Ron.M -> RE: The Guitar in Flamenco (Oct. 2 2003 21:24:38)
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There have been a few interpretations of my original post, so to clear up any misunderstandings this is what I mean by "percussive". I believe, (and this is only my own deductions from the music I have heard) that Flamenco guitar pre-Sabicas, was fairly basic, with an emphasis on compas. Sabicas took it to his own limits, inspiring and influencing players like Paco Peña and Paco de Lucia etc. During the late 60's and into the late 70's solo Flamenco guitar became quite classical in approach, with very well thought out phrasing and overall composition, leading to a lot of the modern Flamenco "Classics" we all know and love. From what I hear now, the fashion now appears to be quite "retro", albeit with a very advanced and sophisticated technique! Rhythm is now taking precidence over musically sounding falsetas. It's the "new cool", judging from recent stuff I've been listening to. For someone to have played something like, say, "Panaderos Flamencos" at the Fiesta de Otoño, would (I think) have been embarrasing for the audience and other performers as it would have been considered very uncool and perhaps even "naff", as that is not where the pulse is these days as far as I can see. Anyway, back on to this "percussive" approach to the guitar. This does not apply just to playing rasgueado or compas chording etc, but to actual falsetas themselves. From what I have observed, Flamenco guitarists , when composing will choose to play an "opportunistic" note which lies under the left hand fingers if playing this note makes rhythmic sense, or provides punctuation, even if this note does not make any sense musically. This is very different from Western style Classical music where a lot of the time the music can be written from the composers's thoughts straight onto paper, or the music transcribed from a piano or harpsichord score etc. Classical guitarists will then adhere to the script dutifully and try to give their best interpretation of the written work. Mind you, a lot of this music is fantastic and is our legacy of brilliant minds of the past. But it does not have anything to do with Flamenco. Flamenco falsetas are composed on the guitar, by guitarists. If you look at some very good falsetas from a Classical viewpoint, they are all wrong. Notes are doubled, trebled, irrelevant notes are added, phrases are abrupty ended seemingly short etc etc. But this is because it makes rhythmic sense, which is uppermost in the player's mind. This is why I feel that a Classical approach to the Flamenco guitar is not very helpful. In Classical, the notes are paramount, in Flamenco the rhythm is all. If the musicality of the progession has to suffer because of the rhythm, then so be it! Of course when somebody comes up with a combination of both, then that becomes a classic falseta and is much copied! Rasgueados? I was on the FT Forum for a number of years and constantly read posts from students wanting to acquire a very even circular rasgueado. Why? Apart from the early 70's PdL albums where that became the short term fashion, I have never heard it since. All good rasgueados are "lop sided" or "uneven". That's what provides the rhythm. Rasgueados that sound like a piece of cardboard being held against the spokes of a spinning bicycle wheel may be impressive as a sort of showpiece to do once or twice in a concert or an album track as a sort of party piece, but they are essentially boring and are not really useful in actual playing. I think the same goes for the extended, lightning fast picado runs. You don't hear that much these days. PdL more or less exhausted that. Sure it was amazing to hear for the first few times, but these days I think there is just a feeling of, either a comparison to PdL or just general indifference. I don't think anyone is impressed with that stuff now. Times have moved on. Anyway, by the looks of it, I'm starting to write a Testament here! LOL! So Gentlemen, (and Ladies) just to say that these are just my own observations which I don't claim to be correct. Just my current thoughts. After all I have been known to be wrong in the past. (Well...maybe just the once... can't really remember now! LOL!) cheers Ron
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