THE KEY OF FLAMENCO MUSIC, BY ANTONIO AND DAVID HURTADO TORR
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THE KEY OF FLAMENCO MUSIC, BY ANTONIO AND DAVID HURTADO TORR
LA LLAVE DE LA MÚSICA FLAMENCA(THE KEY OF FLAMENCO MUSIC). BOOK AND CD.
Signatura Ediciones (Signatura Publishings), , increases its collection with a new and revolutionary publication by Antonio and David Hurtado Torres: La Llave de la Música Flamenca (The Key of Flamenco Music), with forewords by two great artistic personalities: the symphonic composer Tomás Marco, and the classic flamenco singer, awarded with the Flamenco Gold Key, Antonio Fernández Díaz “Fosforito”
About the work:
The main innovation ofLa Llave de la Música Flamenca consists in having absolutely demolished all that have been thought about Flamenco since 19th century until the present, proving that those ideas -caverns, gypsies, duende, night, wine, pure and basic flamenco songs, bonfires, lack of culture, husky and harsh voices…- are totally false and romantic myths. All those images are a big lie.
Instead, the true history arises: a much more exciting, interesting, varied and mixed history, in which the main elements are: the Arab legacy, and the influence of black people and Hispanic-American world since the 15th century. In fact, the powerful rhythmical sense of Flamenco is black-african, rather than gypsy. Gypsies were part of Spain´s general culture, not a separated or different part, but inserted in it. In this sense, the book has caused great controversy since it has been published.
All these influences were, of course, mixed, melted and stylized in Andalusia.
The authors prove that the seeds, or principal and most ancient elements of the pre-flamenco music, far from having being imported from the Far East by Gypsies, arose –although still very faintly- around the last part of the 15th century, around the time when Spain discovered America, the New World, and became the most powerful nation on the globe. Those first pieces in which very subtle pre-flamenco nuances appeared were the Folia and the Romanesca.
But it is not until the beginning of the 17th century -in the Baroque period- when those primitive elements and influences flourished with new and great vigour and personality in musical pieces -many of them coming from overseas, from the hispanic-american-african world- like the saraband, the chacona, the cumbé, the zarambeque and the fandango.
And, at last, it was in the Romantic period when finally Flamenco was born just -more or less- just as we know it today.
Since the 18th century on, the German Preromanticis and Romantricis authors saw in Spain(in Andalusia, to be precise) the Romantic Dream, the country of romanticism, they were looking for. This can be known from the writings by Herder, Schlegel and Richard Wagner among others.
In this regard is curious and interesting the example of a pre-flamenco song from the early 19th century , el Polo del Contrbandista(The Smuggler´s Polo) composed by the Sevillian musician Manuel García(father of Maria Malibrán and Pauline Viardot). This Polo became some sort of Romantic Hymn, a symbol worldwide, expressing the ideals of Romantic artists: rebelliousness and wishes of Liberty. This can be seen in Victor Hugo´s Bug Jargal, or in George Sand´s Le Contrebandier.
The book contains a great number of antique musical scores –ranging from the early pre-flamenco times(like the first, 17th century, guitar pieces already imbued with a sonority very close to Flamenco, for example the highly surprising Xácara by Antonio de Santa Cruz, very similar to a Seguiriya o Buleria) until late 20th century classic flamenco musical transcriptions.
The book is accompanied by a CD containing recordings of pre-flamenco and flamenco music. This CD begins with the famous Fandango, by Italian-Spanish composer Luigi Boccherini(1743-1805),arranged for two harpsichords –played by Antonio and David Hurtado(who also play other keyboard instrumentsi n the CD, like the fortepiano)-, two baroque violins(Beatriz Fanlo) and castanets(Esther Falcón).
This is not the most antique piece( this fandango dates from 1788), but it is placed at the beginning of the CD as a tribute to the most antique of all flamenco songs: the fandango, which first appeared in history in a guitar manuscript from 1705, also published in this book.
From now on, the order of the other recordings are chronologically arranged, showing an evolutionary process, from a guitar Zarabanda by Gaspar Sanz(1674), to classic flamenco songs strictly speaking, from the early 1920s, performed by some of the most important artists of this genre, like La Niña de los Peines, Don Antonio Chacón, El Gloria and Manuel Vallejo.
