Concurso de Cante Jondo
Encyclopedia
El Concurso del Cante Jondo (Contest of the Deep Song) was a well-known celebration of the art of flamenco
, its music, song, and dance, held in Granada
, Andalusia on Corpus Christi
, the 13th and 14th of June, 1922.
(1876–1946), an Andalusia
n, was the principal organizer of the Concurso; he sought to encourage and enhance the performance of flamenco, which had fallen into a period of decadence. The gaditano
Falla recognized in flamenco a musical art form of great value. It was music Falla had spent years studying, having grown up with it, hearing it directly from Gitano friends, cantaores
and tocaores
. Enlisting the cooperation of Spanish intellectuals was considered crucial, to counteract the antiflamenquismo of the generación del '98; these reformers had condemned the flamenco arts as frivolous and regressive in their sweeping effort to modernize and transform Spain. Thus Falla aimed for an audience encompassing not only flamenco circles, but also to influence the musical world and culture.
In order to find colleagues to help sponsor and promote the Concurso, Falla gathered together an impressive group of musicians and artists. Included among them was the young poet Federico García Lorca
. At twenty-three, Lorca became an activist in popularizing the Concurso, second only to Falla. Lorca worked to publicize the event by giving oral presentations and publishing essays about the Flamenco arts. A third important figure was the Basque painter Ignácio Zuloaga
. Among the broad array of music figures enlisted were the classical composers Joaquín Turina
, Federico Mompou
, Conrado del Campo
, and Oscar Esplá, the pianist and composer María Rodrigo, the composer and conductor Kurt Schindler
of New York, various orchestra directors, the classical guitarist Andrés Segovia
, the Polish singer Aga Lahowska, and the popular guitarist Manuel Jofré. Juan Ramón Jiménez
, the well-known Andalusian poet, joined the Concurso. Also contributing were writers such as Ramón Pérez de Ayala
and Tomás Borrás, the surrealist painter Manuel Ángeles Ortiz, and those in an association assisting the Concurso effort, the Centro Artístico of Granada. Additional support came from two professors: the educational reformer Francisco Giner de los Ríos
and the Catalan musicologist
and composer Felipe Pedrell
(who was Falla's early music teacher). Later came the French writer Maurice Legendre, music critics including Adolfo Salazar of Madrid's El Sol
, producers, and publicists, with nods from Maurice Ravel
and Igor Stravinsky
.
In previous classical compositions Falla often had been inspired by the artistry of flamenco, e.g., in his La Vida Breve
(1904–1905, 1913), Noches en los Jardines de España
(1909–1916), his El Sombrero de Tres Picos
(1917, 1919), and El Amor Brujo
(1915, 1925). To promote the Concurso Falla wrote an essay, El "cante jondo" (canto primitivo andaluz), in which he held on technical grounds that the primary foreign influences contributing to the origins of Flamenco
music and dance in Spain were three: Byzantine church music
coming from the eastern Mediterranean; Moorish music
from North Africa and Arabia; and especially that distinct music of India and its rhythms
brought by the Gitanos who began arriving in Spain over five hundred years ago.
For nearly a century European classical composers had been drawing on the rich heritage of the music of Spain
, with flamenco
being a favored source. The interest and attention given flamenco by the international music world contrasted unfavorably with what Falla saw as the contemporary debased state of the flamenco arts, and with the lack of respect then shown flamenco by the Spanish cultural elite. In a recent book on Manuel de Falla, the intent of the Concurso has been portrayed as follows:
, would "restore all the purity to these marvelous songs, that rightly constitute one of the best natural achievements of European music". Yet this "rescue-fantasy" view has also been criticized.
The war of words over municipal financing was inconclusive; the funding continued. Debate over the nature of flamenco in its many guises continues today, at times in a cauldron boiling with spiked ingredients, such as social class and ethnic origins, yet more commonly issues of a performer's merit, authenticity, and inspiration. As a developed art form, flamenco might suggest various
points of view
. Although often rife with such controversies, as frequently they are ignored. Due to expectations of a larger turn-out as the date for the event neared, the venue was changed from the plaza de San Nicolás del Albayzín
to the more spacious Alhambra
.
did meet an blind and aged woman who could sing a type of cante (the liviana) thought to be extinct.
The event ran the two evenings of the Corpus Christi
holiday. It was attended by about four thousand supporters and aficionados. The large gathering was described as both elegant and jubilant. This audience would become focused when the performers began. Contestants were invited to perform certain palos
[styles] of flamenco song, those referred to as Cante Jondo (or Cante Grande), grouped as follows: 1) Siguiriyas
gitana; 2) Serranas, Polos, Cañas, Soleares; and, 3) Martinetes
-Carceleras, Tonás
, Livianas, Saetas Viejas (these last four being unaccompanied cantes a palo seco
). On the other hand, flamenco styles explicitly forbidden (e.g., for a perceived lack of antiquity or profound expression) included: Malagueña
, Granaínas, Rondeña
, Sevillanas
, Peteneras
.
