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Flamenco

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Flamenco (Spanish pronunciation: [flaˈmeŋko]) is a genre of Spanish music, song, and dance from Andalusia, in southern Spain, that includes cante (singing), toque (guitar playing), baile (dance) and palmas (handclaps). First mentioned in literature in 1774, the genre grew out of Andalusian and Romani music and dance styles. [1][2][3]

In recent years flamenco has become popular all over the world and is taught in many countries: in Japan there are more academies than there are in Spain.[4][5] On November 16, 2010 UNESCO declared flamenco one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.[6]

Etymology

There are many assertions as to the use of the name flamenco as a musical term (summarized below) but no solid evidence for any of them. The word was not recorded as a musical and dance term until the late 18th century. The word flamenco is the Spanish name for the Greater Flamingo, a bird native to southern Spain. The Flamenco dance style derives much from Romani dances that have elements that can be traced all the way back to northern India, from where the Romani originated, and can still be seen there in the present day Kathak dance. It has been suggested that the term flamenco may have originally been a Spanish colloquialism for the dance's resemblance to the movements of the flamingo,[citation needed]though others have drawn an image of the Flemish courtiers of Carlomagno, or Charles I of Spain, who were known for their florid and exaggerated displays of courtesy at Court at a time when the native aristocrats patronised Gitano players and performers, more ready to satirize the despised but powerful incomers than any other. The entry for "Flamenco" in the 1786 Diccionario español e ingles (Volume 1), gives the following definition: "f.m. a bird that has a red breast and pinions". "Flama"[7] in Spanish means flame or fire, and "enco" or "endo", is a suffix which means a quality-of, or having a-similarity-to, or pertaining-to.[8]

Blas Infante, in his book Orígenes de lo flamenco y secreto del cante jondo, suggested that the word may derive from Andalusian Arabic fellah mengu, "Escapee Peasant", referring to the formerly Muslim Andalusians (Moriscos), who stayed in Spain and, according to certain modern authors, are supposed to have mixed with the Romani newcomers.

Flamenco today

Corral de la Morería, Madrid

From flamenco's beginning in the 18th century most performers were professional, though flamenco has conserved a rigorous interplay between the informed, semi-professional and highly dedicated fan, or 'aficionado', and the professional. For most of the genuine life of flamenco, a folk art that has remarkably conserved an extraordinary level of conservatism within the caucus of european folk music, with its irredeemable rhythmic patterns and tones that mark its varied forms, or 'palos', flamenco has actually been the concern, like speech itself, of non-professionals in the countryside: goatherders, charcoal-burners, miners, and fishermen, for example. Further to this, it must be asserted that it is recognised by widely respected figures of its diffusion such as Pepe Arrebola, former President of the Peñas Flamencas de Andalusia, that it is the product of a certain competition between ´payos´or non-gypsies, and gypsies or 'Roma', each with their own distinctive style, just as it is is widely recognised by musicology itself that the lack of field-work in flamencology can truly retrieve the level of what intensity the non-professional impact of flamenco was and no longer exists, in terms of a community-wide spread and profundity: nevertheless, the subject matter of the songs themselves should alert them that the authors of the lyrics were not much concerned with urban themes, and this in turn should remind them of the land itself being the 'author' of the music. Originally they learned from other performers in the manner of an apprenticeship, not in conservatories or dance schools. This lack of formal training led to interesting harmonic findings, with unusual unresolved dissonances.[9] Examples of this are the use of minor 9th tonic chords or the use of the open 1st string as a kind of pedal tone. Today most guitarists undergo rigorous professional training and often can read and play music in other styles: many dancers take courses in ballet and contemporary dance as well as flamenco.

Flamenco occurs in four settings - in the juerga, in small-scale cabaret, in concert venues and in the theatre.

  • The juerga is an informal, spontaneous gathering, rather like a jazz "jam session", that can include dancing, singing, palmas (hand clapping), or simply pounding in rhythm on an orange crate or table, adapting to local talent, instrumentation and mood. The cantaores (singers) are the heart and soul of the performance. A meeting place or grouping of Flamenco musicians or artists is called a peña flamenca.
  • There are also tablaos, establishments that developed during the 1960s throughout Spain, replacing the café cantante, that may have their own company of performers for each show. Many internationally renowned artists, like the singer Miguel Poveda, started their careers in tablaos flamencos.
  • The professional concert is more formal. A traditional concert has only a singer and one guitar while a dance concert usually includes two or three guitars, one or more singers singing solo in turn and one or more dancers. One of the singers may play the cajon, a wooden box drum played with the hands or else it may be played by a percussionist, and all performers will clap even if there are dedicated palmeros. The so-called Nuevo Flamenco or "new flamenco", popularized by artists such as Camarón de la Isla, may include flutes or saxophones, a piano or other keyboard, even the bass guitar and the electric guitar.
  • Finally, the theatrical presentation of flamenco is now an extended and sophisticated performance in its own right, comparable to a ballet, by such ensembles as the Maria Pagès Company.

