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orsonw -> RE: Toccata and recitative (Oct. 27 2025 11:06:10)
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For what it's worth I did a right click in a google browser then 'translate selection to english'. Thank you for posting.
"Leaving aside the question of timbre, we will note a striking similarity between the criteria for appreciating cante flamenco and those of baroque bel canto of a long 18th century, broadly speaking from Nicola Porpora to Gioacchino Rossini: above all the length of breath and the melismatic ornamentation linked to the varied reprise (the aria da capo for baroque song, the repetition of motifs or melodic periods for cante); but also everything related to "cantabile" and "spianato" ("wide and slow") singing, whose flamenco equivalent would be the cantes libres assigned to palos of the fandango type (malagueñas, granaínas, cantes de mina) and those assigned to polos of slow to moderate tempo (soleares, siguiriyas, tientos, etc.): legato, portamento, messa di voce; finally the techniques of mixing and register passage. Naturally, one cannot infer any similarity between aesthetics or musical languages. On the other hand, we will put forward here the hypothesis that cante, in its technical aspects, is the latest resurgence of an Iberian tradition of learned and virtuoso singing (particularly alive in Andalusia) associated with a Baroque aesthetic. Even if it would be appropriate to support this theory more solidly, or possibly refute it, one can find a series of convergent historical clues from the Renaissance onwards. In the 16th century, in the Papal States, castrati and singers were banned from church singing. Therefore, children were initially used for the upper voices, but the increasing demands of composers in terms of virtuosity quickly made them insufficient. It was then that Spanish falsettists, known as "spagnoletti", were hired, who, it was said at the time, had inherited their techniques from the Moors. The Spain-Rome journey often passed through Naples, which was closely linked to the Spanish crown. The reign of the "spagnoletti" in Rome lasted throughout the second half of the 16th century, until the first castrato was hired by Pope Clement VIII in 1601. We then lose track of Spanish falsettists in Italy, but we find Naples and Spanish singers again at the end of the golden age of Baroque bel canto. Manuel del Populo Vicente Garcia, tenor and composer born in Seville, friend of Rossini who intended for him the role of Count Almaviva ("The Barber of Seville"), author of a European hit ("Polo del contrabandista") and great purveyor of "Spanish airs" very fashionable at the time, sent his son Manuel Patricio to study in Naples with one of the last great castrati, Giuseppe Aprile, who perpetuated the school of Leonardo Leo. Manuel Patricio Garcia is the author of a Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing (1847) which will remain a reference for a long time. His younger sisters, Maria Malibran and Pauline Viardot-Garcia,are famous female singers. On the other hand, both zarzuela and Andalusian song owe a lot to these vocal techniques, and we know their links with "pre-flamenco" airs. It should also be noted that most of the roles in Baroque zarzuelas (including those of the male characters) were written for "tiples", that is, soprano singers, but with an extended register towards the lower register - the vocal range of most cantaoras corresponds precisely to that of the tiples. Musical exchanges between Naples and Madrid were intense throughout the 18th century. Many musicians pursued their careers between these two courts, for which they composed interludes, cantatas, "entremeses", zarzuelas, etc., on texts in Italian, Neapolitan and Spanish: Leonardo Vinci, Giuseppe Petrini, Nicola Porpora, Francisco Corradini, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, Jose de Nebra, Antonio Rodriguez de Hita, Pablo Esteve, Manuel Pia, Blas de Laserna, etc. Unless we postulate that the vocal sophistication of cante would have