With this last article of the year, I want to wish all the readers of ExpoFlamenco Wishing you a very prosperous 2026 and that all your wishes come true. And if you win the lottery, mate, don't forget the party!
Since the article I published last December 15th about the geography of flamenco It has aroused some interest; I want to refer today to the attributions made of the cantes. Let's see what happens in classical music. When Beethoven He composes a sonata for violin and piano, first takes it to a publisher, who publishes and sells it, a violinist buys and premieres it, and the program usually reads: L. van Beethoven, Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 5 in F major, Op. 24 "Spring." There you have it. Composer, instrumentation (violin and piano), fifth of the ten he composed, key (F major), work number, 24, and even the nickname that tradition has given it: Spring. While acknowledging the differences, when we refer to the repertoire that a flamenco singer performs in a concert At most, we can read in the reviews that she sang, for example, the soleá from Cádiz. Style, supposed origin, and that's it. In the best-case scenario, it will be noted that she sang the soleá from the Twin, and we will assume that the interpreter did the first of the three canteattributed to the brilliant master from Cádiz. Imagine if one day we could go to a concert of cante flamenco and we would be given a program listing the styles that would be sung. If the artist so desired, the repertoire could be detailed, and, if appropriate, the variations. Imagine:
Part
Malagueña grande de Chacón
Tangos de La Pirula
Seguiriya of the Old Man of the Island and Silverio's cabal
Soleares de La Serneta, Frijones,…, etc.
I understand that, Since it is music of oral tradition, the issue of assignments and/or attributions is complicated.Often, not even the performer knows who the songs belong to. canteThat's what he does at a recital. Just as he said El Caracol a Velázquez-Gaztelu, “what they're saying now about cante "About so-and-so and what's-his-name, I don't understand that, I sing whatever comes to mind," surely in an effort to distance himself from a rival of the same generation, Antonio Mairena.
Probably the oldest attribution in the repertoire jondo es Tobalo's pole, which already appears in 1824 sung by a certain Manuel Bernal, another is the Pepe Paradas's Cane, sung by José Vergara, which we find in the Cadiz press of 1849. The Rondeña of El Negro, the Malagueña in the style of La Jabera…
"It is understood that the three soleares attributed to Enrique El Mellizo, or the four attributed to Joaquín el de la Paula, are theirs due to the proximity in time, and those who cultivated those canteThey learned these things directly from those masters. Now, who can confirm that they didn't hear them before from other creators who have fallen into oblivion?
At the flamenco, canteAs we have already mentioned, some are attributed either to their geographical origin – tangos from Triana, fandango from the Albaicín, a nomenclature that is certainly unreliable and quite subjective due to its incompleteness – while many others are already attributed to their authors: cante de Juan Breva, a double malagueña from El Mellizo. The truth is that in music that is transmitted through the airwaves, that is learned by listening, and that was not usually taught until a few years ago, there is generally no record of who created it. Therefore, the question would be whether we should say “cante of" or "cante attributed to.” It is a debated and debatable topic. There are cantewhose attribution is quite clear. That Chacón's Malaga women It seems quite clear that they are by the Jerez-born maestro. They are the fruit of his inspiration, recorded on disc, published, and with their corresponding title: Malagueña 1 (he only forgot to add Opus 1). Another case is the cabal of the Planet, according to Mairena's attribution, recovered by Pepe Torres placeholder image and probably transmitted by the father of the Torres family, according to Bohorquez, directly from the Cadiz native Antonio Monge.
Tradition usually assigns the authorship of a song to a specific flamenco singer. cante without any further evidence other than the assumption that it belongs to that singer. Nowhere does it appear that he composed it. Therefore, we cannot certify that it cante corresponds to or was created by said singer. It is understood that the three soleares attributed to Enrique El Mellizo, or the four attributed to Joaquin from PaulaThey are theirs due to the proximity in time, and those who cultivated those canteAnd then, after those masters, they learned them directly from them. Now, who can confirm that they didn't hear them before from other creators who have fallen into oblivion, and that these masters recreated those variations without saying that this cante It wasn't from so-and-so, but they simply sang it, things that happen frequently in oral tradition music.
These powers are simply a means of granting to the cantes flamencoIt's a certain category of artwork. Something that doesn't happen, for example, in jazz, since in this North American genre, being songs and not canteYes, they all have a recognized author. We know that Duke Ellington composed Sophisticated LadyThere's no doubt about it. Now, who actually composed it? the fandango of the AlbaicínIs this really a transformation of verdial of Vélez attributed to Juan Breva or is it a creation of Peppermint BottleFurthermore, the older the canteYes, attributing it to a specific singer is more complicated. It's fine to attribute two apolás soleares to him. The FilloBut, are these really canteWere they created by the island singer? It is a controversial topic, given that, despite the many efforts made by scholars to assign canteAccording to a particular author, it is always complicated, as there are no references other than oral ones.
And I wonder how many great creators of cante they will have fallen into oblivion. How many artists who have left their mark on certain styles have left no trace, not even of their existence? For example, did any artist create a cante Francisco Pardo, singer for many years with the company of José María Dardalla And we know for certain that he performed a considerable number of styles in the 1840s? Clearly, until the layabouts invent a time machine and we can go back a century or a century and a half, we won't be able to clarify such a thorny issue. That said, Merry Christmas, a prosperous new year, and happiness!. ♦