Palos

Palos are flamenco styles, classified by criteria such as rhythmic pattern, mode, chord progression, stanzaic form and geographic origin. There are over 50 different palos although some are rarely performed. Some are sung unaccompanied while others usually have guitar or other accompaniment. Some forms are danced while others are not. Some are reserved for men and others for women while some may be performed by either, though these traditional distinctions are breaking down: the Farruca, for example, once a male dance, is now commonly performed by women too.

Palos traditionally fall into three classes: the most serious are known as cante jondo (or cante grande) while lighter, frivolous forms are called cante chico - this also depends on whether or not the palo is considered to be of gypsy origin. Forms that do not fit either category are classed as cante intermedio.

Music

Harmony

Flamenco uses the modern Phrygian mode (modo frigio), or a harmonic version of that scale with a major 3rd degree, in addition to the major and minor scales commonly used in modern western music. The Phrygian mode occurs in palos such as soleá, most bulerías, siguiriyas, tangos and tientos.

Descending E Phrygian scale in flamenco music, with common alterations in parentheses

A typical chord sequence, usually called the "Andalusian cadence" may be viewed as in a modified Phrygian: in E the sequence is Am–G–F–E. According to Manolo Sanlúcar E is here the tonic, F has the harmonic function of dominant while Am and G assume the functions of subdominant and mediant respectively.[10]

Guitarists tend to use only two basic inversions or "chord shapes" for the tonic chord (music), the open 1st inversion E and the open 3rd inversion A, though they often transpose these by using a capo. Modern guitarists such as Ramón Montoya, have introduced other positions: Montoya himself started to use other chords for the tonic in the modern Dorian sections of several palos; F sharp for tarantas, B for granaínas and A flat for the minera. Montoya also created a new palo as a solo for guitar, the rondeña in C sharp with scordatura. Later guitarists have further extended the repertoire of tonalities, chord positions and scordatura.[11]

There are also palos in major mode; most cantiñas and alegrías, guajiras, some bulerías and tonás, and the cabales (a major type of siguiriyas). The minor mode is restricted to the Farruca, the milongas (among cantes de ida y vuelta), and some styles of tangos, bulerías, etc. In general traditional palos in major and minor mode are limited harmonically to two-chord (tonic–dominant) or three-chord (tonic–subdominant–dominant) progressions. (Rossy 1998:92) However modern guitarists have introduced chord substitution, transition chords, and even modulation.

Fandangos and derivative palos such as malagueñas, tarantas and cartageneras) are bimodal: guitar introductions are in Phrygian mode while the singing develops in major mode, modulating to Phrygian at the end of the stanza. (Rossy 1998:92)

Melody

Dionisio Preciado, quoted by Sabas de Hoces [12] established the following characteristics for the melodies of flamenco singing:

  1. Microtonality: presence of intervals smaller than the semitone.
  2. Portamento: frequently, the change from one note to another is done in a smooth transition, rather than using discrete intervals.
  3. Short tessitura or range: Most traditional flamenco songs are limited to a range of a sixth (four tones and a half). The impression of vocal effort is the result of using different timbres, and variety is accomplished by the use of microtones.
  4. Use of enharmonic scale. While in equal temperament scales, enharmonics are notes with identical pitch but different spellings (e.g. A flat and G sharp); in flamenco, as in unequal temperament scales, there is a microtonal intervalic difference between enharmonic notes.
  5. Insistence on a note and its contiguous chromatic notes (also frequent in the guitar), producing a sense of urgency.
  6. Baroque ornamentation, with an expressive, rather than merely aesthetic function.
  7. Apparent lack of regular rhythm, especially in the siguiriyas: the melodic rhythm of the sung line is different from the metric rhythm of the accompaniment.
  8. Most styles express sad and bitter feelings.
  9. Melodic improvisation. flamenco singing is not, strictly speaking, improvised, but based on a relatively small number of traditional songs, singers add variations on the spur of the moment.

Musicologist Hipólito Rossy adds the following characteristics (Rossy 1998: 94):

  • Flamenco melodies are characterized by a descending tendency, as opposed to, for example, a typical opera aria, they usually go from the higher pitches to the lower ones, and from forte to piano, as was usual in ancient Greek scales.
  • In many styles, such as soléa or siguiriya, the melody tends to proceed in contiguous degrees of the scale. Skips of a third or a fourth are rarer. However, in fandangos and fandango-derived styles, fourths and sixths can often be found, especially at the beginning of each line of verse. According to Rossy, this is proof of the more recent creation of this type of songs,influenced by Castilian jota.

