The flamenco

The flamenco is a very famous type of music, we´ve all seen the dance and heardat least once a flamenco song. And if you didn´t , well you are in the right place . Today I´m going to talk about the history of flamenco, because it's a very interesting one. And also recommend your songs, old and new ones. Because any kind of music evolues.

 We don't have an exact date of when the flamenco started, we know that it has a lot of contributions of the indian culture, the melismatic singing from the greeks, african dance moves, etc. It´s a truly melting pot . But one of the cultures that contributed the most and we can say that gives the origin to flamenco as we know it nowadays , are the gypsies.

 About the etymology of the word, it's uncertain . But a theory is that it came from the verb “fellah min gueir ard” that means aimless peasant.
The first time that we mentioned the flamenco dance in the literature, was in the Cervante´s book, La Gitanilla. The principal flamenco places until nowadays are Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera and the Triana´s neighbourhood at Sevilla.

 We can divide the history of flamenco in three big periods : The gold period ( 1860-1910, the Opera period(1910-1955) and The Renaissance (1955).
 

A short summary of these threes is that in the gold period was when the flamenco started to become famous, they were restaurants where the show was the flamenco dance and sing . In this period where the music halls and cabarets opened , and not only in Spain but also all around Europe. For example the Moulin Rouge by Josep Oller in Paris .The Opera period is when the flamenco started to be worldwide known and being more marketed. This didn't like it to everyone, they thought that the true essence of the flamenco was being lost. Finally the Renaissance was when the flamenco developed even more. The guitarist started to be more appreciated, now he started not only to be an accompaniment but also a solist.The flamenco artist started to grow, the dancers and singers went to big festivals and shows.

 Now that we know the history , I´m going to talk about the characteristics. There are a lot of types of flamenco songs. The most known ones are :
 The sevillanas (happy ones) ,for example Cántame of Maria del Monte
 Fandangos (typical ones) a good singer is “El Cabrero”
 Bulerias( the ones that usually are for the parties)
Tango ( no it´s not the argentinian tango)

 Other very important representers are Antonio Mairena, Camarón de la Isla, Paco de Lucia, Manolo Sanlucar and manyothers. And big dancers of flamenco are for example Carmen Amaya, Sara Barras ,Antonio Gádes, Joaquin Cortés , The lyrics of the songs are about love, sadness, passion, heartbreak, anguish. It transmits us the feeling from the gypsy culture. The dance is incredible with the beautiful dresses,the flowers in the hair of the dancers, the “ castañuelas”. The man usually has a wide-brimmed hat, a vest, white or black blouse,etc.


 The songs that I recommend you are : Bulerias of Paco de Lucia and Camarón de la Isla,Malagueña from Paco de Lucia, Soy Gitano of Camarón de la Isla , Tratante de vara larga of Remedios Amaya and ¡Que bonito! from Rosario and the version of the Te quiero, te quiero of Rosario with El Cigala.