The reader(and listener!) will be highly surprised to hear 17th century Spanish Baroque guitar pieces sounding not only like Flamenco, but also -some of them- like modern pop music. Not less surprised will be when hearing antique, astounding flamenco singer´s voices like the above mentioned(Vallejo, El Gloria, etc.) absolutely different to those flamenco voices commonly heard today. Unlike the modern flamenco voices(harsh, dark, ugly),antique voices were brilliant, refined, highly virtuosistic.
Other instruments and musicians being part of the CD recordings –besides the authors themselves at the keyboars- are a baroque guitarist, two sopranos, a tenor, a percussionist and a baroque violin, among others.
La Llave de la Música Flamenca combines the highest musicological rigour with a pleasant and enjoyable style, using a great variety of language registers, ranging from a scientific tone -when it is necessary to speak of music- to a literary mode, sometimes florid and baroque, sometimes ironic, sometimes serene and austere. This work is, at the same time, a book on music, history, art, literature, and sociology.
Highlights from the prologues:
…This book seems to me of an extraordinary importance since practically for the first time in all history Flamenco Music is studied from a rigurous musical perspective, using the tools of modern musicology. Undoubtedly it is a pioneering work but also a very definitive one that opens rich and encouraging perspectives to an art that was deserving that someone approached it with the stature, seriousness and scientific methodology that we find in this work.
I am sure that this task has required a lot of effort and that the compensation can only be the gratitude coming from everyone interested in the topic, and also, the fact that is more than possible that this book will in the near future become a fundamental classic for Flamenco studies.
Tomás Marco. Composer (From the first prologue)
Antonio and David, in their capacity as musicologists -and all that it implies in terms of discipline and scientific rigor- have put the finger on the sore spot regarding so many digressions and unclear ideas around the origins and basics of Flamenco music[...]they have unravelled and correctly arranged many of the jondo tunes of Flamenco that were scattered and unconnected between them and also, they have done the same with those ancient preflamenco airs coming from the antique sonorous world previous to the birth of the word’jondo’, and they have placed, and inserted all these pieces, wisely, in this great musical puzzle which moulds the Flamenco Song of Andalusia.
God Bless You Both!
Antonio Fernández ‘Fosforito’. Flamenco singer(From the second prologue).
About the authors:
Born in Sevilla, a double and important circumstance converges in both authors: on the one hand they are lecturers of Harmony, Composition, Theory of Music and Piano, and,on the other hand, they are part of one of the most prestigious Flamenco families: grand nephews of Juan Valderrama, and Lola Valderrama´s sons. That double confluence has propitiated an unusual font of knowledge which has made it possible to undertake with scientific rigour the task of studying in depth as well as unveiling the true history, causes and ancestry of Flamenco music.
They decided to undertake together this task in 1998, when the 10th Bienal of Flamenco of Sevilla published their first book: El Arte de la Escritura Musical Flamenca(The Art of Flamenco Musical Writing), in which some of the most important flamenco songs were transcribed into musical notation and analyzed for the first time in history. Today, that work has become a classic.
To this publication followed a discographical work on instrumental flamenco music: Pentagrama Flamenco(2000), and a study and transcription of the ancient flamenco peasants songs: La Voz de la Tierra(The Voice of Earth, 2002), as well as numerous lectures and concerts, like El Oro de las Hespérides(The Gold of the Hesperides),2000.
Between the years 2004 and 2006 they took charge as joint heads of department of the newly created Flamencology Chair, at the Conservatory of Córdoba, being, therefore, the first lecturers officially having given lessons on this discipline.
There they organized in the year 2005 a succesful act, echoed by the media, in which, for the first time in history, a flamenco singer -Antonio Fernandez Díaz, Fosforito- gave a public cante flamenco recital in a conservatory, and was received with honours by the musical institution.
Their present work, La Llave de la Música flamenca is the result of several years of study, and tries to reconstruct -over the demolished ruins of romantic and false myths of Flamenco- a new history that, solidly strengthened on firm documentary evidences, allows us to return back to the real meaning and the just dimension of the term pureza(flamenco musical purity).
