamenco is uncertain. Flamenco is tied to the conditions and culture of Andalusia in the past, and as Spain modernizes and integrates into the European community, it is questionable whether flamenco can survive the social and economic changes.

Cante flamenco can be catergorized in a number of ways. First, a cante may be categorized according to whether it follows a strict rhythmic pattern ("compas" or follows a free rhythm ("libre"). The cantes with compas fit one of four compas patterns. These compas-types are generally known by the name of the most important cante of the group. Thus

The solea group includes the cantes: solea; romances, solea por bulerias, alegrias (cantinas); La Cana; El PoloMany of the details of the development of flamenco are lost in Spanish history. There are several reasons for this lack of historical evidence:

Originally, flamenco consisted of unaccompanied singing (cante). Later, the songs were accompanied by flamenco guitar (toque), rhythmic hand clapping (palmas), rhythmic feet stomping (zapateado) and dance (baile). Toque and baile are also often found without the cante, although song remains at the heart of the flamenco tradition. More recently, other instruments have been introduced, such as the castanets (castañuelas) and the peruvian cajón (a wooden box used as a percussion instrument), introduced by Paco de Lucía in the 1970s. Recent research has shown that there was also a strong Sub-Saharan African influence, for example the African-derived zerembeque guards a tango compas. During the late-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries, flamenco took on a number of unique characteristics which not only separated it from local folk music, but turned flamenco into a way of life centered around the music.

"Flamenco Nuevo", or New Flamenco, is a recent variant of flamenco which has been influenced by modern musical genres, like rumba, salsa, pop, rock and jazz.

Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula, fell in 1492 when the armies of the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and queen Isabella of Castile reconquered this city after about 800 years of mainly Moorish rule. The Treaty of Granada was created to have a formal base for upholding religious tolerance, and this paved the way for the Moors to surrender peacefully. For a few years there was a tense calm in and around Granada. However, the Inquisition did not like the religious tolerance towards Muslims and Jews, and used religious arguments to convince Ferdinand and Isabella to break the treaty and force the Moors and Jews to become Christians or leave Spain. In 1499, about 50,000 Moors were coerced into taking part in mass baptism. During the uprising that followed, people who refused the choices of baptism or deportation to Africa were systematically eliminated. What followed was a mass exodus of Moors, Jews and Gitanos from Granada city and the villages into the surrounding Sierra Nevada mountain region (and its hills) and the rural country.

Despite the economically and socially difficult situations the Andalusian people have had to endure along history, flamenco was never lost. Quite the opposite, all the pain, loss and hope of the poorest working class strengthened it and probably was a decisive factor for its development. It was performed by people of all the ethnicities present in Andalusia -- Latin, Gypsies, Moors, Jews, and mixes--, all of whom belonged to the lower class and who at the same time gave shape to this music. Some etymologists, notably Blas Infante, in his book Orígenes de lo flamenco y secreto del cante jondo, controversially argue that the word flamenco comes from Hispano-Arabic word fellahmengu, meaning "expelled peasant"[1]. Infante links the term to the ethnic Andalusians of Muslim fith, the Moriscos, who mixed with the Gypsy newcomers in order to avoid religious persecution. Some argue that there is no such word as "fellah mengu" in Arabic. Other hypotheses concerning the term's etymology include connections with Flanders (flamenco also means 'Flemish' in Spanish), believed to be the origin of the Gypsies, or the flameante (arduous) execution by the performers, or the flamingos[2].

Many of the songs in flamenco still reflect the spirit of desperation, struggle, hope, and pride of the people during this time of persecution. Flamenco singers are specifically renowned for their somewhat harsh and natural vocal quality. This style is meant to evoke the nature of suffering so closely related to the origins of the music. Other local Spanish musical traditions (i.e. Castillian traditional music) would also influence, and be influenced by, the traditional flamenco styles.