suddenly emerged from nowhere in the last third of the 19th century, it seems tenable to us to think that it is the last link in a long chain of back and forth ("idas y vueltas") between "learned" and "popular" practices. Finally, let us remember that for most specialists, the most illustrious of the founding fathers of cante was called Silverio Franconetti y Aguilar, born in Moron de la Frontera to a Roman father (Nicolas Franconetti Chesi) and an Andalusian mother (Maria Concepcion Aguilar Villareal), and that he probably learned the basics of his repertoire from Maria Borrico and El Fillo - in matters of cante flamenco, Italians and gypsies are Andalusians like the others, and vice versa...It seems to us sustainable to think that it is the last link in a long chain of back-and-forths ("idas y vueltas") between "learned" and "popular" practices. Finally, let us recall that for most specialists, the most illustrious of the founding fathers of cante was called Silverio Franconetti y Aguilar, born in Moron de la Frontera to a Roman father (Nicolas Franconetti Chesi) and an Andalusian mother (Maria Concepcion Aguilar Villareal), and that he probably learned the basics of his repertoire from Maria Borrico and El Fillo - in matters of cante flamenco, Italians and gypsies are Andalusians like the others, and vice versa...It seems to us sustainable to think that it is the last link in a long chain of back-and-forths ("idas y vueltas") between "learned" and "popular" practices. Finally, let us recall that for most specialists, the most illustrious of the founding fathers of cante was called Silverio Franconetti y Aguilar, born in Moron de la Frontera to a Roman father (Nicolas Franconetti Chesi) and an Andalusian mother (Maria Concepcion Aguilar Villareal), and that he probably learned the basics of his repertoire from Maria Borrico and El Fillo - in matters of cante flamenco, Italians and gypsies are Andalusians like the others, and vice versa...
In the 1860s and 1870s, flamenco interludes were frequently featured in the programs of Andalusian and Madrid theaters, between acts of an opera, or between two shorter zarzuelas. The first successful cantaores therefore rubbed shoulders with lyric singers. They are often presented as tenors or sopranos of the "genera flamenco," and many of them had an eclectic repertoire, ranging from Andalusian song, tonadilla, and cante. It is therefore not too far-fetched to think that they intended to create an indigenous vocal art capable of competing with lyric singing. In any case, this is how the reactionary nobles of old Andalusian stock, who had been opposing the reformist tendencies of the liberal monarchy since the beginning of the 19th century, briefly understood it. The political struggle involved cultural markers: respect for age-old traditions versus "modernity," first bullfighting, then flamenco, personified by the "gypsy," temporarily found unexpected support in the great families of the landed nobility. It was a matter of opposing an "authentic" Andalusian culture to a cosmopolitan culture, Italianized for lyric theater and Frenchified for dance—hence the sponsorship of Gypsy children by the conservative high nobility, and the abundance of corresponding surnames in Gypsy families. Rest assured, this attempt to instrumentalize cante and baile was short-lived. The economic crisis of the early 1860s prompted theater owners to lower their prices, and the popular public did indeed flock to shows that included, among other things, music and dances that were familiar to them. The aristocracy, liberal or not, and the wealthy bourgeoisie quickly formed a united front against a priority adversary, and the local authorities banned flamenco from the theaters. The artists then made a strategic retreat to the cafés cantantes, which escaped censorship: Silverio Franconetti was successively the first great flamenco star on the theater stages, then the first creator of a café cantante devoted exclusively to flamenco (the "Café de Silverio", or "Café de la Esca/erilla", inaugurated in Seville in 1871).