Compás

Compás is the Spanish word for metre and time signature in classical music theory. It also refers to the rhythmic cycle, or layout, of a palo.

The compás is fundamental to flamenco. Without it, there is no flamenco. Compás is most often translated as rhythm but it demands far more precise interpretation than other Western styles of music. If there is no guitarist available, the compás is rendered through hand clapping (palmas) or by hitting a table with the knuckles. The guitarist uses techniques like strumming (rasgueado) or tapping the soundboard. Changes of chords emphasize the most important downbeats.

Flamenco uses three basic counts or measures: Binary, Ternary and the (unique to flamenco) twelve-beat cycle. There are also free-form styles including, among others, the tonás, saetas, malagueñas, tarantos, and some types of fandangos.

  • Rhythms in 2/4 or 4/4. These metres are used in forms like tangos, tientos, gypsy rumba, zambra and tanguillos.[13]
  • Rhythms in 3/4. These are typical of fandangos and sevillanas, suggesting their origin as non-Gypsy styles, since the 3/4 and 4/4 measures are not common in ethnic Gypsy music.
  • 12-beat rhythms usually rendered in amalgams of 6/8 + 3/4 and sometimes 12/8. The 12-beat cycle is the most common in flamenco, differentiated by the accentuation of the beats in different palos. The accents do not correspond to the classic concept of the downbeat. The alternating of groups of 2 and 3 beats is also common in Spanish folk dances of the 16th Century such as the zarabanda, jácara and canarios.

There are three types of 12-beat rhythms, which vary in their layouts, or use of accentuations: soleá, seguiriya and bulería.

  1. peteneras and guajiras: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Both palos start with the strong accent on 12. Hence the meter is 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11...
  2. The seguiriya, liviana, serrana, toná liviana, cabales: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 The seguiriya is the same as the soleá but starting on the 8th beat
  3. soleá, within the cantiñas group of palos which includes the alegrías, cantiñas, mirabras, romera, caracoles and soleá por bulería (also " bulería por soleá"): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. For practical reasons, when transferring flamenco guitar music to sheet music, this rhythm is written as a regular 3/4.

The Bulerías is the emblematic palo of flamenco: today its 12-beat cycle is most often played with accents on the 3rd, 7th, 8th, 10th and 12th beats. The accompanying palmas are played in groups of 6 beats, giving rise to a multitude of counter rhythms and percussive voices within the 12 beat compás.

Forms of flamenco expression

Toque (guitar)

The origins, use and technique of the flamenco guitar are fully covered in the main Wikipedia entry for flamenco guitar.

Cante (song)

Flamenco performance by the La Primavera[disambiguation needed] group

The origins, history and importance of the cante is covered in the main Wikipedia entry for the cante flamenco. The singer is very passionate.

Baile (dance)

El baile flamenco is known for its emotional intensity, proud carriage, expressive use of the arms and rhythmic stamping of the feet. As with any dance form, many different styles of flamenco have developed.

In the twentieth century, flamenco danced informally at gitano (Gypsy) weddings and celebrations in Spain was considered the most "authentic" form. There is less virtuoso technique in gitano flamenco, but the music and steps are fundamentally the same. The arms are noticeably different to classical flamenco, curving around the head and body rather than extending, often with a bent elbow.

Flamenco, Córdoba

"Flamenco puro" is considered the form of performance flamenco closest to its gitano influences. In this style, the dance is always performed solo, and is improvised rather than choreographed. Some purists frown on castanets (even though they can be seen in many early 20th century photos of flamenco dancers).

"Classical flamenco" is the style most frequently performed by Spanish flamenco dance companies, tending to exhibit more clearly the characteristics derived from the Seguidilla, a traditional Spanish dance. It is danced largely in a proud and upright way. For women, the back is often held in a marked back bend. Unlike the more gitano influenced styles, there is little movement of the hips, the body is tightly held and the arms are long, like a ballet dancer. In fact many of the dancers in these companies have trained in ballet as well as flamenco.Flamenco, inspite of being a predominantly folk art in origin has undergone an evolution quite as sophisticated as classical ballet, and indeed has both influenced it and been influenced by it, as evidenced by the fusion of the two created by 'La Argentinita' in the early part of the twentieth century and later, without reference to her, by Joaquín Cortés.

Modern flamenco is a highly technical dance style requiring years of study. The emphasis for both male and female performers is on lightning-fast footwork performed with absolute precision. In addition, the dancer may have to dance while using props such as castanets, shawls and fans.