The Concurso was held on the grounds of the Alhambra
, at the Plaza de Aljibes on the palace's west end, overlooking the Torre Bermeja and the old city of Granada
to the southwest; to the north lay the rising slopes of the Sacromonte
(the Gypsi quarter). Perfumed by cypress trees, and with French lavender scattered on the ground for the event, the plaza lay across the crest of a ridge, to which one ascended, entering by way of the Torre de la Justicia. The plaza was decorated for the occasion by the artist Ignacio Zuloaga
, whose visual display employed brilliant embroidered textiles and mantones [capes] of Andalucia; after sundown the setting would become a colorful region of lights beside the Arab palace. The jury included Andrés Segovia
and the flamenco singer Antonio Chacón
. The initial performance perhaps seemed ironic to some: Falla's classical composition Homenaje a Debussy para la guitarra, played by Segovia.
A long-retired flamenco cantaor
of seventy-two years, Diego Bermúdez
Cala (El Tenazas), became a surprise star of the Concurso. He had walked the hundred or so kilometers to Granada from his home in Puente Genil
. Evidently, thirty years before a punctured lung suffered at knife point had forced him to retire early from the flamenco circuit. The Concurso allowed him the "grand moment of his life" where very flamenco he performed palos
in a style from a prior era. To many Tío Bermúdez sounded as if he had learned his cante directly from the legendary Silverio Franconetti
; although for others he didn't know how to sing, but only flirt. "El Tenazas knew the old time cantes and was extremely flamenco and true in his interpretations." He sang with a purity not heard in decades, especially his siguiriyas
, soleares, and cañas
(a favorite of Silverio Franconetti). Listening to el Tío Tenazas ["Uncle Tongs"] "hurl into the air his song", Antonio Chacón
exclaimed, "¡Válgame Dios, lo que oigo!" Falla carried a copy of his recordings (Cantos de Diego Bermúdez) with him into exile in Argentina. El Tenazas enjoyed his sudden renown and celebrity, and on its strength soon made a flamenco tour of Spain; yet sadly the following year would be his last.
The other first place prize winner was a twelve-year-old cantaor named Manolo Ortega later called El Caracol
, from the well-known bull-fighting and flamenco Gypsy family, who later won great renown as well as controversy. Another winner was the popular cantaor of Granada, Francisco Gálvez Gómez (Yerbagüena), a friend of bull-fighters and politicians. In an inspired moment he created a lasting impression (he improvised flamenco lyrics in response to news of a local church fire); he was awarded a prize by the Concurso. Altogether there were ten contestants who won prize money of varying amounts.
Active flamenco professionals were honored at the Concurso, although not eligible for prizes. Among those especially acclaimed and invited as guests of honor: the cantaora Pastora Pavón (La Niña de los Peines), the cantaor Manuel Torre
, and the bailaora Juana la Macarrona
. Also especially esteemed was the cantaor Antonio Chacón
, chosen as the presiding judge. These four were then each quite well known, luminaries of the flamenco world. Shown amid several dozen in a contemporary drawing of a crowded performance before the event's organizers: La Niña de los Peines, the retired Diego Bermúdez (el Tío Tenazas) mentioned above, and Ramón Montoya Salazar
, an innovative leader among guitar tocaores
. Also chosen as a judge was the popular tocaor Amalio Cuenca, who managed a flamenco cafe in Paris. Professionals came to the event from all over Spain and from abroad.
During the Concurso the great Manuel Torre sang alegrías
to the rhythm of palmas
performed by the local Gypsy women of Sacromonte
. To Pepe Cuéllar's guitar, María Amaya La Gazpacha sang bulerías
and tarantas. Hired by the Concurso as guitarists were Ramon Montoya, the extraordinary Manolo de Huelva, and José Cuéllar, who for the occasion became a trio of tocaores
; to their music the elder maestra Juana la Macarrona danced, including por alegrías. La Macarrona, at various moments during the Concurso, would famously cry out, "¡Lapoteosis! ¡Es lapoteosis!", her expression somewhat like "thunderstruck!" At an early Concurso performance, while Antonio Chacón was singing accompanied by Ramón Montoya on guitar, a poorly dressed, elderly Gypsy woman who had been seen quietly weeping, rose to her feet, drew her head back, and began to dance the soleares with remarkable style and grace. She turned out to be La Golondrina who had been many decades earlier a famous flamenco bailaora.
The Spanish press generally spoke in praise of the Concurso, in contrast to the depressing news of the Moroccan war
then current. A Madrid magazine published soon after the event described the Concurso as "unforgettable", with its alternating displays of yearning, vehemence, superstition, or fervor, "a simple seduction of sound, rhythms linear in the flesh". About the audience it said:
La Alhambra of Granada hailed the Concurso as "unas cuantas noches de brillantísima fiesta
." In Madrid, press comments included the declaration: "Muy grande ha sido el éxito del Concurso." Nonetheless Manuel de Falla became dissatisfied.