Another relationship between baroque bel canto and cante must be developed here. Italian opera seria and French tragédie lyrique were marked by the abundance of musical figuralisms intended to convey affects, which culminate in the arias of "hope", "jealousy", "revenge", "fury", etc. that no libretto worthy of the name can ignore. In a more loose way, aficionados link certain polos to states of mind: tragic or desperate siguiriyas, austere or unfortunate soleares, elegiac or melancholic malagueñas, sad or bitter peteneras, joyful cantiñas (including the aptly named alegrías), jubilant bulerías, etc. Unless we fall into the arbitrary commonplace (minor = sad... and what to do in this case with the flamenco mode with an unstable third, minor or major?), we will however be careful not to generalize these connotations between polos and emotional colors. Firstly because they can evolve: before being "sad", the peteneras, in their "bailable" form, were frankly cheerful; contemporary bulerías, especially since the last recordings of Camarón de la Isla, can be "tragic". On the other hand, because the models melodic as such do not refer to any specific affect. The texts are often more evocative, but one could easily find many counter-examples. It is therefore essentially the interpretation that expresses states of mind, and not the musical text, or even sometimes the literary text, in itself. Provided that we take into account this fundamental difference - it is not the score but the performer who takes charge of the representation of affects - the cante seems to us to fall within a baroque musical aesthetic, in that its objective is to express "passions". The best compliment that an aficionado can pay to a cantaor is, moreover, that he "transmits". Expressiveness is therefore the primary value of the cante, towards which all the vocal techniques employed tend. It is possible without exaggerating too much to push the parallel between the aesthetics of baroque music and that of flamenco further, particularly for singing. The classical works of the late 18th and 19th centuries, generally based, at least implicitly, on a progression narrative similar to that of the novel, called "sonata form": 1) presentation of a potentially conflicting situation (exposition of two themes of opposing characters, sometimes designated by musicologists as "masculine" and "feminine"); 2} twists and turns (development - transformations of all or part of the two themes, modulations, rhythmic mutations, etc.); 3) denouement (reexposition involving in most cases the final triumph of the first, "masculine" theme). In contrast to the narrative progression of the classical sonata form,The aria of Baroque opera seria is a closed form, of the A/B/A' type, which statically explores the expressions of a single emotion, the unfolding of the drama being given over to the recitatives. It would be more accurate to write that it is a question of exploring, not an abstract emotion (if it can exist), but the relationships between concrete characters that give rise to it. This is why composers of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century developed typical musical turns of phrase connoted with conventional theatrical gestures (we commonly speak of "musical gestures"), the ensemble and articulation of which constitute a true rhetoric, claimed as such, and whose codification is familiar to the public as much as to composers and musicians. The expression "stile rappresentativo", which appeared at the beginning of the 17th century, is in itself revealing of the theatrical ancestry of Baroque arias - and of the instrumental forms that came from them, the dance suite for example. From then on, it is logical that the text is not narrative, and that it is short. A few verses are enough to generate several minutes of music, and the varied reprise (A') of the melodic theme of section A and its text consists of exploring the nuances of the emotion "represented" by the aria, again by means of coded figures (melismas, diminutions, etc.) in which virtuosity is an integral part. The cantes have the same general characteristics, notably the static closure of the form, the varied reprise, (but not necessarily on a tripartite structure - see above) the brevity and the non-narrative bias of the texts. The cante, like the instrumental music that is partially derived from it (the toque), could be considered an Andalusian stile rappresentativo, whose musical gestures and rhetorics were familiar to both artists and audiences during its formation and the first development of its repertoire (late 19th and early 20th centuries). This statement also raises the question of the subsequent reception and perception of the cante, more than a century after its t even more so by audiences foreign to its culture of origin. The "marking" ("marcaje") of the song, by which the bailaores represent the cante, music and text, in real time is in any case a striking illustration of such a rhetorical conception of performance. It is curious to note that musical sainètes very fashionable in the 1940s-1960s, the "zambras escenicas" (with orchestra and/or piano, guitar and singing) take up in pocket format the recitative / aria pairing of the opera seria and the zarzuela of the 17th century. Often more or less theatricalized and performed as a duet,These zambras are based on short scenarios and alternate narrative cuples (pop songs) that advance the action and cantes - generally fandangos, tientos or soleares - that interrupt it to represent the affects of one or other of the characters. Famous examples can be found in the zambras of Manalo Caracol, solo ("La Niña de Fuego", "Romance de Juan de Osuna", "Agua en et coco", "La Salvaora", "Carce/ero, Carcelero", etc.) or in duet with Lola Flores ("Embrujo", "La Niña de la venta", etc.)."
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