La Royal Academy of Sciences, Fine Arts and Letters Luis Vélez de Guevara has been incorporating into its annual programming for years flamenco, to which the members of the corporation, presided over by the His Excellency Mr. Clemente Manuel López JiménezThey consider it a treasure of knowledge and learning, in addition to contemplating it in a diversity that facilitates a comprehensive view of the world and thus promotes the interconnection between different disciplines.
One of the most prominent aspects of academic culture is, therefore, its multidisciplinary nature. It encompasses diverse areas of knowledge, from the exact sciences to the humanities, including the social sciences and the arts. But it also flamencoThis should be extended to the rest of its namesakes because it is essential to thinking about the formative processes in the culture of Spanish society.
In that sense, we have attended the presentation of the poetry collection To the rhythm of bulerías, Javier Madero Garfias (Écija, 1945), related to the great poet Pedro Garfias and son-in-law of the admired writer and humanist Tomás BeviáApart from being a renowned architect who, after receiving praise from distinguished figures such as the professor and writer Ceferino Aguilera Ochoa or the poets Francisco Fernandez-Pro Ledesma y Rafael Benjumea Gómez-Duarte, has revealed how he applies the rhyme scheme and literary resources to paint a sonic image of the bulería.
The importance of this work, beyond allowing the author to communicate feelings, lies in its reflection on the world around him and its enrichment of flamenco life, as it is accessible to diverse audiences, especially those singers who demand sources of inspiration for the expressive ecosystem.
Note that since April 1910, when the word "bulería" appeared in the discography – I am referring, obviously, to that in my archive – thanks to The Girl with the Combs, this palo of the cante It has gone through favorable but also adverse vicissitudes, with the cuplé and the bulería song becoming dominant, hence its strong advocacy in the National Competition of Cordoba (1965) in its fourth edition and in the Thursday Flamencos, Manuel Morao (1966), as in the creation of the Buleria Festival awarded by the Chair of Flamencology of Jerez de la Frontera (1967), not forgetting the founding in Jerez of the Peña Flamenca The Buleria (1974)
The cycle repeats itself, undoubtedly, in a predictable twofold order. I mean that the historical traceability of the process points, on the one hand, to the reproduction of lyrics that became ingrained in oral culture and have been passed down from generation to generation for over a century; and on the other hand, we tend to clumsily incorporate songs into the bulerías style that in no way reflect flamenco identity.
"Here we have a living example of how the flamenco It will always need voices to link poetry and music, to connect sound with the rhythm of the word. I insist, sound with word, but not to create ambiguities, but to fuse time with sound until the musicality hidden in the verse emerges.
Consequently, there is a lack of poetic forms that express renewed feeling, where the author can articulate their emotional world, cultivate the composition of verses and poetic texts that clearly recreate what is perceived and understood—in other words, conceive of a more authentic language.
This is how it is presented to us To the rhythm of bulerías, by Javier Madero, A poet who is as involved in such an omnivorous style as in its use for artistic exercisePerhaps because he embarks on a quest to create a language with which he constructs – as the good architect he is – other images and situations.
The lyricist has thus become familiar with the short bulería, and uses words to depict elements of his existence. He doesn't hesitate to restore the term to its full meaning, recreating reality from his perspective with a popular style that is nonetheless harmonious and rhythmic, achieving an artistic expression that combines the power of words with the melody of music.
We are, therefore, faced with the musicalized poetry of Javier Madero, the relationship between popular poetry and music open to the beauty and emotional depth of the author, a form of expression that combines, as we say, the lyrical elements of poetry with musical melody, but which also creates, in the end, an ideal sensory experience for the lover of flamencoThis is why these verses endure in the collective memory and transcend generations.
The power of the poet flamencoIn this respect, it is not about making memories disappear, but about dying in the attempt to – as he said Federico Garcia Lorca– to place his poetry at the root of the cry. And here we have a living example of how the flamenco It will always need voices to link poetry and music, to connect, in short, sound with the rhythm of the word. I insist, sound with word, but not to create ambiguities, but to fuse time with sound until the musicality hidden in the verse emerges.
This book that, To the rhythm of buleríasWhat the author offers us is poetry born inseparable from its music. And the poet, like a true master of written melody, doesn't measure his compositions by the quantity of tools at his disposal as a contemporary troubadour, but by the way he uses them; hence, at times he strikes us as ingenious and fertile, at others imaginative and unique. But whatever the case, if his verses remain in our memories, it is because... canteThey will remain in our memory.
This, after all, is the poet's objective, a goal that compels me to go back almost a century. If back in 1934 La Niña de los Peines warned us that If God doesn't intervene, there will be no one left to hear the buleríaLet's optimize the comment in 2025. Because if poetry is created to be sung, it is because the poet has no greater ambition than the harmony and emotion of his work so that they continue to inspire hearts and give voice to his words.
