Music of Andalusia

The Music of Andalusia encompasses a range of traditional and modern musical genres which originate in the territory of Andalusia in southern Spain. The most famous are copla and flamenco, the latter being sometimes used as a portmanteau, jazz or pop music.

Historical influences on Andalusian music

Andalusia was probably the main route of transmission of a number of Near-Eastern musical instruments used in classical music; the rebec (ancestor of violin) from the ''Maghreb rebab'', the guitar from ''qitara'' and naker from ''naqareh''. Further terms fell into disuse in Europe; adufe from '' al-duff'', alboka from ''al-buq'', ''anafil'' from '' al-nafir'', exabeba from ''al-shabbaba'' (flute), atabal (bass drum) from ''al-tabl'', atambal from ''al-tinbal'',
the balaban, sonajas de azófar from , the conical bore wind instruments, the from the ''sulami'' or ''fistula'' (flute or musical pipe),
the shawm and dulzaina from the reed instruments and '' al-zurna'',
the gaita from the ''Rhaita'', rackett from or , geige (German for a violin) from ''ghichak'' and the theorbo from the ''tarab''.

According to historical sources, William VIII, the father of William, brought to Poitiers hundreds of Muslim prisoners. Trend acknowledges that the troubadors derived their sense of form and the subject matter of their poetry from Andalusia. The hypothesis that the troubador tradition was created, more or less, by William after his experience of Moorish arts while fighting with the Reconquista in Spain was also championed by Ramón Menéndez Pidal in the early twentieth-century, but its origins go back to the ''Cinquecento'' and Giammaria Barbieri (died 1575) and Juan Andrés (died 1822). Meg Bogin, English translator of the female troubadors, also held this hypothesis. Certainly "a body of song of comparable intensity, profanity and eroticism xistedin Arabic from the second half of the 9th century onwards.""Troubadour" ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', edited

Andalusia is a modern autonomous community of Spain that is best known for flamenco, a form of music and dance, mostly performed by artists and ordinary people from Andalusia.

Improvised flamenco songs of ancient Andalusian origin are called ''cante jondo'', and are characterized by a reduced tonal ambiance, a strict rhythm, baroque ornamentation and repetition of notes. ''Cante jondo'' is sung by a single singer (''cantaor'').

Structure

There are two forms of flamenco songs: ''cante jondo'' and '' cante chico''. ''Cante jondo'' are slower and usually feature sad lyrics about disappointed love or death, while cante chico are much quicker, more popular and dance-oriented. The concept of ''duende'' is very important in flamenco. Loosely, defined, ''duende'' is a spiritual or emotional bond between the performer and audience, created by the performer's intense concentration and passion.

There are multiple styles (''palos'') of flamenco, including:
*fandango
*fandangos de Huelva
* granadínos - from Granada
* malagueñas - from Málaga
*saeta
*sevillana
*siguiriyas
* soleares
*Tangos

The guitar is a vital instrument to flamenco; it marks the measure of a song, and is frequently used in expressive solos during which the guitarist will improvise short variations called ''falsetas''. Ramón Montoya was the most influential early guitarist, known for having solidified the guitar as a solo instrument. His successors included Manolo Sanlúcar and Paco de Lucía.

History

The golden age of flamenco is said to be 1869 to 1910, later becoming more and more popularized internationally and influenced by South American music, especially the tango. Musicians from the golden age performed at bars called café cantantes, such as ''Café de Chinitas'' in Málaga, which was made famous by the poetry of García Lorca. Other musicians of the early 20th century include Manolo Caracol, who walked from Jerez to participate in a cante jondo competition, which he won.

Though the golden age had long since passed, the 1950s saw flamenco achieving increased respectability in Spain. Hispavox, a Spanish record label, released '' Antología del Cante Flamenco'' in 1956; the recording's collection of most all of the greatest flamenco singers was very popular. In 1956, the first national cante jondo competition was held in Cordoba, followed by a Chair of Flamencology being established at Jerez in 1958.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Antonio Mairena and similar artists kelped kickstart a flamenco revival as American and British rock began dominating the Spanish music scene. Emerging from this, Camarón de la Isla became one of the most popular and critically acclaimed performers of the century. His 1969 debut '' Con la Colaboracion Especial de Paco de Lucia'' inspired a new generation of performers that invented Nuevo Flamenco.

In the 1970s and 80s, salsa, blues, rumba and other influences were added to flamenco, along with music from India. Ketama's 1988 debut, ''Ketama'', was especially influential. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Madrid label Nuevos Medios became closely associated with the new flamenco fusion music, which came to be called nuevo flamenco.

See also

*Music of Spain

References

^ Haïm Zafrani (2002). Juifs d'Andalousie et du Maghreb . Maisonneuve & Larose. p. 228. .
^ Rachid Aous; Mohammed Habib Samrakandi (2002). Musiques d'Algérie . 47. Presses Univ. du Mirail. .
^ María Rosa Menocal; Raymond P. Scheindlin; Michael Anthony Sells (2000). The literature of Al-Andalus . title=Cambridge history of Arabic literature. 4 Arabic literature to the end of the Umayyad period (illustrated ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 72–73. .
^ Arab-Andalusian Music of Morocco during the Centuries / scientific publication of D. Eisenberg (Hispanic Journal of Philosophy 1988)
^ (Farmer 1978, p. 137)
^ (Farmer 1978, p. 140)
^ (Farmer 1978, pp. 140–1)
^ (Farmer 1978, p. 141)
^ (Farmer 1978, p. 142)
^ (Farmer 1978, p. 143)
^ (Farmer 1978, p. 144)
^ M. Guettat (1980), La Musique classique du Maghreb (Paris: Sindbad).
^ J. B. Trend (1965), Music of Spanish History to 1600 (New York: Krause Reprint)
^ Bogin, Meg. The Women Troubadours. Scarborough: Paddington, 1976. .
^ "Troubadour", Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, London: Macmillan Press

External links

Other examples of music from Andalusia
Juifs et musique Arabo Andalouse 1Juifs et musique Arabo Andalouse 2

Bibliography

*{{cite book
, title=Historical facts for the Arabian musical influence
, first=Henry George
, last=Farmer
, publisher=Ayer Publishing
, year=1978
, isbn=978-0-405-08496-6
, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTsTS87nBgAC

Andalusia
Andalusian music