Antonio Maireina, Cantaor
Getting dressed up for celebration in Granada
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, it seems that both academics and artists alike can come to agreement on the fact that the art of flamenco is nothing like what it was a century ago. Find here just a few words of history on a topic that is encased in volume upon volume of writing, and in the aging (as well as coming-of-age) mouths of hundreds of flamencos.
OriginsWe have the idea that it comes from Andalucía, and that the gitanos (gypsies) are a race of poeple that have contributed considerably to the art, what is now considered generally "cante flamenco", (flamenco song) but we are reminded too that not all gitanos know how to sing, dance and give palmas. Nor is it true that the non-gitano Spanish, (payos) or other nationalities for that matter, are unable to give truth to the art form. One must be careful with stereotypes.
The gitanos arrived to the Iberian peninsula in the mid fifteenth century, the year 1425 the earliest of written evidence of their presence, being called gitanos, as such, in a document that comes out of Barcelona. They continued to the south of the peninsula, and probably also arrived to the peninsula from Africa, on a journey that is considered to have begun in India centuries earlier.
As early as the tenth century Arab music was not only known but popular in the peninsula, and young female singers from the East were very common slaves to be seen at celebrations large and small.
Roots of flamenco can also be drawn from not only Arab, but also Jewish and Christian musics in the Middle Ages. Forms such as the muwáshaha, jarcha, romancero, and seguidilla are fundamental in the formation of what would later be cante flamenco. See the page on flamenco poetry for more information.
All these song and poetry forms are popular, that is, created in informal settings, performed among groups of friends or at celebrations, and transferred orally from one to the next allowing for variation, personalization, mixing and matching of all sorts. This remains a crucial aspect of flamenco today.
A change of times
The nineteenth century, and Romanticism, proved to be another crucial moment for the development of flamenco. This period, aside from creating a professional flamenco, bringing it to the public, and giving us a solid thread of history to follow, also serves to remind us that searching for a "pure" flamenco and a true tradition is made a blurry and fascinating pursuit.
Romanticism was an era of exoticism, searching out the foreign, the "oriental" and making it fashionable. Northern European and American travelers were drawn to Spain, particularly places like Sevilla, that had the neighborhood of Triana, where cafés cantantes (cafes with flamenco shows) presented flamenco in a somewhat exaggerated, excessively exotic form. Not only the foreigners, but the Spanish themselves came to see flamenco as something "other", something fantastic. The flamencos (singers, dancers, and musicians) of the time became professionalized, more frequently performing for pay and prompting some historians to declare this the moment of a loss of flamenco's purity. For too many, already it was no longer an art of personal expression but a job.
It could also be argued, however, that even by the turn of the twentieth century the reality of what flamenco was "originally" -- an intimate, soulful art that came out of small gatherings of family and friends -- was already too much mixed with outside expectations to be properly identified, was already fashionable and romanticized, formed of dreams as much as of history.
Modern flamenco
The twentieth century saw perhaps even more evolution and growth in flamenco than the century before. The advent of recordings changed forever the fundamentals of flamenco song and guitar since no longer was a verse sung out into the air only to dissipate into memory. The concept of authorship of verse and melody appeared for the first time. And now, not only would artists perform frequently according to public opinion, but also record according to what was popular.
Modern flamenco means experimentation, change, openness, and for many, more freedom within the art. The debate is constant as to whether flamenco reached perfection decades ago and shouldn't be touched, or is still reaching out to all its boundaries and will never evolve completely to a standstill.
The guitar as solo instrument, the dancer as forefront performer, and the inclusion of different accompanying instruments are all notable changes during the past century, some in the past half-century. If one comes away from this reading knowing any names, they could probably be those of Carmen Amaya (1918 or 1919 - 1963), as a revolutionary dancer, Paco de Lucía (1947 - ) as a guitar great across all genres, and Camarón de la Isla (1950 - 1992) as a modern singer who would change they way almost any singer after him would use flamenco song.
Flamenco fusion is increasingly common and popular, though it is much more difficult for artists of other genres to try to pull some elements of flamenco and have the desired effect. Some of the best experimentations come from the flamencos themselves, who know the rules so well that they know just where to bend them.
The best way to know flamenco is to listen to all of it and decide what you like. Flamenco is always changing, but certainly the early recordings, the greats, and the new stars all have their own energy to offer. Flamenco is now sung, played, and danced by quality artists all over the world and it is the goal of most to keep that trend growing, rather than shrinking into a space of stagnation.
Some of the text here is adapted from Emma Ferguson's Master's thesis titled "Voz y palabra, poesía y cante: la poesía popular y culta española en un contexto flamenco" and any bibliographical citations or further details for historical information can be obtained by contacting us.
