Flamenco is a Spanish traditional dance, that over the years has gained a lot of popularity worldwide.
So, we are about to dive into the fantastic world of this traditional dance, and find out more about… flamenco!
- Flamenco in its strictest sense an art form.
- Flamenco is based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain in the autonomous community of Andalusia and Murcia.
- In a wider sense, the term is used to refer to a variety of Spanish musical styles.
- The oldest record of flamenco music dates to 1774.
- It is recorded in the book Las Cartas Marruecas by José Cadalso (Akombo 2016, 240–241).
- Flamenco has been influenced by and associated with the Romani people in Spain.
- However, its origin and style are uniquely Andalusian(Hayes 2009, 31–37.
- Flamenco artists have historically included Spaniards of both Romani and Non-Romani heritage.
- Manuel Ríos Ruiz notes that the development of flamenco is well documented: “the theatre movement of sainetes (one-act plays) and tonadillas, popular song books and song sheets, customs, studies of dances, and toques, perfection, newspapers, graphic documents in paintings and engravings….in continuous evolution together with rhythm, the poetic stanzas, and the ambiance”.
- The exact origin of flamenco is unknown and the subject of many hypotheses.
- he most widespread is that flamenco was developed through the cross-cultural interchange between moriscos and gitanos (Romani people of Spain) during the sixteenth century specifically in East Andalusia .
- Flamenco has become popular all over the world.
- It is very poular in the United States and Japan.
- More specifically, in Japan, there are more flamenco academies than there are in Spain
- Also, in El Salvador the group Alma Flamenca is considered the maximum representative and pioneer of this musical movement.
- On November 16, 2010, UNESCO declared flamenco one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
- There are many suggestions for the origin of the word flamenco as a musical term, but no solid evidence for any of them.
- The word is Spanish for “Flemish”.
- Flemish’s meaning is “native of Flanders”, a one-time Spanish possession.
- The Spanish verb flambear means to flambé, but the word was not recorded as a musical and dance term until the late 18th century, in the book Las Cartas Marruecas by José Cadalso (1774)
- One theory, proposed by Andalusian historian Blas Infante, is that the word is derived from the Hispano-Arabic term fellah mengu.
- Fellah mengu means “expelled peasant”, and refers to the Andalusians of Islamic faith and the remaining Moriscos who fled with the Roma newcomers.
- Another theory is that the Spanish word flamenco is a derivative of the Spanish word, meaning “fire” or “flame”.
- The word flamenco may have been used for fiery behaviour, which could have come to be applied to the Gitano players and performers.
- There are three fundamental elements which can help define whether or not something really is flameco: A flamenco mode or musical tonality, the rhythm, and the performer…who should be a Flamenco!
- A typical flamenco recital with voice and guitar accompaniment comprises a series of pieces in different palos.
- Each song is a set of verses (called copla, tercio, or letras), punctuated by guitar interludes (falsetas).
- The guitarist also provides a short introduction setting the tonality, compás (see below) and tempo of the cante.
- In some palos, these falsetas are played with a specific structure too. For instance, the typical sevillanas is played in an AAB pattern, where A and B are the same falseta with only a slight difference in the ending.
- Palos are flamenco styles, classified by criteria such as rhythmic pattern, mode, chord progression, stanzaic form and geographic origin.
- They were formely known as cantes.
- It’s singing and music can be traced back to the Punjabi singing of India, Persian Zyriab, classical Andalusian orchestra from the Islamic Empire, Jewish Synagogue chants, Arabic Zayal, Andalusican folk, Mozarabic forms, western African influences from New World Caribbean, Central and South Amercian colonies.
- It is thought that today’s flamenco clothes were traditional Andalusian but this is not true.
- They actually originated from the Spanish gypsies in the 19th and 20th century.
- The gypsy women were dressed in calico gowns with ruffles.
- That look was adopted by other women of other classes over time.
- Flamenco is a strong art form and therefore many strong colours such as black, white, red have come to represent the performance.
- There was actually a flamenco’s Golden Age. It was then, that flamenco rose to fame around the world.
- Flamenco’s Golden Age lasted from 1869 until around 1910.
- Performances started taking place in cafes and even ticket prices were charged.
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