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Why Flamenco?
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musicalgrant
Posts: 188
Joined: Oct. 21 2004
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 RE: Why Flamenco? (in reply to musicalgrant)
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Most if not all folk music is modal, in that it moves around a tonal centre LOL, im getting technical 
Like solea is based on the phrygian modal scale, it revovles around the E, and in Irish folk music they have a bass drone, or in an Indain Raga on the Sitar it has a drone note which is what all else revolves around...
For instance if you play all the white notes on the keyboard from A to A an octave higher you have a modal scale. But play C to C on all the white notes you have a major scale, you can hear the difference. So if you keep the same space between notes, tone semitone etc// etc.. you can move that modal scale to any key you wish.
That is why folk music has a distinct sound, in fact it goes back to the days when the church dictated what notes could be played and what was considered blasphemes. In the olden days chromatic notes were considered to be in league with the Devil, so modal scales were the law!....So it is a bit like computer programming in that if you go off the modal scale you lose the tonal centre, or drone or whatever is in the listeners mind. The sense of coming home so to speak is then gone and who knows where you will end up...crash time...or maybe as we have discovered it brings new feelings and meanings to music.
A bit like traditional flamenco versus modern flamenco which uses new keys and chordal progressions, whereas traditional flamenco sticks to the modal scale, the pure sound.
Hope this helps explain it, me tried me best.
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Date Nov. 15 2004 23:23:56
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Jamey
Posts: 187
Joined: Jul. 7 2004
From: Winnipeg, Canada
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RE: Why Flamenco? (in reply to musicalgrant)
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Some music speaks to you louder than others. Some music gets inside you and plays out continuously in your head, almost like a sound track. When that music is tied to a strong culture and lifestyle, it can become consuming. No doubt celtic music can become that for some people I suppose (growing up in an Irish family, I've heard my share), but it just doesn't reach me the same way. Sometimes some music forms are more about life and living even when they aren't saying anything with words.
As an aside, Oscar Herrero has a farruca done with bagpipes on his album Hechizo. A lot of people thought it was out of place. I actually enjoyed it. Listen to it and you hear the auditory equivalent of a visual story. Flamenco can do that, many other musical forms, good as they may be, aren't necessarily as adept at giving you that feeling of immersion and drive to participate.
blah blah blah...as usual, I talk too much.....
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Date Nov. 16 2004 0:18:43
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Jon Boyes
Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003
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RE: Why Flamenco? (in reply to Jon Boyes)
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And now a more sensible answer..
I don't know Grant, but I find the harmony and rhythms in flamenco captivating. As you have already pointed out, a great deal (but by no means all) of flamenco is in the phrygian mode, which I've always liked the sound of. Whilst some of our own folk music in the UK is modal, it aint Phrygian, which has that eastern exotic flavour to it.
I'm no expert on Celtic folk music, but a lot of the stuff I've heard is straight major/minor key stuff, I expect the modal songs you talk of in Scottish/Irish music would be Dorian? (taking Aeolian as the natural minor and Ionian as the major scale anyway).
In any case, our own folk music has a completely different flavour to flamenco because of the different modes. Add to that the complex rhythms in flamenco, and there you go. Some Celtic stuff sounds really nice on guitar - particularly DADGAD material on a steel strung (ever heard Piererre Bensusan?), but it just doesn't hit me THERE, know what I'm saying?
Jon
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Date Nov. 16 2004 9:19:49
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Miguel de Maria
Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ
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RE: Why Flamenco? (in reply to musicalgrant)
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Flamenco is just COOL, man. I really don't know, but I have always liked Spanish and Spanishy music... a Peruvian bass player I know thinks it was because I spent 3 years in Panama (where there is presumably some kind of Spanish influence on the music), when I was a young child. I don't know, but I do know, that ever since I heard Malaguena at about age 7, I did like it and always liked that sound. When I started playing classical guitar I always sought that Spanishy (phyrgian and harmonc minor) sound, and when I found flamenco, there was a feeling like--Oh, this is what I was looking for! So the end result of this journey is I still have no idea, but it does seem that flamenco was an inexorable force, pulling me in all the way.
But flamenco is only part of what I play, although I can't say I enjoy anything as much as flamenco. I have a double CD called "The Best Flamenco Recorded Ever"--it's a kind of obnoxious title, but it really does feature a lot of cuts, some rather commercial, some not. I love listening to it and the many different styles and voices. Starts off with Camaron, does some Paco, some Vicente, some Remedio, some Merce, some Bollywood...good stuff!
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Date Nov. 16 2004 15:28:07
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It was the same with me I started with the classical rag time guitar etc, and when I heard flamenco, that was it, I spent all my money on flamenco books and video's and now I'm close to living on the street lol Yep I love flamenco music it is so passionate and alive, and I don't like playing anything else but flamenco....though I still dapple into all sorts...flamenco is it, yep it has that feeling 