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short extract from the 5 th chapter of the lectures-concerts from Marseilles to Tunis, from Tangier to Limassol

FIVE - Spanish music: from Islam to Flamenco

...Cante jondo is Flamenco's ancestor: the time of its birth is not known with any accuracy, but what we do know perfectly well is why it was born. The words of Ricardo Molina, an exceptional Spanish poet and Flamenco scholar, are enlightening:" From an anthropological point of view, flamenco Cante, as a basically human fact and the artistic expression of a community, is the lament of a nation that was subjugated for centuries. Flamenco is the elemental cry, in its primitive forms, of people steeped in poverty and ignorance, only aware of bare necessities and instinctive feelings." And he adds that: "the strophes of Cante are desperation, despondency, lament, renunciation, superstition, magic, wounded soul, obscure confession of a grieving race without a land (...) The tragedy of Cante is not fiction. It is not theatre and it does not expect to affect its audience. It is a live tragedy. Cante is a cry. It is not a game. It is another world"...

...Recent research has looked further into flamenco's influences: "in Andalusia the Gypsies came across numerous influences: Eastern and Greek, Semitic and Autochthonous, lay and religious: Synagogue and muezzin chants, Greek and Visigoth liturgies, Hindu, Persian, Iraqi and Berber melodies (...)" and, according to new discoveries, probably came into contact with black culture...

...The birth of Romanticism made the ideal figure of the Gypsy one of the most popular and relevant symbols: Romanticism regarded adventure, magic, independence and nomadism as positive values, to the point of turning flamenco into a real fashion in the first half of the 19th century. So much so that it invaded all aspects of national life, from the taverns to the halls of the nobility...

Many a flamenco player came out of oblivion to entertain an audience in a Café Cantante: Diego (or Antonio or Francisco) Ortega Vargas nicknamed el Fillo, Maria Borrico, Curro Durse, Enrique el Mellizo, Manuel Molina, Merced Fernandez Vargas known as La Serneta, Diego el Marruro, Chato de Jerez, Francisco de Paula called Curro Pabla, Viejo de la Isla, Paco la Luz, Loco Mateo, Joaquin la Serna, Diego Fernandez Flores de Lebrija called el lebrijano; Francisco la Perla, and, one of the most notable, Tomàs el Nitri; Joaquin el de la Paula, Juan Breva, Francisco Fernandez Ramos called Cabeza, Juanelo, Tomàs Pavòn and his sister Pastora, the former regarded by Ricardo Molina as one of the greatest cantaor of all times, full of genius and bad luck; and finally Manuel Torre (= Tower, because he was very tall and imposing), maybe the most famous cantaor to come out of the café cantantes...

...Manuel De Falla was born, from a wealthy family, in Cadiz, one of the most important cities connected to flamenco. His babysitter was La Morilla, a cantaora flamenca and we can understand how young Manuel was impressed by the strength of Gypsy music. After he left to go to Paris, the focal point of all cultured European music, he resumed his study and practice of Gypsy music. For seven years, from 1907 to 1914, he stayed in Paris where the influence of the impressionist Albeniz, Dukàs, Ravel and Debussy inspired the three beautiful and sophisticated pages of "Nights in the gardens of Spain". In 1913 De Falla managed to stage "La vida breve" in Nice, which established his international success. In "Wizard Love" and "The ritual dance of fire" he dealt with the mystery of Gypsy superstition. Finally "The three corner hat" and "Betica Fantasy" are his last works in which the influence of his Gypsy roots is extraordinarily mixed with deep impressionist influences. His decision to study Flamenco music in depth determined his return to Spain where he settled in Granada surrounded by honours...

...Around the mid fifties, having gone through the terrible years of the Spanish Civil War, and the Second World War, flamenco had a creative lull which would lead it, by the end of the seventies, to its first real artistic revolution with the so called "nuevo flamenco",.... the last and most important revolution of Gypsy music, by now also a prerogative of the "payos". Among the many leading names, Juan Peña El Lebrijano, Sorderas, Fosforito, José Menes, the young El Potito and Carmen Linares deserve special mention. However, "nuevo flamenco" found its most expressive dimension, coupled with the preservation of its ancestral features, in two flamenco musicians: the Gypsy cantaor Camaron de la Isla and the payo guitarist Paco de Lucia.

...Camaron de la Isla has been like a shooting star. He died barely 41, in 1992 having impressed both the traditionalists and the innovators. At the beginning of their career, he worked with Paco de Lucia (who is a few years older) and both married the concept of universal music, mixing Gypsy elements with the popular music of other parts of the world. Camaron was a slim boy with uncharacteristically fair hair, with a hoarse and remote voice, marked by a deep sadness with echoes of his ancestral roots. He reinvented Flamenco as a new form of art, richly influenced by jazz and South American Rhythms...

The "niño" of the Portuguesa was born as Francisco Sanchez Gomez to become later Paco de Lucia; a poor boy, at the age of five, he moved with his family to "la Bajadilla" in the Algeciras area, which was inhabited by many Gypsies. At fourteen, he made his debut with an international Flamenco group and his artistic adventure began. Paco de Lucia is the most revolutionary guitarist in Andalusian music; he stole the language from his Flamenco to give it to his guitar, which has become its perfect embodiment. He has created a new language that no one had managed to achieve before...

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