The event's performances were well received and memorable. Although it could be argued that the general results of the Concurso were somewhat mixed, success could well be claimed for the event itself, an enjoyable and seminal gathering of performers and aficionados. In addition, there followed a steady rise in status of flamenco among the cultural
and intellectual leaders of Spain. Recordings were made of the various cantes
, some little known, some rediscovered. For example, La Caña:
On the other hand, the stated aim of elevating the root purity of flamenco performance was not to be achieved as a result of the Concurso. An new era in the art's development was dawning, the period of Ópera flamenca, now often disparaged for its theatrical airs, its brand of syncretism and merger with other musical styles.
Similar flamenco gatherings followed, as that same year both Sevilla and Cádiz
celebrated Flamenco Concursos. Several decades later in 1956, the city of Córdoba
celebrated the first Concurso Nacional de Cante Jondo. Its "manifesto de convocatoria" expressed reasons and motives similar if not the same as those articulated by the 1922 Concurso in Granada. In 1962 Jerez de la Frontera
held its Concurso Internacional de Arte Flamenco. Such events have become a regular feature of flamenco culture.
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
, its music, song, and dance, held in Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, Andalusia on Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi (feast)
Corpus Christi is a Latin Rite solemnity, now designated the solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ . It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic Churches. Like Trinity Sunday and the Solemnity of Christ the King, it does not commemorate a particular event in...
, the 13th and 14th of June, 1922.
Falla's purpose
The Spanish classical composer Manuel de FallaManuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish Andalusian composer of classical music. With Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Joaquín Turina he is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century....
(1876–1946), an Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
n, was the principal organizer of the Concurso; he sought to encourage and enhance the performance of flamenco, which had fallen into a period of decadence. The gaditano
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
Falla recognized in flamenco a musical art form of great value. It was music Falla had spent years studying, having grown up with it, hearing it directly from Gitano friends, cantaores
Cante flamenco
The cante flamenco is one of the three main components of flamenco, along with toque and baile...
and tocaores
Flamenco guitar
A flamenco guitar is a guitar similar to a classical guitar. Flamenco guitar also refers to toque, the guitar-playing part of the art of Flamenco.-Brief history:...
. Enlisting the cooperation of Spanish intellectuals was considered crucial, to counteract the antiflamenquismo of the generación del '98; these reformers had condemned the flamenco arts as frivolous and regressive in their sweeping effort to modernize and transform Spain. Thus Falla aimed for an audience encompassing not only flamenco circles, but also to influence the musical world and culture.
In order to find colleagues to help sponsor and promote the Concurso, Falla gathered together an impressive group of musicians and artists. Included among them was the young poet Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
. At twenty-three, Lorca became an activist in popularizing the Concurso, second only to Falla. Lorca worked to publicize the event by giving oral presentations and publishing essays about the Flamenco arts. A third important figure was the Basque painter Ignácio Zuloaga
Ignacio Zuloaga
Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta was a Basque Spanish painter, born in Eibar, near the monastery of Loyola. He was the son of metalworker and damascener Plácido Zuloaga and grandson of the organizer and director of the royal armoury in Madrid.-Biography:In his youth, he drew and worked in his father's...
. Among the broad array of music figures enlisted were the classical composers Joaquín Turina
Joaquín Turina
Joaquín Turina was a Spanish composer of classical music.-Biography:Turina was born in Seville but his origins were in northern Italy . He studied in Seville as well as in Madrid...
, Federico Mompou
Federico Mompou
Frederic Mompou i Dencausse was a Catalan Spanish composer and pianist. He is best known for his solo piano music and his songs.-Life:...
, Conrado del Campo
Conrado del Campo
Conrado del Campo was a composer, violinist and professor at the Real Conservatorio de Música in Madrid, who was the principal conductor of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra.His was works played in the Theathre Real of Madrid for José María Alvira. His opera Lola la Piconera made its debut at the Gran...
, and Oscar Esplá, the pianist and composer María Rodrigo, the composer and conductor Kurt Schindler
Kurt Schindler
Kurt Schindler was a German-born American composer and conductor. He came to the United States in 1905 to serve as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, and founded the MacDowell Chorus. Much of his choral output consisted of folksong arrangements, though he composed original pieces...
of New York, various orchestra directors, the classical guitarist Andrés Segovia
Andrés Segovia
Andrés Torres Segovia, 1st Marquis of Salobreña , known as Andrés Segovia, was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist from Linares, Jaén, Andalucia, Spain...
, the Polish singer Aga Lahowska, and the popular guitarist Manuel Jofré. Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the French concept of "pure poetry."-Biography:Jiménez was born in Moguer, near Huelva, in...
