Chiste de Gales -> RE: flamenco ignorance, educating the general public. (Mar. 19 2010 16:26:42)
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OK here goes a bit more typing. This is word for word out of my 1986 New Harvard Dictionary of Music, pp 310-311. Their own citations are pretty old. Im sure we can find something newer to add from. Dictionaries dont use paragraphs so good luck: Flamenco [Sp.]. A repertory of music and dance of Andalusia in southern Spain. Its origins remain much in dispute and have been variously attributed to Arabic-speaking peoples entering Spain from North Africa and to Gypsies arriving from the east or from the north (including the Low Countries, whence, according to some authorities, the name, which can mean Flemish), among others. On grounds of musical similarities, the strongest arguments point to Arabic and, to a lesser extent, Indian (by way of Gypsies) ties. Its association with Gypsies remains strong. The repertory incorporates characteristic styles of singing (including cante hondo or jondo deep song, a term sometimes applied to the repertory as a whole) dancing (featuring erect posture, foot stamping, and finger snapping), and guitar playing (in which both strumming and passage work are prominent). Much of the music embodies the E or Phrygian mode, the descending phrase A, G, F, E being a characteristic concluding melodic gesture, but with significant microtonal inflections. Vocal performances often begin with elaborate melismas on the syllable ay and are strongly improvisational in character, being judged by auditors in large measure on the basis of what is perceived to be the extent of the singer's inspiration of the moment. Singers do not normally accompany themselves, and both singing and dancing may be accompanied by the hand clapping of other performers present. Among the numerous individual musical types are the *seguidilla (siguiriya) and *soleá. A group of singers, dancers, and guitarists is termed a cuadro flamenco or tablao (from the platform on which they sit and perform). The continuing evolution of the repetory has resulted in mixed genres and considerable interpenetration of flamenco traditions and other forms of folk and popular music. Bibl.: Donn E Pohren, The ARt of Flamenco (Jerez de la Frontera: Jerez industrial, 1962; 3rd ed., Morón de la Frontera: Soc of Span Studies, 1972). Id., Lives and Legends of Flamenco: A Biographical History (La Mesa, Cal.: Soc of Span Studies, 1964). Ricardo Molina and Antonio Mairena, Mundo y Formas del cante flamenco (Seville: Libr Al-Andalus, 1971). Manuel Ríos Ruiz, Introducción al cante flamenco (Madrid: Ed Istmo, 1972). Arcadio Larres Palacín, El flamenco en su raiz (Madrid: Edit nacional, 1974).
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