A future translation into English of this book is planned.
Signatura Ediciones (Signatura Publishings), , increases its collection with a new and revolutionary publication by Antonio and David Hurtado Torres: La Llave de la Música Flamenca (The Key of Flamenco Music), with forewords by two great artistic personalities: the symphonic composer Tomás Marco, and the classic flamenco singer, awarded with the Flamenco Gold Key, Antonio Fernández Díaz “Fosforito”
About the work:
The main innovation ofLa Llave de la Música Flamenca consists in having absolutely demolished all that have been thought about Flamenco since 19th century until the present, proving that those ideas -caverns, gypsies, duende, night, wine, pure and basic flamenco songs, bonfires, lack of culture, husky and harsh voices…- are totally false and romantic myths. All those images are a big lie.
Instead, the true history arises: a much more exciting, interesting, varied and mixed history, in which the main elements are: the Arab legacy, and the influence of black people and Hispanic-American world since the 15th century. In fact, the powerful rhythmical sense of Flamenco is black-african, rather than gypsy. Gypsies were part of Spain´s general culture, not a separated or different part, but inserted in it. In this sense, the book has caused great controversy since it has been published.
All these influences were, of course, mixed, melted and stylized in Andalusia.
The authors prove that the seeds, or principal and most ancient elements of the pre-flamenco music, far from having being imported from the Far East by Gypsies, arose –although still very faintly- around the last part of the 15th century, around the time when Spain discovered America, the New World, and became the most powerful nation on the globe. Those first pieces in which very subtle pre-flamenco nuances appeared were the Folia and the Romanesca.
But it is not until the beginning of the 17th century -in the Baroque period- when those primitive elements and influences flourished with new and great vigour and personality in musical pieces -many of them coming from overseas, from the hispanic-american-african world- like the saraband, the chacona, the cumbé, the zarambeque and the fandango.
And, at last, it was in the Romantic period when finally Flamenco was born just -more or less- just as we know it today.
Since the 18th century on, the German Preromanticis and Romantricis authors saw in Spain(in Andalusia, to be precise) the Romantic Dream, the country of romanticism, they were looking for. This can be known from the writings by Herder, Schlegel and Richard Wagner among others.
In this regard is curious and interesting the example of a pre-flamenco song from the early 19th century , el Polo del Contrbandista(The Smuggler´s Polo) composed by the Sevillian musician Manuel García(father of Maria Malibrán and Pauline Viardot). This Polo became some sort of Romantic Hymn, a symbol worldwide, expressing the ideals of Romantic artists: rebelliousness and wishes of Liberty. This can be seen in Victor Hugo´s Bug Jargal, or in George Sand´s Le Contrebandier.
The book contains a great number of antique musical scores –ranging from the early pre-flamenco times(like the first, 17th century, guitar pieces already imbued with a sonority very close to Flamenco, for example the highly surprising Xácara by Antonio de Santa Cruz, very similar to a Seguiriya o Buleria) until late 20th century classic flamenco musical transcriptions.
The book is accompanied by a CD containing recordings of pre-flamenco and flamenco music. This CD begins with the famous Fandango, by Italian-Spanish composer Luigi Boccherini(1743-1805),arranged for two harpsichords –played by Antonio and David Hurtado(who also play other keyboard instrumentsi n the CD, like the fortepiano)-, two baroque violins(Beatriz Fanlo) and castanets(Esther Falcón).
This is not the most antique piece( this fandango dates from 1788), but it is placed at the beginning of the CD as a tribute to the most antique of all flamenco songs: the fandango, which first appeared in history in a guitar manuscript from 1705, also published in this book.
From now on, the order of the other recordings are chronologically arranged, showing an evolutionary process, from a guitar Zarabanda by Gaspar Sanz(1674), to classic flamenco songs strictly speaking, from the early 1920s, performed by some of the most important artists of this genre, like La Niña de los Peines, Don Antonio Chacón, El Gloria and Manuel Vallejo.
