Very sad about the loss of our Antonio Fernandez Diaz PhosphoriteAnd in his memory I write about a topic that was the subject of conversation quite often with the teacher from Puente Genil. The other day I was reading an interview he gave Casilda Sanchez Varela to his father Paco in the magazine Telva In 2010, the Great Chief stated: “The voice is the purest form of expression that exists. The instrument is merely a translator, an intermediary to whom you convey what you want to express.” When I read that, I remembered Pilar Lopez, who so often repeated to me in his naturally gruff tone: "We dance the cante(Pilar carried a certain resentment on her shoulders for how badly she had been treated in her last years of life. But that was the subject of another article I wrote in this column: the club of the ignored).
That's the point, el cante It is a source of inspiration for guitarists and musicians. flamencoIt is in general. Or it should be.A guitarist flamenco He has an obligation to be a fan of canteIf you don't like it cante Don't dedicate yourself to this. And not just to be able to properly accompany the different styles and their variations. It has to be said: If you want to dedicate yourself to flamencoYou have to like it canteAnd if you're a flamenco singer, I think you have to know how to play the guitar, even if it's just a little. cante It is the source and wellspring of all flamenco creativity, not only because it is the genre's main discipline, but also because of the immense repertoire found in its styles and variations, and the versions of those variations. Do you like Fosforito? Well, be inspired by his voice, by how he does the... canteThe aim is to recreate those melodies with the guitar, the saxophone, the piano, the cello or the violin, with whatever instrument you want.
Without him cante It simply wouldn't exist. flamenco. If he flamenco would have been done without canteThat is, with the guitar, with dancing, singing in chorus or in two voices, it would have been a completely different genre from the one we know. El cante is the mirror in which they see themselves flamencoso that everything should be looked at flamenco that boasts of being. I think so.
There's a video of Pastora Empire where the brilliant flamenco dancer dances the canteThe lyrics move her perfectly, as you can see in her fantastic facial expression. You can't listen to romantic lyrics and look tragic, and you can't listen to sad or dramatic lyrics and have a cheerful expression. She dances to the lyrics. cante It doesn't just mean that the movements should follow what is being sung, but The lyrics should also be danced as a source of inspiration. for the interpreter.
"Just look at our Fosforito. He created a unique way of singing and left us a tremendously original repertoire, which has served, serves, and will undoubtedly continue to serve as inspiration for singing, playing, and dancing." flamenco forever and ever."
And just like the dancing cante, is touched canteGuitarists are generally inspired by the cante in the melodies of canteThat's where they get many of the forms that later become part of their falsetas, and generally in their compositions. I've heard it a thousand times. Pepe Habichuela, who even has a number called The guitar singsAnd he has mentioned it to me on several occasions Tomatitorecognizing that his main source of inspiration is the canteLet no one be afraid that by recreating the melody of a cante When you're playing the guitar to compose a falseta, you're stealing; you're not drawing from your own inspiration. No, you're actually performing one of the creator's primary tasks. flamenco, Which is be inspired by cante to compose instrumental music.
However, it's not a bed of roses. One of the main problems we can encounter when trying to adapt the melodies of cante The reason why instruments like the guitar are such that the sonanta is a perfectly tempered instrument, while the cante As is well known, it is based on non-tempered scales, that is, it makes use of microtones, quarter tones, intervals smaller than a semitone, which is the smallest interval on the guitar, and when translating the cante We find ourselves playing the guitar like that temperature typical of cante It's practically impossible to translate to guitarNot so with the flute. We have the example of the teacher. Jorge Pardo, who has spent many years traveling along paths he himself has opened, wanting to recreate with the flute and the saxophone, through the embouchure or with the keys, those microtones of cante flamencoAnd he has more than succeeded. The guitar “is a different story.”
I insist at the Flamenco There is no better source of inspiration than the canteThe different styles and variations of the canteThey are an inexhaustible source of melodic materialWhat better way to explore the ancient Roman atolls than by diving in the ancient Roman atolls? canteFolk songs like the soleá, the seguiriya, or the malagueñas help you gain fluency when playing, whether on the guitar, flute, saxophone, or piano. Any instrument can draw from this wellspring. cante drawing abundantly from melodic material.
That said, even though it is cante the main discipline of flamencoIt is true that both the guitar and the dance have evolved into very modern forms, they have been updated, they have taken very diverse paths exploring territories that the cante He doesn't dare to explore. I think it's because, as I said, the flamenco is the canteThe immense repertoire of cante What we call classic, created and recreated in general more than a century ago, is not easy to take into territories that transgress, let's say, the boundaries of classicism, and whoever dares to do so is either penalized by the fans or does not really obtain an optimal result, with the minimum depth to be accepted as canteThat's the problem. There are few styles and variations of cantethat have been made, let's say… after the 50s, the seguiriya or the tangos of Dying, the Canastera, who has her cante, the galleys he made Lebrijano, which has its cante, the many natural fandangos that are still performed, perhaps the only style of the flamenco where cante Yes, it does have creative possibilities today, although always inspired by other fandangos, because today we hear personal fandangos that are reminiscent of the cante of the Rubio, the one from Calzá or CarbonerilloCreate new ones canteIt's quite a challenge, only surmountable with the necessary talent. Just look at our Fosforito. He created a unique way of singing and left us a repertoire of tremendous originality, which has served, serves, and will undoubtedly continue to serve as inspiration for singing, playing, and dancing. flamenco For ever and ever. ♦
The photograph of Paco de Lucía and Fosforito at the top is by photographer Enrique Sánchez, Esan. It belongs to the 3rd festival flamenco from Lucena, in 1969.