Flamenco is not so old?

[Stephen]

I read in a book that has small pieces about the culture of the Spanish-speaking world that the flamenco dancing and style of guitar playing that is used to accompany the singing doesn't go back very far in time. It's a thing begun only about at the end of the nineteenth century?

Only the singing style is old. Yes?

[SrCandas]

I read in a book that has small pieces about the culture of the Spanish-speaking world that the flamenco dancing and style of guitar playing that is used to accompany the singing doesn't go back very far in time. It's a thing begun only about at the end of the nineteenth century?

Only the singing style is old. Yes?

Stephen I play a bit of flamenco guitar and have always enjoyed el arte. I believe luckily that there is no easy answer to your question. The origins of Flamenco can be traced back to India (the migrations around 800 and 900 AD), Egypt, any gypsy (gitano) roots wherever they may be. And influences have come from again all over from moorish times, the Jews and through to more recently Cuban.

The word flamenco doesn't seem to appear till the 1700s but some of the palos (styles) have origins back much further.

At the core of flamenco is compas. Compas is the cyclic rhythm unique to flamenco. A common compas is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910 11 12 the bold being emphasised beats. When the compas is perfect then you have real flamenco. You may not know the compas but the hypnotic rhythm just melds with the atmosphere and you know it is right.

Certainly the singing dominates and with true flamenco today it still does. And the early singing was accompanied with percussion often in the form of palmas. The guitar (and other similar but more ancient instruments) was introduced to support the singer. As early as the mid 1800s Torres was making flamenco guitars that relate strongly to current day instruments. I think many may credit him with the first mass introduction of specific flamenco guitars.

The history of dance seems much less known (certainly to me ;D). However there is evidence of early dance forms that have similarities to indian dance several centuries ago.

I could go on but perhaps not. HTH

Here's one of my favourites playing Bulerias which is one of the more complex palos. Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BCoZiSbGtY
;D

[WesleyHH]

Hola!
A mi también me interesa flamenco. En particular estoy aficionado a la música de guitarra. Pienso que uno de los mejores guitarristas de los últimos años sea Vincente Amigo. Tengo que presumir de que hace unos dos meses estuve en el concierto de Paco de Lucia y pienso que el maestro sea fenomenal.

Aquí un enlace a una obra de Vincente Amigo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFoUGqjLFbI

Saludo.

[SrCandas]

Hola!
A mi también me interesa flamenco. En particular estoy aficionado a la música de guitarra. Pienso que uno de los mejores guitarristas de los últimos años sea Vincente Amigo. Tengo que presumir de que hace unos dos meses estuve en el concierto de Paco de Lucia y pienso que el maestro sea fenomenal.

Aquí un enlace a una obra de Vincente Amigo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFoUGqjLFbI

Saludo.

Hola aficionado. Es como lo dijiste increíble. Y especialmente me gusta su Alegría "La tarde es caramelo" - buen título. . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY7rVRqDNoQ&feature=related

Pero me gusta tradicional también . Qué pena lo que no tengo suficiente tiempo a practicar, pero posible un día :)

[Culebronchris]

There are some English language podcasts about the history of Flamenco on the RTVE (http://www.rtve.es/podcast/radio-exterior/)website in the Radio exterior section. The sugggestion there is that the boom in Flamenco began in the late 19th early 20th Century