The roots of flamenco have evolved in southern Spain from
many sources: Morocco, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Greece,
and other parts of the Near and Far East. How exactly
they came together as flamenco is a subject of great
debate and a very interesting story.
The gypsies from the south of Spain created this music
day by day since their arrival to Spain in the 15th century.
Inside and outside of flamenco it is widely accepted that
they came from a northern region of India, (this territory
called Sid belongs to Pakistan nowadays) wich they left in
several waves of migrants because of invasions and wars
with foreign conquers. The tribes of Sind moved to Egypt
and stayed in Giptanos until they were thrown out, and this
time their first new destination was Checoslovaquia in
Europe, but they knew that they were not going to be
welcomed anywhere because of their number so they
decided to divide themselves in three groups that moved to
different parts of Europe. The first document to register the
arrival of gypsies to Spain is from 1447.
Carmen Amaya, dancer & singer.
(1913-1963)
Those known as Gypsies called themselves "Ruma -Calk",
( it means man from the plains or runner from the plains)
and spoke "Calo" (from the indian dialect Maharata); until
the end of this century they used to be nomads, crafstmen
and shepherds.
The gypsies have always lived as a nomad culture and
when it comes to music they are acostumed to take the
local music and make their own versions from it. Music is
very important in their celebrations and everyday life. All
they need to start to make music is a voice, and they soon
start to add rythms with their hands and feet. They have
always liked embelishments, improvisation and virtuosity
and in Andalucía they found a rich ground for their
musicality, fertilized by hundreds of years of high culture,
where not only Morish, but also Judish, Catholic and local
musical influences mixed.
The Mores had occupied Spain, and particularly the south,
for about 800 years, science, economy and culture
flurished in a rich mixture of cultures. During this time the
predecessor of the flamenco guitar was introduced and
developped. It is believed that the word "flamenco" is a
mis-pronunciation of the Arabic words "felag" (peasant)
and "mengu" (fugitive). It is known that flamenco began to
be used as a synonimous for "Andalucian gypsy" in the
18th century.
It was around the time Gypsies arrived to Spain, that
Columbus set out to the west to stablish a new route to
the Indies and discovered an unknown continent (guess
what). They came at a bad time because by then the
Catholic Kings were trying to take Mores out. The city of
Granada in the southern region of Andalucía was the last
to fall (1492) and after that, due to the constant influence of
the church, the persecution of the "non-catholic" went on
for more than two centuries.
The Catholic Kings wanted everybody to behave like
spanish catholics, and the gypsies had their own nomad
customs and a language, Caló, mixed with spanish
vocabulary so they were forbbiden to speak it and forced to
have a permanent address and a permanent job.
Nowadays a lot of Caló words are used in the spanish
language, specially in the south of Spain.
In the following century they worked and died in large
numbers in the mines, lived in caves in the mountains,
where hundreds of Jews, Muslims and "pagan" gypsies
had taken refuge from the forced conversions and
clearances effected by the Catholic kings and the Church,
so they had to have celebrations in secret even when they
were being invited to the parties of the rich to perform their
music. Often the songs where about the injustice done to
them by the very same upperclass that couldn't
understand what the Gypsies where singing about. The
main flamenco centres and families are still found today in
quarters and towns of gypsy and refugee origin, such as
Alcalá, Utrera, Jerez, Cádiz, and the Triana barrio of
Sevilla.
As time passed, the laws lightened up a little, the Gypsies
sort of adapted, and more people began to take interest in
their music. At some point, after a good mixing of musical
backgrounds, the locals started to adopte and to interprete
some of this music, since then there has been a peculiar
feedback between classical guitarists and flamenco
players in Spain.
The first flamenco score was found in an italian opera (
"The lucky Mask".Neri, 18th century) and it can be said
that at the end of the 19th century, flamenco had settled in
the form known and performed today, but this has to be
understood knowing that flamenco is a music that have
thrived day by day in live performances since its first
steps.