The reader(and listener!) will be highly surprised to hear 17th century Spanish Baroque guitar pieces sounding not only like Flamenco, but also -some of them- like modern pop music. Not less surprised will be when hearing antique, astounding flamenco singer´s voices like the above mentioned(Vallejo, El Gloria, etc.) absolutely different to those flamenco voices commonly heard today. Unlike the modern flamenco voices(harsh, dark, ugly),antique voices were brilliant, refined, highly virtuosistic.
Other instruments and musicians being part of the CD recordings –besides the authors themselves at the keyboars- are a baroque guitarist, two sopranos, a tenor, a percussionist and a baroque violin, among others.
La Llave de la Música Flamenca combines the highest musicological rigour with a pleasant and enjoyable style, using a great variety of language registers, ranging from a scientific tone -when it is necessary to speak of music- to a literary mode, sometimes florid and baroque, sometimes ironic, sometimes serene and austere. This work is, at the same time, a book on music, history, art, literature, and sociology.
Highlights from the prologues:
…This book seems to me of an extraordinary importance since practically for the first time in all history Flamenco Music is studied from a rigurous musical perspective, using the tools of modern musicology. Undoubtedly it is a pioneering work but also a very definitive one that opens rich and encouraging perspectives to an art that was deserving that someone approached it with the stature, seriousness and scientific methodology that we find in this work.
I am sure that this task has required a lot of effort and that the compensation can only be the gratitude coming from everyone interested in the topic, and also, the fact that is more than possible that this book will in the near future become a fundamental classic for Flamenco studies.
Tomás Marco. Composer (From the first prologue)
Antonio and David, in their capacity as musicologists -and all that it implies in terms of discipline and scientific rigor- have put the finger on the sore spot regarding so many digressions and unclear ideas around the origins and basics of Flamenco music[...]they have unravelled and correctly arranged many of the jondo tunes of Flamenco that were scattered and unconnected between them and also, they have done the same with those ancient preflamenco airs coming from the antique sonorous world previous to the birth of the word’jondo’, and they have placed, and inserted all these pieces, wisely, in this great musical puzzle which moulds the Flamenco Song of Andalusia.
God Bless You Both!
Antonio Fernández ‘Fosforito’. Flamenco singer(From the second prologue).
About the authors:
Born in Sevilla, a double and important circumstance converges in both authors: on the one hand they are lecturers of Harmony, Composition, Theory of Music and Piano, and,on the other hand, they are part of one of the most prestigious Flamenco families: grand nephews of Juan Valderrama, and Lola Valderrama´s sons. That double confluence has propitiated an unusual font of knowledge which has made it possible to undertake with scientific rigour the task of studying in depth as well as unveiling the true history, causes and ancestry of Flamenco music.
They decided to undertake together this task in 1998, when the 10th Bienal of Flamenco of Sevilla published their first book: El Arte de la Escritura Musical Flamenca(The Art of Flamenco Musical Writing), in which some of the most important flamenco songs were transcribed into musical notation and analyzed for the first time in history. Today, that work has become a classic.
To this publication followed a discographical work on instrumental flamenco music: Pentagrama Flamenco(2000), and a study and transcription of the ancient flamenco peasants songs: La Voz de la Tierra(The Voice of Earth, 2002), as well as numerous lectures and concerts, like El Oro de las Hespérides(The Gold of the Hesperides),2000.
Between the years 2004 and 2006 they took charge as joint heads of department of the newly created Flamencology Chair, at the Conservatory of Córdoba, being, therefore, the first lecturers officially having given lessons on this discipline.
There they organized in the year 2005 a succesful act, echoed by the media, in which, for the first time in history, a flamenco singer -Antonio Fernandez Díaz, Fosforito- gave a public cante flamenco recital in a conservatory, and was received with honours by the musical institution.
Their present work, La Llave de la Música flamenca is the result of several years of study, and tries to reconstruct -over the demolished ruins of romantic and false myths of Flamenco- a new history that, solidly strengthened on firm documentary evidences, allows us to return back to the real meaning and the just dimension of the term pureza(flamenco musical purity).
A future translation into English of this book is planned.