The first time flamenco is mentioned in literature is in 1774 in the book Cartas Marruecas by José Cadalso. During the so-called golden age of flamenco, between 1869-1910, flamenco music developed rapidly in music cafés called cafés cantantes. Flamenco dancers also became a major public attraction in those cafés. The art of flamenco dance was immediately defined in the contrast between male and female styles. Along with the development of flamenco dance, guitar players supporting the dancers increasingly gained a reputation, and so flamenco guitar as an art form by itself was born. Julián Arcas was one of the first composers to write flamenco music especially for the guitar.

The flamenco guitar (and the very similar classical guitar) is a descendent from the lute. The first guitars are thought to have originated in Spain in the 15th century. The traditional flamenco guitar is made of Spanish cypress and spruce, and is lighter in weight and a bit smaller than a classical guitar, to give the output a 'sharper' sound. The flamenco guitar, in contrast to the classical, is also equipped with a barrier (often plastic), similar to a pick guard, enabling the guitarists to incorporate rhythmic finger tapping while they play. The flamenco guitar is also used in several different ways from the classical guitar, including different strumming patterns and styles, as well as the use of a capo in many circumstances.

In 1922, one of Spain's greatest writers, Federico García Lorca, and renowned composer Manuel de Falla, organised the Fiesta del Cante Jondo, a folk music festival dedicated to cante jondo ("deep song"). They did this to stimulate interest in, by that time unfashionable, flamenco music. Two of Lorca's most important poetic works, Poema del Cante Jondo and Romancero Gitano, show Lorca's fascination with flamenco and appreciation of Spanish folk culture.

Flamenco styles

Performers in Seville

Flamenco music styles are called palos in Spanish. There are over 50 different styles of flamenco. A palo can be defined as the basic rhythmic pattern of a flamenco style, but it also covers the whole musical and cultural context of a particular style.

The rhythmic patterns of the palos are also often called compás. A compás is characterised by a recurring pattern of beats and accents. These recurring patterns make up a number of different rhythmic and musical forms known as toques.

To really understand the different palos, it is also important to understand their musical and cultural context:

The most fundamental palos are: Toná, Soleá, Fandango and Seguiriya. These four palos all belong in the cante jondo category and form the rhythmic basis for nearly all the other palos.

Flamenco cante consists of a number of traditional (and not-so-traditional) forms, with characteristic rhythmic and harmonic structures. The rhythm (compas) is perhaps the most fundamental distinguishing feature of the different flamenco forms. The cante jondo, called the mother of flamenco, consists of 12 beats, with accents on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th beats. Songs are composed of several falsetas with rhythms defined by the song form.

Some of the forms are sung unaccompanied, while others usually have a guitar and sometimes other accompaniment. Some forms are danced while others traditionally are not. Amongst both the songs and the dances, some are traditionally the reserve of men and others of women, while still others could be performed by either sex. Many of these traditional distinctions are now breaking down; for example, the Farruca is traditionally a man's dance, but is now commonly performed by women too.

The classification of flamenco forms is not entirely uncontentious, but a common and convenient first classification is into three groups. The deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo (or cante grande), while relatively light, frivolous forms are called cante chico. Forms which do not fit into either category but lie somewhere between them are classified as cante intermedio. Many flamenco artists, including some considered to be amongst the greatest, have specialised in a single flamenco form.

Palos

Toná Palos

Soleá Palos

Fandango Palos

Seguiriya Palos

Flamenco artists

Flamenco occurs in two types of settings. The first, the juerga is an informal gathering where people are free to join in creating music. This can include dancing, singing, violin, palmas (hand clapping), or simply pounding in rhythm on an old orange crate. Flamenco, in this context, is very dynamic: it adapts to the local talent, instrumentation, and mood of the audience. One tradition remains firmly in place: singers are the most important part.

The professional concert is more formal and organized. The most common performance usually has only one instrument, but sometimes more are used, with guitar almost always at the center, often accompanied with peruvian cajon and, in the most recent forms of Nuevo Flamenco, bass guitar and supporting guitars. Dancers are the next addition, followed by singers.

It is rare to find an artist who has mastered performing in both settings at the same level.