Spanish Flamenco

Flamenco is a genuine Spanish art, or to be more exact a genuine southern Spanish art. It exists in three forms: el cante, the song, el baile, the dance, and la guitarra, guitar-playing. Gypsies are very often cited as its originators, and it is at least certain that they played an important part in its creation. But the popular songs and dances of Andalusia also had a major influence on early Flamenco.

There were the legendary Tartessos, and seven centuries of Muslim occupation hardly could have passed without leaving traces. All that, directly or indirectly, influenced flamenco. The first time Flamenco is reported on in literature is in the "Cartas Marruecas" of Cadalso, in 1774.

During its Golden Age (1869-1910) flamenco was developed in the epoch's numerous music cafés (cafés cantantes) to its definitive form. The more serious forms expressing deep feelings (cante jondo) dates from the same period.. Flamenco dance arrived to its climax, being the major attraction for the public of those cafés cantantes.

Cante Jondo

Guitar players featuring the dancers increasingly gained a reputation. From 1910 to 1955 flamenco singing was marked by the ópera flamenca, with an easier kind of music such as fandangos and cantes de ida y vuelta-the latter clearly showing South American influences. From 1915 onwards flamenco shows were organized and performed all over the world. Not everybody was happy with that development and in 1922 intellectuals such as Manuel de Falla organized a contest in Granada to promote "authentic" cante jondo.

Modern-day flamenco frequently shows influences of other kinds of music, such as jazz, salsa, bossa nova, etc. Also flamenco dance has changed; female dancers especially try to showcase their temperament more than artistry.

Flamenco guitar, which previously was just a backdrop to the singing and dancing, came to be recognized as an art form in its own right, with the virtuoso Paco de Lucia being the pioneer of that development. Mass media has brought Flamenco to the world stage, but at heart it has always been and will remain an intimate kind of music. You have not heard authentic flamenco if it was not in a juerga with a small group of friends, at midnight somewhere in the south of Spain, when there is nothing around but the voice, the guitar and the body of a dancer moving in the moonlight.