, the well-known Andalusian poet, joined the Concurso. Also contributing were writers such as Ramón Pérez de Ayala
Ramón Pérez de Ayala
Ramón Pérez de Ayala was a Spanish writer. He was the Spanish ambassador to England and voluntarily exiled himself to South America because of the Spanish Civil War .-Background:...
and Tomás Borrás, the surrealist painter Manuel Ángeles Ortiz, and those in an association assisting the Concurso effort, the Centro Artístico of Granada. Additional support came from two professors: the educational reformer Francisco Giner de los Ríos
Francisco Giner de los Ríos
Francisco Giner de los Ríos was a philosopher, educator and one of the most influential Spanish intellectuals at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century....
and the Catalan musicologist
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
and composer Felipe Pedrell
Felipe Pedrell
Felip Pedrell , was a Spanish Catalan composer. He worked as a musicologist and early music specialist and edited Victoria’s opera omnia and the requiem of Joan Brudieu. This and other of his writings fostered a keen interest in the early music of Spain...
(who was Falla's early music teacher). Later came the French writer Maurice Legendre, music critics including Adolfo Salazar of Madrid's El Sol
El Sol (Madrid)
El Sol was a Spanish newspaper printed in Madrid. It was founded the December 1, 1917 by Nicolás María de Urgoiti. Edited by Manuel Aznar Zubigaray, its writers included Julio Álvarez del Vayo and Ernesto Giménez Caballero....
, producers, and publicists, with nods from Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
and Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
.
In previous classical compositions Falla often had been inspired by the artistry of flamenco, e.g., in his La Vida Breve
La vida breve
La vida breve is an opera in two acts and four scenes by Manuel de Falla to an original Spanish libretto by Carlos Fernández-Shaw...
(1904–1905, 1913), Noches en los Jardines de España
Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Nights in the Gardens of Spain is a piece of music by the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla...
(1909–1916), his El Sombrero de Tres Picos
El Sombrero de Tres Picos
The Three-Cornered Hat is a ballet composed by Manuel de Falla, commissioned in its development by Sergei Diaghilev and performed in its completed form in 1919....
(1917, 1919), and El Amor Brujo
El amor brujo
El amor brujo is a piece of music originally composed by Manuel de Falla for a chamber group, then re-scored as a symphonic suite, and eventually as a ballet...
(1915, 1925). To promote the Concurso Falla wrote an essay, El "cante jondo" (canto primitivo andaluz), in which he held on technical grounds that the primary foreign influences contributing to the origins of Flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
music and dance in Spain were three: Byzantine church music
Byzantine music
Byzantine music is the music of the Byzantine Empire composed to Greek texts as ceremonial, festival, or church music. Greek and foreign historians agree that the ecclesiastical tones and in general the whole system of Byzantine music is closely related to the ancient Greek system...
coming from the eastern Mediterranean; Moorish music
Andalusian classical music
Andalusian classical music is a style of Moorish music found across North Africa in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. It originates out of the music of Al-Andalus between the 9th and 15th centuries....
from North Africa and Arabia; and especially that distinct music of India and its rhythms
Tala (music)
Tāla, Taal or Tal is the term used in Indian classical music for the rhythmic pattern of any composition and for the entire subject of rhythm, roughly corresponding to metre in Western music, though closer conceptual equivalents are to be found in other Asian classical systems such as the notion...
brought by the Gitanos who began arriving in Spain over five hundred years ago.
For nearly a century European classical composers had been drawing on the rich heritage of the music of Spain
Music of Spain
The Music of Spain has a long history and has played an important part in the development of western music. It has had a particularly strong influence upon Latin American music. The music of Spain is often associated abroad with traditions like flamenco and the classical guitar but Spanish music...
, with flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
being a favored source. The interest and attention given flamenco by the international music world contrasted unfavorably with what Falla saw as the contemporary debased state of the flamenco arts, and with the lack of respect then shown flamenco by the Spanish cultural elite. In a recent book on Manuel de Falla, the intent of the Concurso has been portrayed as follows:
The cante jondo contest grew out of the conviction--shared by Falla, Lorca, and a host of Spanish intellectuals--that flamenco was being overtaken by urban popular song. The organizers' stated desire to hear the 'admirable sobriety' of classical cantaores shows the extent to which the contest was, in effect, a classicizing gesture... ."So it was that Falla hoped that the Concurso y Fiesta del Cante Jondo, sponsored by its many musicians and cultural figures, and by the Centro Artístico of Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, would "restore all the purity to these marvelous songs, that rightly constitute one of the best natural achievements of European music". Yet this "rescue-fantasy" view has also been criticized.