"Flamenco nuevo" is a recent style in flamenco, characterized by pared-down costumes (the men often dance bare-chested, and the women in plain jersey dresses). Props such as castanets, fans and shawls are rarely used. Dances are choreographed and include influences from other dance styles.

The flamenco most foreigners are familiar with is a style that was developed as a spectacle for tourists. To add variety, group dances are included, and even solos are more likely to be choreographed. The frilly, voluminous spotted dresses are derived from a style of dress worn for the annual Feria in Seville (the original is actually too tight to dance in).

In traditional flamenco, young people are not considered to have the emotional maturity to adequately convey the "duende" (soul) of the genre. Therefore unlike other dance forms, where dancers turn professional early to take advantage of youth and strength, many flamenco dancers do not hit their peak until their thirties and will continue to perform into their fifties and beyond.

See also

References

  1. ^ In the book Cartas Marruecas by José Cadalso
  2. ^ Ríos Ruiz notes that the origins and development of Flamenco are well documented: "the theatre movement of sainetes (one-act plays) and tonadillas, popular song books and song sheets, customs, technical studies of dances, and toques, musical scores, newspapers, graphic documents in paintings and engravings...in continuous evolution together with rhythm, the poetic stanzas, and the ambiance". Ríos Ruiz Ayer y hoy del cante flamenco, Ediciones ISTMO, Tres Cantos (Madrid), 1997, ISBN 84-7090-311-X
  3. ^ See the third definition for "flamenco" in the Dictionary of Real Academia Española.
  4. ^ Mendoza, Gabriela, "Ser flamenco no es una música, es un estilo de vida", El Diario de Hoy, p. 52 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |año= ignored (|date= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ En El Salvador la agrupación Alma Flamenca es considerada la máxima representante y pionera de este movimiento musical. Mendoza, Gabriela (2011), "Ser flamenco no es una música, es un estilo de vida", El Diario de Hoy, p. 52
  6. ^ El flamenco es declarado Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de la Humanidad por la Unesco, Yahoo Noticias, 16 de noviembre de 2010, consultado el mismo día.
  7. ^ RAE:flama
  8. ^ RAE:-enco
  9. ^ (Rossy 1998:88)
  10. ^ http://www.tristeyazul.com/cronicas/ntc14.htm
  11. ^ http://www.deflamenco.com/articulos/LA_GUITARRA_FLAMENCA_ACTUAL.rtf
  12. ^ http://www.funjdiaz.net/folklore/07ficha.cfm?id=201
  13. ^ http://www.esflamenco.com/palos/entanguillos.html

Sources

  • ÁLVAREZ CABALLERO, Ángel: El cante flamenco, Alianza Editorial, Madrid, Second edition, 1998. ISBN 84-206-9682-X (First edition: 1994)
  • ÁLVAREZ CABALLERO, Ángel: La Discografía ideal del cante flamenco, Planeta, Barcelona, 1995. ISBN 84-08-01602-4
  • BANZI, JULIA LYNN (Ph.D.): "Flamenco Guitar Innovation and the Circumscription of Tradition" 2007, 382 pages; AAT 328581, DAI-A 68/10, University of California, Santa Barbara.
  • COELHO, Víctor Anand (Editor): "Flamenco Guitar: History, Style, and Context", in The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 13–32.
  • MAIRENA, Antonio & MOLINA, Ricardo: Mundo y formas del cante flamenco, Librería Al-Ándalus, Third Edition, 1979 (First Edition: Revista de Occidente, 1963)
  • MARTÍN SALAZAR, Jorge: Los cantes flamencos, Diputación Provincial de Granada, Granada, 1991 ISBN 84-7807-041-9
  • MANUEL, Peter. "Flamenco in Focus: An Analysis of a Performance of Soleares." In Analytical Studies in World Music, edited by Michael Tenzer. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 92–119.
  • ORTIZ NUEVO, José Luis: Alegato contra la pureza, Libros PM, Barcelona, 1996. ISBN 84-88944-07-1
  • RÍOS RUIZ, Ayer y hoy del cante flamenco, Ediciones ISTMO, Tres Cantos (Madrid), 1997, ISBN 84-7090-311-X
  • ROSSY, Hipólito: Teoría del Cante Jondo, CREDSA, Barcelona, 1998. ISBN 84-7056-354-8 (First edition: 1966)
  • CABA LANDA, Pedro y Carlos CABA LANDA, Carlos. Andalucía, su comunismo y su cante jondo. 1ª Ed Editorial Atlántico 1933 . 3ª Edición, Editorial Renacimiento 2008. ISBN 978-84-8472-348-6

Historical flamenco recordings

  • Flamencologia (Planet Records)
  • Grabaciones Históricas; Centro de Documentación Musical de Andalucía (1)