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Guest -> Mairena book (Jul. 14 2003 15:36:24)
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Michael,
I've heard the Mairena book was based solely on "popular gypsy opinion" instead of research too with respect to the palos and their history.
That is also supposed to be the book where he claimed that cante por baile had ruined cante. From what I've learned about pre-1960 cante, I would now agree with him. I think that cante seems to have gone dramatically downhill in the early 60s toward fewer and simpler (bailable) letras forms and seems to have continued to simplify down to today.
Perhaps today young singers are experimenting with more advanced harmonies using the few surviving forms to add some diversity back into flamenco. In the 1950's cante that I've become acquainted with there seem to have been many more harmonic forms for accompanying the cante and a lot more diversity/richness. Perhaps they should do back to the '50s (pre-devo era) for inspiration. If you listened to the 1958 tientos that I posted previously, there were 7 different hamonic patterns for accompanying the letras.
This is my interpretation at least of what Mairena meant.
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