Public funding
Financial support was obtained for the Concurso de Cante Jondo from the City of Granada, but not without spirited opposition. While adherents praised the antiquity and purity of the flamenco art form, whose mysterious source lay in the very fountainhead of the human soul, their critics pointed out the sometimes lesser quality of the music and the mixed milieu of flamenco performances, which on the down-side at the fringe would include some notorious venues. The Concurso supporters, who saw themselves as saviors of the true and vernerable art of flamenco, evidently felt somewhat vulnerable to their opponent's charges. Already, to escape the reproach regarding flamenco's unwanted baggage, the Concurso referred to the art form as Cante Jondo rather than as flamenco. Here the Concurso followed the lead of Falla, whose opinion was: "Queremos purificar y hacer revivir ese admirable cante jondo, que no hay que confundir con el cante flamenco, degeneración y casi caricatura de aquél."The war of words over municipal financing was inconclusive; the funding continued. Debate over the nature of flamenco in its many guises continues today, at times in a cauldron boiling with spiked ingredients, such as social class and ethnic origins, yet more commonly issues of a performer's merit, authenticity, and inspiration. As a developed art form, flamenco might suggest various
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
points of view
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
. Although often rife with such controversies, as frequently they are ignored. Due to expectations of a larger turn-out as the date for the event neared, the venue was changed from the plaza de San Nicolás del Albayzín
Albayzín
El Albayzín is a district of present day Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain, that retains the narrow winding streets of its Medieval Moorish past...
to the more spacious Alhambra
Alhambra
The Alhambra , the complete form of which was Calat Alhambra , is a palace and fortress complex located in the Granada, Andalusia, Spain...
.
Events of the Concurso
An announced aim of the Concurso was to discover unknown, unrecognized talent thought to be hidden, perhaps in remote rural areas. As a result, no professional over the age of 21 was allowed to compete for prize money in the Concurso contest; however, the song and dance of professionals were encouraged. Although a diligent effort had been made, few unknowns were found. The poet García LorcaFederico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
did meet an blind and aged woman who could sing a type of cante (the liviana) thought to be extinct.
The event ran the two evenings of the Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi (feast)
Corpus Christi is a Latin Rite solemnity, now designated the solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ . It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic Churches. Like Trinity Sunday and the Solemnity of Christ the King, it does not commemorate a particular event in...
holiday. It was attended by about four thousand supporters and aficionados. The large gathering was described as both elegant and jubilant. This audience would become focused when the performers began. Contestants were invited to perform certain palos
Palo (flamenco)
A palo is the name traditionally given in the flamenco environment for the different musical forms that constitute the traditional musical heritage of flamenco...
[styles] of flamenco song, those referred to as Cante Jondo (or Cante Grande), grouped as follows: 1) Siguiriyas
Siguiriyas
Siguiriyas is a form of flamenco music belonging to the cante jondo category. Its deep, expressive style is among the most important in flamenco...
gitana; 2) Serranas, Polos, Cañas, Soleares; and, 3) Martinetes
Martinetes
Martinetes are a flamenco palo belonging to the group of the tonás or cantes a palo seco. As the rest of the songs in this group, it is sung with no accompaniment. In some dance shows for the stage, though, it is accompanied by percussion played with the compás of siguiriya...
-Carceleras, Tonás
Tonás
Tonás is the name given to a palo or type of flamenco songs. It belongs to the wider category of Cantes a palo seco, that is, palos which are sung without accompaniment or a cappella. Owing to this feature, they are considered by traditional flamencology to be the oldest surviving musical form of...
, Livianas, Saetas Viejas (these last four being unaccompanied cantes a palo seco
Cantes a palo seco
The Spanish term Cantes a palo seco refers to a category of flamenco palos traditionally sung a cappella or, in some cases, with some sort of percussion...
). On the other hand, flamenco styles explicitly forbidden (e.g., for a perceived lack of antiquity or profound expression) included: Malagueña
Malagueñas (flamenco style)
Malagueñas is one of the traditional styles of Andalusian music , derived from earlier types of fandango from the area of Málaga, classified among the Cantes de Levante. Originally a folk-song type, it became a flamenco style in the 19th century. It is not normally used for dance, as it is...
, Granaínas, Rondeña
Rondeña
A Rondeña is a palo or musical form of flamenco originating in the town of Ronda in the province of Malaga in Spain.In common with other palos originating in Malaga, the rondeña antedated flamenco proper and became incorporated into it during the 19th century.- History :The rondeña has its origin...
, Sevillanas
Sevillanas
Sevillanas are a type of folk music, sung and written in Seville in Spain. Historically, they are a derivative of Castilian folk music . They have a relatively limited musical pattern, but rich lyrics, based on country side life, virgins, towns, neighborhoods, pilgrimage, and love themes...
, Peteneras
Peteneras
The Petenera is a flamenco palo in a 12-beat metre, with strong beats distributed as follows: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]...
.
Alhambra
The Alhambra , the complete form of which was Calat Alhambra , is a palace and fortress complex located in the Granada, Andalusia, Spain...
