Tag Archives: Flamenco history & culture

The quality of voice is of supreme importance in flamenco as it can imbue flamenco with one of its most important elements: “el quejio”. “El quejio” is perhaps best translated as a “cry of desperation” and often said to be one of the basic elements of the ”cante jondo”, that is, those palos which are [...]

There are perhaps two things which immediately seem to come to people’s minds on the first hearing of flamenco: unusual melodic lines and the timbre of the singer’s voice. The crystalline tone developed and favoured in the conservatory or in many types of popular music is not usually the type of voice favoured in flamenco.
Due [...]

The only person to proclaim himself a flamenco singer (“cantaor”) in the census initiated by king Carlos III in 1783 was the gypsy Tio Luis el de la Juliana. This allows us to surmise that the “cante” did not begin to really develop until the end of the XVIII century; despite constant searching on [...]

How was Andalusia at the very beginnings of Flamenco?
Andalusia has always been a melting pot of cultures; Aegean, Asian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic colonizations have all played a part in its development and cultural richness. From the re-discovery of the New World in 1492, Andalusia experienced economic growth. These economic changes were not however [...]