payaso -> RE: What is flamenco today? (Sep. 28 2015 16:11:14)
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A challenge facing the flamenco guitar, I believe, is to evolve musically, beyond the introduction of strange chords and superfast techniques. I may be quite wrong on this because I do not listen to many contemporary solo guitar records, but from what I have heard most guitar solos now consist of a miscellany of short bits of music, perhaps introduced by a freeform intro with weird chording, then a mixed bag of falsetas, an almost perfunctory use of rhythm compases (or parts of compases) and no discernible overall form or development. – and certainly no memorable melodic theme. This bittiness presumably reflects the origins of the guitar falseta as an interlude between verses of the cante, and players feel free to use bits from many different sources, some copied from other players, others modified from those copies, and others more their own creation. It would be strange indeed to see a classical player performing a few bars of Bach, then switching to Mozart then to Stravinsky. And the bits are so short in many flamenco guitar solos that one has hardly taken in one falseta before the next one is played. Comparing this approach to other forms of western music, there seems to be a striking lack of repetition (which greatly aids memorization – consider, for example, Irish or Scottish folk music, or pop) ), recurring melody, variation or thematic development. Of course there are exceptions such as, notably, the Gypsy Kings, who have used a flamenco idiom, albeit nearly all in rumbas, to achieve enormous world-wide popularity. Entre Dos Aguas is another exception and others can be cited, particularly the great maestros such as Sabicas or (mainly earlier?) PdL . What I am suggesting here is that technical development and the desire to introduce new harmonies may have outstripped musicality in the guitar, and that players are not learning to create the sort of music that people who are not guitarists or specialized aficionados of the guitar enjoy listening to very much. I think it would be good if the melodic essence of the cante, particulary if it is eclipsed in popularity and innovation at the present time, could become more of a guiding inspiration for guitarists.
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