PLAY FLAMENCO

About PLAY FLAMENCO

Flamenco is a song, music and dance style which is strongly influenced by the Gitanos, but which has its deeper roots in Moorish musical traditions. Flamenco culture originated in Andalusia (Spain), but has since become one of the icons of Spanish music and even Spanish culture in general.

The word Flamenco in Spanish originally meant Flemish. It is supposed that during the Flemish kingdom of Karel V (Carlos I in Spain) some kind of popular confusion between flemish and gypsy culture led the people to use that word for the gypsy music.

"Nuevo Flamenco", or New Flamenco, is a recent variant of Flamenco which has been influenced by modern musical genres, like rumba, salsa, pop, rock and jazz.

Originally, flamenco consisted of unaccompanied singing (cante). Later the songs were accompanied by flamenco guitar (toque), rhythmic hand clapping (palmas), rhythmic feet stamping and dance (baile). The toque and baile are also often found without the cante, although the song remains at the heart of the flamenco tradition. More recently other instruments like the cajon (a wooden box used as a percussion instrument) and castanets (castañuelas) have been introduced.

Flamenco music styles are called palos in Spanish. There are over 50 different styles of flamenco. A palo can be defined as the basic rhythmic pattern of a flamenco style, but also covers the whole musical and cultural context of a particular flamenco style.
The rhythmic patterns of the palo's are also often called compás. A compás is characterised by a recurring pattern of beats and accents. These recurring patterns make up a number of different rhythmic and musical forms known as toques.

To really understand the different palos it is also important to understand their musical and cultural context:

The mood intention of the palo (dancing - Fandango, consolation - Solea, fun - Buleria, etc.).
The set of typical melodic phrases, called falseta's, which are often used in performances of a certain palo.
The relation to similar palos.
Cultural traditions associated with a palo (mens dance - Farruca)
The most fundamental palos are: Toná, Soleá, Fandango and Seguiriya. These four palos all belong in the cante jondo category and form the rhythmic basis for nearly all the other palos.

Flamenco cante consists of a number of traditional (and not-so-traditional) forms, with characteristic rhythmic and harmonic structures. The rhythm (compás) is perhaps the most fundamental distinguishing feature of the different flamenco forms. The cante jondo, called the mother of flamenco, consists of 12 beats, with accents on the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th beats. Songs are composed of several falseta's with rhythms defined by the song form.

Some of the forms are sung unaccompanied, while others usually have a guitar and sometimes other accompaniment. Some forms are danced while others traditionally are not. Amongst both the songs and the dances, some are traditionally the preserve of men and others of women, while still others would be performed by either sex. Many of these traditional distinctions are now breaking down; for example the Farruca is traditionally a man's dance, but is now commonly performed by women too.

The classification of flamenco forms is not entirely uncontentious, but a common and convenient first classification is into three groups. The deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo (or cante grande), while relatively light, frivolous forms are called cante chico. Forms which do not fit into either category but lie somewhere between them are classified as cante intermedio. Many flamenco artists, including some considered to be amongst the greatest, have specialised in a single flamenco form.