Much has been written, and continues to be written, about the fandango. That genre which, from the early years of the 18th century, swept across the entire Hispanic world with its captivating rhythm. In my research efforts in the Library of the Count DukeI came across fandangos many times, played, sung, and danced in the nearly five thousand works reviewed. The first mention in a dictionary of the Royal Academy (Dictionary of Authorities) from the year 1732 says of the fandango that it is "dance of those who have been in the kingdoms of the Indies"That they have been, that is to say, that they returned. Which would be a true round-trip musical phenomenon.
That 18th-century fandango was not, musically speaking, the same as what we call it today. Back then, it was in a minor key and danceable, and served primarily as a harmonic foundation (chord sequence) for improvisation on the guitar, harpsichord, or harp. What we know today as fandango is singable and in a major key, though it does incorporate variations inherited from the older fandango.
Let's look at some excerpts from those works where the old fandango reigned, with its insistent, heel-tapping rhythm. First of all, let's remember that the fandango, besides being a musical genre, is also a festive gathering, as can be seen in the short comic play. The Pretending Lords, set to music by Antonio Guerrero In 1753, the chorus sings: "Let there be revelry, merriment, and fandango, so that, free from so much hardship, the gypsies may finally breathe." Revelry and merriment, synonymous with joy and commotion. Similarly, in the introduction of the tonadilla The tuno and the maja, de Blas de Laserna In 1775, the student sings: "I'm going to look for my mate, for carelessly I stopped this afternoon at the fandango..." Or in the interlude The Stewards of Griñón (Part 1), de Luis Misón"There's no more fandango, no more jopeo, all the revelry is over." Note how the terms bulla and bureo seem to conceal a primitive way of invoking the spirit of bulerías.
That it was a genre much loved by fans, and by some in a special way, is confirmed by an anonymous farce from 1768 entitled The fandango by candlelight (from the famous candlelit dances) where these illustrative seguidillas are sung: "A candlelit fandango is worth more than all the soirées with instruments, and it's clear that although there's much sweetness, this one is saltier." At that time, it was quite common to proclaim the "supremacy" of Spanish culture over the ostentatious French fashions, with their wigs and effeminate dances. A recurring theme in this traditional and ephemeral repertoire.
"Only when we manage to rid ourselves of the many prejudices that, like a crust, cover the so-called official history of..." flamencoWe can acknowledge the tremendous influence of this theatrical music, quintessentially Spanish, and utterly bawdy. Blow by blow, verse by verse, the path is forged. Someday, the processes that gave rise to this incomparable genre, rich in nuances and with a universal vocation, will be clarified: the flamenco»
Other dances competed with the fandango at that time. Antonio Guerrero It's the music of the farce. Jephthah's daughter, from 1761, which ends with all the actors singing: "Come into the endengue, into the endengue, into the endango, for this is not a jota, minuet, or fandango." However, there is one work that perfectly illustrates how the genre we are discussing evolved. It is The last one to arrive, de Laserna (No date): “If the bolero took the throne from the fandango, the zorongo came to avenge the fandango, ay ay ay because it is written that he who kills with a knife dies by knives. The Italian aria killed the seguidillas and this has been the spoils of the Polish.” Another of the pastimes of these authors of interludes, farces, and tonadillas was to draw genealogies with musical genres, pitting them against each other, always with the aim of extolling their own. A kind of Madrid and Andalusian chauvinism.
The fandango was a genre that was sung and danced throughout Spain, as was already noted in 1763. Pablo Esteve in the tune A captive and a Moorish woman"In Spain, gentlemen, all the beautiful women sing their fandangos in this way..." Even Galician lyric poetry does so in its own way, as the bagpipe playing in the tonadilla reminds us. The mill and the hunt, Laserna's song, premiered in 1778: "Long live the Galician women, long live the Galician men, long live Ponferrada, long live Mondoñedo; this is the minuet and fandango they enjoy there in their towns...". But the natural homeland at that time was Madrid, as Esteve confirms in the verses of the tonadilla The letter From 1779: "If any Madrid buffoon tries to accompany you, they will only give you a fandango to the sound of some guitar."
The fandango craze was wreaking havoc, as Pablo Esteve confirms in his song The jealous gardenerFrom 1780: “…what things women desire most today: a courtship, a fandango, and not to be ugly…”. Those were different times. And dancing the fandango couldn't have been easy, judging by the The lesson of the tunesEsteve, from 1780: “…if you ever happen to dance the fandango, learn the allemande or the figurative minuet first…”. He established European dances as a foundation for learning, due to their simplicity, before learning the local dances, suitable only for dandies and young ladies, young men and women of high standing, with heels and cigars in their mouths, knives at their waists, and who spat sideways. Prototypes of the elite.
And that heel-tapping was used in the fandango is demonstrated by most of those found in the handwritten scores kept in the archive of the Madrid Municipal LibraryThe footwork is done while dancing the fandango. Keep in mind that some elements of that old fandango dissolved at the end of the 18th century, although they later crystallized in the jaleos that eventually became cantiñas and soleares. For example: the closing of the party. The role of Raboso, from Laserna (no date), where the maja Mariana Raboso He sings: "When foreigners see a dandy dancing the fandango, they will dance a tap dance on top of a bell tower...".
This is just a small example of a genre that became the mirror in which the music of flamencoOnly when we manage to rid ourselves of the many prejudices that, like a scab, cover the so-called official history of flamencoWe can acknowledge the tremendous influence of this theatrical music, quintessentially Spanish, and utterly bawdy. Little by little, verse by verse, the path is forged; one day the processes that gave rise to this incomparable genre, rich in nuances and with a universal vocation, will be clarified: the flamenco. ♦
