To whom ExpoFlamenco We want to highlight a new website of great value for the scientific knowledge of art flamenco. Called lecternflamenco.com and its director is the Dr. Bernat Jiménez de Cisneros Puig, musicologist, guitarist and professor of flamenco with almost thirty years of professional experience. Upon registering on the portal, one gains access to the scholarly work of three prominent musicologists: Jiménez de Cisneros himself, the Dr. Guillermo Castro Buendía and the Dr. Peter Manuelas well as that of renowned flamenco scholars Luis Soler Guevara y Ramon Soler Diaz.
We strongly value the open access to academic research promoted by this team. As stated on the site, they offer «books, articles, and lectures on the musical foundations of flamenco, with transcriptions and audio examples from all periods and major artists».
This is an invaluable digital resource. It contributes to a paradigm shift that began, above all, in the 1990s. It was then that the study of flamenco It began to be more frequently adapted to the rigors of the social sciences. In that context, landmark studies were published such as Sociology of cante flamenco, from the Dr. Gerhard Steingress; Flamenco Deep Song, from the Dr. Timothy Mitchell; Do you know anything? o Argument against purity, José Luis Ortiz Nuevo.
"We highly value free access to academic studies from flamenco Promoted by this research team. Lecternflamenco.com offers books, articles, and lectures on the musical keys of flamencowith transcriptions and sound examples from all eras and major artists»
<scan>These studies exposed the impressionistic nature that had long defined much of the flamenco bibliography before and during the period of revaluation (1955–1985). At that time, the author’s subjective voice often prevailed over what is essential to research: evidence.</scan>
"Your truth? No, the Truth. And come with me to find it. Keep yours to yourself." These are the words of Antonio Machado collected in New songsThis idea should underlie every academic study. Not as an indisputable truth, but as conclusions supported by evidence and built upon other research.
These conclusions will always be subject to revision. Future researchers may question them in light of new archival findings or more sophisticated theoretical frameworks. Antonio Machado y Álvarez clearly expressed this in the 19th century. Demophilus"Others will reap the fruits of our sowing and the right to criticize us."
We repeat: from here, in ExpoFlamencoWe celebrate Jiménez de Cisneros's initiative. We know that there will be those who, from anti-academic positions, upon reading these lines, will chant: "You presume to be science, and I don't understand it that way, because even though you are science, you haven't understood me." ♦