, at the Plaza de Aljibes on the palace's west end, overlooking the Torre Bermeja and the old city of Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
to the southwest; to the north lay the rising slopes of the Sacromonte
Sacromonte
Sacromonte is a neighbourhood of Granada, in Spain. It derives its name from the nearby Sacromonte Abbey, which was founded in 1600 on the hill of Valparaiso outside the old city, and is built over catacombs ....
(the Gypsi quarter). Perfumed by cypress trees, and with French lavender scattered on the ground for the event, the plaza lay across the crest of a ridge, to which one ascended, entering by way of the Torre de la Justicia. The plaza was decorated for the occasion by the artist Ignacio Zuloaga
Ignacio Zuloaga
Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta was a Basque Spanish painter, born in Eibar, near the monastery of Loyola. He was the son of metalworker and damascener Plácido Zuloaga and grandson of the organizer and director of the royal armoury in Madrid.-Biography:In his youth, he drew and worked in his father's...
, whose visual display employed brilliant embroidered textiles and mantones [capes] of Andalucia; after sundown the setting would become a colorful region of lights beside the Arab palace. The jury included Andrés Segovia
Andrés Segovia
Andrés Torres Segovia, 1st Marquis of Salobreña , known as Andrés Segovia, was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist from Linares, Jaén, Andalucia, Spain...
and the flamenco singer Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón was a Spanish flamenco singer [cantaor].Chacón began earning a living by performing flamenco around 1884. He toured Andalucia with his two friends, the Molina brothers - dancer Antonio Molina, and guitarist Javier Molina. He was later hired by Silverio Franconetti for his café in...
. The initial performance perhaps seemed ironic to some: Falla's classical composition Homenaje a Debussy para la guitarra, played by Segovia.
A long-retired flamenco cantaor
Cante flamenco
The cante flamenco is one of the three main components of flamenco, along with toque and baile...
of seventy-two years, Diego Bermúdez
Diego Bermúdez
Diego Bermúdez , known as El Tenazas [English: "the Tongs" or "the Pliers"] or Tío Tenazas ["Uncle" Tenazas] was a Spanish flamenco cantaor [singer]...
Cala (El Tenazas), became a surprise star of the Concurso. He had walked the hundred or so kilometers to Granada from his home in Puente Genil
Puente Genil
Puente Genil is a village in the Spanish province of Córdoba, situated about 45 miles from the city of Córdoba. It has a population of 30,033 ....
. Evidently, thirty years before a punctured lung suffered at knife point had forced him to retire early from the flamenco circuit. The Concurso allowed him the "grand moment of his life" where very flamenco he performed palos
Palo (flamenco)
A palo is the name traditionally given in the flamenco environment for the different musical forms that constitute the traditional musical heritage of flamenco...
in a style from a prior era. To many Tío Bermúdez sounded as if he had learned his cante directly from the legendary Silverio Franconetti
Silverio Franconetti
Silverio Franconetti, also known simply as Silverio was a singer and the leading figure of the period in flamenco history known as The Golden Age, which was marked by the creation and definition of most musical forms or palos, the increasing professionalization of flamenco artists, and the shift...
; although for others he didn't know how to sing, but only flirt. "El Tenazas knew the old time cantes and was extremely flamenco and true in his interpretations." He sang with a purity not heard in decades, especially his siguiriyas
Siguiriyas
Siguiriyas is a form of flamenco music belonging to the cante jondo category. Its deep, expressive style is among the most important in flamenco...
, soleares, and cañas
Canas
Canas or Cañas may refer to:People:* Alberto Cañas Escalante, Costa Rican politician* Antonio José Cañas, Salvadoran military officer, diplomat and politician* Carlos Cañas, Salvadoran painter...
(a favorite of Silverio Franconetti). Listening to el Tío Tenazas ["Uncle Tongs"] "hurl into the air his song", Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón was a Spanish flamenco singer [cantaor].Chacón began earning a living by performing flamenco around 1884. He toured Andalucia with his two friends, the Molina brothers - dancer Antonio Molina, and guitarist Javier Molina. He was later hired by Silverio Franconetti for his café in...
exclaimed, "¡Válgame Dios, lo que oigo!" Falla carried a copy of his recordings (Cantos de Diego Bermúdez) with him into exile in Argentina. El Tenazas enjoyed his sudden renown and celebrity, and on its strength soon made a flamenco tour of Spain; yet sadly the following year would be his last.
The other first place prize winner was a twelve-year-old cantaor named Manolo Ortega later called El Caracol
Manolo Caracol
Manuel Ortega Juárez. , was a flamenco cantaor.Born in Seville, Spain, he was descended from a long line of flamenco artists including Enrique Ortega and Curro Dulce, and he was possibly related to El Planeta and El Fillo...