(continue in next page)
Enrique "el Mellizo", cantaor.
(1848-1906)
Painted
by Emilio Alarcón
The three main instruments in flamenco are singing, dance
and guitar. Everything started with only singing, with some
handclapping known as "palmas" and the guitar came
later. The extensive use of footwork common today is a
development of this century. There are songs that are done
without dancing, and even a few dances that are done
without singing. Also, any form that can incorporate dance,
can also be done without dance. Finally there are some
songs that are done without any accompaniment, a
cappela.
Flamenco today has many faces: there have been many
developments, and there are many ways flamenco can be
performed. In modern flamenco some more instruments
used commonly are bass guitar (usually fretless) and
"cajón", a rich variety of percussive sounds can be
produced with this instrument, it is box made of wod with a
loose front panel that is played while sitting on it, it is not
tunable and it hasn´t got a special pitch (the original
instrument is slightly different, it was brought from Perú by
Paco de Lucía and his group ).
In new flamenco, flute, sax and a lot of percussion
instruments are being used. Occasionally strings can be
heard (a complete orchestra sometimes) or even
something exotic, like citar (Middle East string intrument)
darbuka, djembe (percussion instruments from India),
bongos and congas (from south america). Extremes in this
respect are metal-strings, electric guitars, synthesizers
and drums.
The result of the need of the flamenco guitarists to
demonstrate their ability and creativety is instrumental
flamenco. In flamenco solo guitar, singing and dancing are
used in service of the guitar when in normal circumstances
the guitar is restricted to the service of the voice or the
dancing . As time passed guitarists found themselves
filling in when the singer had to take a break, and started
to make fast and complex melodical phrases, called
falsetas, each "tocaor" likes having a repertory of falsetas
of his own. The technics in flamenco guitar have been
evolving and improving day after day and the skill and
virtuosity developed by most of the flamenco takes them to
one of the highest standards in the world of guitar.
(continue in next page)
Sabicas (1912-1950)
Something esential in flamenco is the way the rhythm is
felt and done. Western music is often felt from beat to
beat, with usually two, three or four counts and one beat
per measure. Flamenco is felt from measure to measure,
with up to twelve counts and several beats in a measure. In
flamenco each measure is a rhythmical phrase with
specific accents and sometimes with a "question-answer"
structure, with surprising and challenging dialogues
between the performers, in phrases that can run over
several measures. The feeling of resolution at the end can
be very strong.
In western music the building up and resolving of tension is
mostly done by melody, the rhythm alone is usually not
very interesting. In flamenco the melodies are always
linked to the rhythmical phrase. A song such as a "cante
por solea" uses to be played at a 3/4 rhythm, but there
can be phrases divided into different measures, and then
fragmentally subdivided again.. The resulting complexity
and the variations between similar phrases constantly
avoids repetition, contributing to the climactic and
structure of each song.
The different styles or "palos" of flamenco are grouped in
"families" according to more or less common structures,
melodies and themes. The palos have names like soleares
(from the spanish word "soledad" that means loneliness),
tonás, siguiriyas (or seguirillas), tangos,bulerías and
fandangos, but the variations are endless and often referred
to their place of origin for example: malagueñas (from
Málaga) or fandangos de Huelva.
The eldest palos are Romances, Gilianas and Alboreas. The
Andaluz provinces of Cádiz, Sevilla, Málaga and Granada
are responsible for most of the palos, although contributions
came from other parts of Andalucía and from the bordering
regions of Extremadura and Murcia. In all of these palos, the
most common beat cycle is twelve - like the blues. Each
piece is played juxtaposing a number of complete lyrical
units called coplas.
Their number varies depending on the atmosphere the
cantaor ( singer) wishes to establish, the emotional tone the
group wish to convey depending on the reaction of the
audience.
John Singer Sargent "EL JALEO" 1882