, from the well-known bull-fighting and flamenco Gypsy family, who later won great renown as well as controversy. Another winner was the popular cantaor of Granada, Francisco Gálvez Gómez (Yerbagüena), a friend of bull-fighters and politicians. In an inspired moment he created a lasting impression (he improvised flamenco lyrics in response to news of a local church fire); he was awarded a prize by the Concurso. Altogether there were ten contestants who won prize money of varying amounts.
Active flamenco professionals were honored at the Concurso, although not eligible for prizes. Among those especially acclaimed and invited as guests of honor: the cantaora Pastora Pavón (La Niña de los Peines), the cantaor Manuel Torre
Manuel Torre
Manuel Soto Loreto, known as Manuel Torre or Manuel Torres , was a Romani flamenco singer.- Beginning :...
, and the bailaora Juana la Macarrona
Juana la Macarrona
Juana la Macarrona was a famous Spanish flamenco dancer . Born as Juana Vargas at Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, her Gitano parents started her on her dancing career, which lasted well into the twentieth century....
. Also especially esteemed was the cantaor Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón
Antonio Chacón was a Spanish flamenco singer [cantaor].Chacón began earning a living by performing flamenco around 1884. He toured Andalucia with his two friends, the Molina brothers - dancer Antonio Molina, and guitarist Javier Molina. He was later hired by Silverio Franconetti for his café in...
, chosen as the presiding judge. These four were then each quite well known, luminaries of the flamenco world. Shown amid several dozen in a contemporary drawing of a crowded performance before the event's organizers: La Niña de los Peines, the retired Diego Bermúdez (el Tío Tenazas) mentioned above, and Ramón Montoya Salazar
Ramón Montoya
Ramón Montoya , Flamenco guitarist and composer.Born into a family of Gitano cattle traders, Ramón Montoya used earnings from working in the trade to buy his first guitar...
, an innovative leader among guitar tocaores
Flamenco guitar
A flamenco guitar is a guitar similar to a classical guitar. Flamenco guitar also refers to toque, the guitar-playing part of the art of Flamenco.-Brief history:...
. Also chosen as a judge was the popular tocaor Amalio Cuenca, who managed a flamenco cafe in Paris. Professionals came to the event from all over Spain and from abroad.
During the Concurso the great Manuel Torre sang alegrías
Alegrías
Alegrías is a flamenco palo or musical form, which has a rhythm consisting of 12 beats. It is similar to Soleares. Its beat emphasis is as follows: 1 2 [3] 4 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11 [12]. Alegrías originated in Cádiz. Alegrías belongs to the group of palos called Cantiñas and it is usually played in...
to the rhythm of palmas
Palmas (music)
In Flamenco, Palmas is an essential form of percussion to help punctuate and accentuate the song and dance. Good palmas can be a substitute for music, certainly in the corrillo at the end of a show. Good palmistas can assist the musicians by keeping a strong tempo, or the dancer by accentuating the...
performed by the local Gypsy women of Sacromonte
Sacromonte
Sacromonte is a neighbourhood of Granada, in Spain. It derives its name from the nearby Sacromonte Abbey, which was founded in 1600 on the hill of Valparaiso outside the old city, and is built over catacombs ....
. To Pepe Cuéllar's guitar, María Amaya La Gazpacha sang bulerías
Bulerias
Bulería is a fast flamenco rhythm in 12 beats with emphasis in two general forms as follows:1 2 [3] 4 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11 [12]or...
and tarantas. Hired by the Concurso as guitarists were Ramon Montoya, the extraordinary Manolo de Huelva, and José Cuéllar, who for the occasion became a trio of tocaores
Flamenco guitar
A flamenco guitar is a guitar similar to a classical guitar. Flamenco guitar also refers to toque, the guitar-playing part of the art of Flamenco.-Brief history:...
; to their music the elder maestra Juana la Macarrona danced, including por alegrías. La Macarrona, at various moments during the Concurso, would famously cry out, "¡Lapoteosis! ¡Es lapoteosis!", her expression somewhat like "thunderstruck!" At an early Concurso performance, while Antonio Chacón was singing accompanied by Ramón Montoya on guitar, a poorly dressed, elderly Gypsy woman who had been seen quietly weeping, rose to her feet, drew her head back, and began to dance the soleares with remarkable style and grace. She turned out to be La Golondrina who had been many decades earlier a famous flamenco bailaora.
The Spanish press generally spoke in praise of the Concurso, in contrast to the depressing news of the Moroccan war
Rif Republic
The Republic of the Rif , was created in September 1921, when the people of the Rif revolted and declared their independence from Spanish occupation as well as from the Moroccan sultan.Its capital city was Ajdir, its currency the Rif Republic Riffan, its national...
then current. A Madrid magazine published soon after the event described the Concurso as "unforgettable", with its alternating displays of yearning, vehemence, superstition, or fervor, "a simple seduction of sound, rhythms linear in the flesh". About the audience it said:
"The moon didn’t attend, but the place was swarming with gnomes, fairies and even the devil. A huge box-office hit. Not an empty seat. And it was a disciplined, cultured audience dominated by women, many of whom were wearing 1830 dresses, and others were in old trousers, and all of them with that poise which is the privilege of women from Granada. With fans, the crowd rumored and fluttered, unless suddenly a coplaCopla (meter)The copla is a poetic form of four verses that provides found in many Spanish popular songs as well as in Spanish language literature. There is a related musical genre of the same name. The form is also found widely in Latin America...
paralyzed them with its emotion... ."
La Alhambra of Granada hailed the Concurso as "unas cuantas noches de brillantísima fiesta
Festival
A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....
." In Madrid, press comments included the declaration: "Muy grande ha sido el éxito del Concurso." Nonetheless Manuel de Falla became dissatisfied.
Aftermath
Culture of Spain
The culture of Spain is based on a variety of influences.The Visigothic Kingdom left a sense of a united Christian Hispania that was going to be welded in the Reconquista. Muslim influences were strong during the period of 711 AD to the 15th century, especially linguistically...
and intellectual leaders of Spain. Recordings were made of the various cantes
Cante flamenco
The cante flamenco is one of the three main components of flamenco, along with toque and baile...
, some little known, some rediscovered. For example, La Caña:
"[A]n ancient cante with religious overtones and chant-like passages that have made it a popular vehicle for the misa flamenca--the catholic mass performedMass (music)The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...
to flamenco music. La Caña had all but disappeared by the twentieth century, but was partially revived after the Granada contest of 1922, when it was recorded by the contest winner, El Tenazas."
On the other hand, the stated aim of elevating the root purity of flamenco performance was not to be achieved as a result of the Concurso. An new era in the art's development was dawning, the period of Ópera flamenca, now often disparaged for its theatrical airs, its brand of syncretism and merger with other musical styles.
Similar flamenco gatherings followed, as that same year both Sevilla and Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
celebrated Flamenco Concursos. Several decades later in 1956, the city of Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
celebrated the first Concurso Nacional de Cante Jondo. Its "manifesto de convocatoria" expressed reasons and motives similar if not the same as those articulated by the 1922 Concurso in Granada. In 1962 Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera is a municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, situated midway between the sea and the mountains. , the city, the largest in the province, had 208,896 inhabitants; it is the fifth largest in Andalusia...
held its Concurso Internacional de Arte Flamenco. Such events have become a regular feature of flamenco culture.
See also
- FlamencoFlamencoFlamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
- Manuel de FallaManuel de FallaManuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish Andalusian composer of classical music. With Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Joaquín Turina he is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century....
- Federico García LorcaFederico García LorcaFederico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
- Diego BermúdezDiego BermúdezDiego Bermúdez , known as El Tenazas [English: "the Tongs" or "the Pliers"] or Tío Tenazas ["Uncle" Tenazas] was a Spanish flamenco cantaor [singer]...
- El Tenazas (cantaor) - Antonio ChacónAntonio ChacónAntonio Chacón was a Spanish flamenco singer [cantaor].Chacón began earning a living by performing flamenco around 1884. He toured Andalucia with his two friends, the Molina brothers - dancer Antonio Molina, and guitarist Javier Molina. He was later hired by Silverio Franconetti for his café in...
- Emperador del cante jondo (cantaor) - Ramón MontoyaRamón MontoyaRamón Montoya , Flamenco guitarist and composer.Born into a family of Gitano cattle traders, Ramón Montoya used earnings from working in the trade to buy his first guitar...
- (tocaor) - Manolo OrtegaManolo CaracolManuel Ortega Juárez. , was a flamenco cantaor.Born in Seville, Spain, he was descended from a long line of flamenco artists including Enrique Ortega and Curro Dulce, and he was possibly related to El Planeta and El Fillo...
- El Caracol (cantaor) - Pastora Pavón - La Niña de los Peines (cantaora)
- Manuel TorreManuel TorreManuel Soto Loreto, known as Manuel Torre or Manuel Torres , was a Romani flamenco singer.- Beginning :...
- Niño de Jerez (cantaor) - Juana VargasJuana la MacarronaJuana la Macarrona was a famous Spanish flamenco dancer . Born as Juana Vargas at Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, her Gitano parents started her on her dancing career, which lasted well into the twentieth century....
- Juana la Macarrona (bailaora) - Andrés SegoviaAndrés SegoviaAndrés Torres Segovia, 1st Marquis of Salobreña , known as Andrés Segovia, was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist from Linares, Jaén, Andalucia, Spain...
- (tocaor)
External links
- "Granada. El Concurso de Cante Jondo" (June 23, 1922), an English translation at Flamenco World, with photograph.
- "The Contest" (short description of the Concurso's contest in English at Flamenco World).
- "Aquel Concurso de Cante Jondo de Granada" (short blog by Francisco Arias Solis, in Spanish at Hispavista).